BEN RAMAGE
Saints legend Tony Fitzpatrick believes his club deserve great credit for dusting themselves off and scrapping to finish seventh.
Despite numerous setbacks throughout the campaign, the Buddies still managed to push on and pick up their best top-flight finish since 1989.
The St Mirren chief executive is proud of the way manager Jim Goodwin and his squad continued to fight for every point, despite narrowly missing out on two cup finals and a topsix finish.
And he’s confident the Paisley club can make that step up into the top half next season after coming so close just a few months ago.
Speaking exclusively to Express Sport, he said: “To finish seventh after the disappointments of missing the top six and the cup semi-final defeats shows the character of the squad.
“We were so, so close to finishing in the top six, but finishing seventh is still a great achievement, especially after how difficult a season it’s been with everything going on.
“Some people say we shouldn’t be celebrating finishing seventh, but for the club to carry on after all the heartbreaks and still finish that high in the table is remarkable.
“I was the manager last time we achieved that in 1989 and I’m delighted for Jim to now follow in my footsteps in doing the same.
“We’ve missed a lot of players through covid and injuries, so the squad have shown great character to get through it how they have.
“I think we’ll go one or two better next season. We’re all the same mentality at this club, we want to push on.
“We know it’s a gradual process, but we’re working on things off the park that will help us achieve our goals.”
Fitzpatrick and Goodwin were both mocked in some quarters when they predicted a top-six push at the beginning of the last campaign.
After missing out on just goal difference, Fitzpatrick believes they proved they’re a lot closer than some gave the club credit for.
And that’s why he doesn’t think it’s far fetched for the Buddies to be targeting a return to European football in the near future.
Fitzpatrick said: “We’ve got aspirations of European football.
“We were so close to achieving that this season, both through the league and the Scottish Cup.
“If we’d gone that wee bit further in the Scottish Cup we would have been in Europe. We weren’t miles away from that dream.
“You’ve got to dream and have goals. It’s not pie in the sky as some folk say, we’ve shown by how close we came this season.
“We proved this year that we’re not as far away as people think, and that’s massive going in to next season.
“Especially during my playing career, St Mirren were always challenging the top four and playing in Europe.
“We won the Scottish Cup in 1987 and we were regularly beating the best teams in the country.
“Before covid hit we were getting upwards of 5,000 and 6,000 in our stadium. Compared to a few seasons before that, it’s a really big improvement.
“With fan ownership about to become official and Kibble linking up as well, it’s a great time for the club as a whole. This season was just the beginning. This gives us a great platform to go on and achieve our goals.”