Return to Paisley is business as usual for Ross
THERE are simply too many pictures on the wall in Paisley and too many enduring images in his mind for Jack Ross to blithely suggest this is just another game.
St Mirren earned their Premiership status under his watch. He won their faith and retained it when others would not have been so understanding. Such are the ties that bind.
To submit that sentiment will play a part in the Hibernian manager’s return there tonight, to the point where it may distract him from the job at hand, is not to know the man, though.
A lifetime spent at the game’s coalface has conditioned him to consider such occasions as strictly business — even if St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin has jokingly vowed to leave his friend-turned-enemy for the evening ‘crying into his coffee’. Anything else is a dereliction of duty.
‘I think it comes, I’m not saying a lot easier than people imagine, but to be a football manager you’ve got to be able to detach yourself from emotion a lot of the time anyway,’ said Ross.
‘Because if you get caught up in the emotion of everything, you would probably crumble under the criticism you get at times. Whether it’s from the media or arguments with players, you need to have the ability to be that way.
‘I’ve always looked at it as my job. It’s the profession I have chosen to go into.
‘I need to do that the best I can. The best way for me to do that is to go and win the game on Tuesday.’
Do not confuse a business-like attitude with being indifferent to recent history. That Ross was good for St Mirren, the runaway Championship winners when he left for Sunderland last year, is to state the blindingly obvious.
Yet he also needs no one to underscore how good the club were for him. As manager of Alloa, they gave him a pathway into full-time managerial employment.
Without that approach, there was no Sunderland and there is no Hibernian.
‘The whole period there, the club benefited from it as they found themselves back in the Premiership and, thankfully, they’ve stayed there,’ he added.
‘For me as a manager, it was a huge part of my learning process.
‘It also helped me to get the opportunities since — to manage a club the size of Sunderland and the opportunity to manage a club the size of Hibs.
‘Everything we went through there, the more difficult times and the more enjoyable times, were really important for me.
‘I spoke earlier about the demands for change. I lost my first six league games in charge at St Mirren and there wasn’t that change. So I’ll always be grateful for having the opportunity to come through that period.
‘For a young manager, that was not easy. It could have ended my management career quite quickly as well.’
It’s almost three years since the weight of public opinion started to turn against him. A 3-0 home loss to Queen of the South had the Paisley outfit seriously contemplating relegation to the third tier.
That day didn’t quite represent the turning point for Ross and his squad but it did cement his reputation as a man of substance.
Stepping into the stand to reason with an irate supporter at full-time didn’t reverse the result but it certainly set him out from the crowd.
‘I saw him in hospitality later on in the season,’ Ross smiled. ‘I am sure he still goes. He will probably give me stick tomorrow! He probably gave me stick after it as well!
‘It was one of those things I did not pre-plan and I do not ever envisage doing again. It felt all right doing it at the time and anyone who heard me that day will know it was fine, there was nothing sinister behind it in any way. It was just a bit different.’
His rival in the dugout tonight, Goodwin, has felt no such need to explain himself to the home audience this term. Saturday’s win over Ross County improved their home record to three wins and two draws from six games there and Ross is acutely aware of how hard it will be to rip the wind out of those sails.
‘Their defensive record has been really good,’ he said. ‘It’s on the road they have found it difficult to pick up points. But at home they won again on Saturday and beat Aberdeen earlier in the season.
‘I am fully aware how difficult going to that stadium can be when they have the support behind them. We know we will have to play as well as we did on Saturday.’
While Goodwin believes Ross deserves a warm welcome, he hopes it proves an unenjoyable return to Paisley for the new Hibs manager.
‘Jack will get a good reception,
I’m sure of that,’ said the Saints boss, who worked alongside Ross at Alloa Athletic.
‘But once the game starts it’s important to remember that he’s the enemy. We want to make his night as difficult as possible.
‘I’m looking forward to seeing Jack. I’ve spoken to him on the phone a few times and we’ve been texting back and forth and it will be good to see him in the flesh. But, hopefully, he will be crying into his coffee after the game.
‘Jack’s record at Sunderland was not too bad when you look at the stats. But that’s the level of expectation at a big club.
‘He knows that and he’s at another big club now, with the expectation of Hibs being a top-four club. There’s pressure on Jack at Hibs but I’ve no doubt he can handle it.
‘Hibs have got a lift from Jack’s appointment and they beat Motherwell on Saturday. They will fancy their chances but so will we because our home form has been excellent.
‘We’ve only conceded two goals in six games and I don’t think anyone in the country has a better home defensive record than that.’