This has been coming and I don’t think there ever was a big reaction. There’s always been an acceptance of the situation
Captain Thompson laments season in which ‘weaker’ Saints have failed to halt damaging slide
RAKING through the debris of St Mirren’s season for evidence of the roots of relegation is a painful process for Steven Thompson, the post-mortem procedure having been prolonged by the fact that he was nagged by a fear this campaign might be doomed from the outset.
Every word of the withering assessment seemed to hurt the local hero as he picked apart what he believes are a few all-too convenient excuses for the fourth year of his Paisley homecoming proving to be the worst season of his career.
St Mirren host Ross County tomorrow night in a contest which was selected for live coverage back in February in the belief both clubs would be scrapping to move clear of bottom place in the Premiership table.
So stark has St Mirren’s slump been since that announcement, neither the manager nor captain of the team can realistically raise themselves to trot out the faux fighting talk favourites such as ‘until it is mathematically impossible’ or dress up the event as a last chance to spare them from the drop.
Saints have sunk like a stone and Thompson is responsible for the only goal scored in a six-game streak that features five losses and has landed them with a 10-point defecit to make up on a Motherwell team that handed them a 5-0 hammering on Tuesday night.
Thompson can follow up many a damning statistic with an incriminatory assessment of individual and group failure among the playing staff to react to being embroiled in a season-long scrap to avoid the Championship.
Becoming so detached from the rest of the division has led to the blame for the expiry of a nine-year stay in the top flight being put on Saints’ mid-season business.
The moment Kenny McLean was sold to Aberdeen on the last day of the January transfer window has been identified as the one that sucked the air out of efforts to stay afloat.
Thompson shoots down that theory as he points out the midfielder played a role as the ship started to sink and others should have been capable of filling the void he left.
‘Don’t get me wrong, Kenny was a top player for us and, at the time he left us, he was probably at his very best,’ said Thompson.
‘But at the start of last season, Kenny was cannon fodder. He was getting caned. So it’s funny how it turns round. Kenny scored seven goals this season, albeit three from the penalty spot, and was a pivotal player for us.
‘But I’m not going to blame the season on that. Kenny was here for the first 25 games and we were in the bottom three.
‘So you’re not going to tell me that Kenny McLean going... I mean, we’ve all got to stand up. It’s too easy to say: “Oh we lost our best player”. We added six players.’
Saints were locked with Motherwell on 18 points, six clear of Ross County who had two games in hand, when McLean said his farewells in Paisley on February 2.
Three points from the Thompson winner against Hamilton — in the sole home league victory this season — is the only addition to St Mirren’s tally, while potential play-off protagonists have soared with the help of new signings.
Saints did indeed recruit six in January and February, almost as many as their resurgent rivals, but they have failed to make the same positive impact. Yoann Arquin has contributed two red cards to the crime count but no goals to the side, Emmanuel Sonupe has made just four substitute outings and James Dayton has not scored since his debut in January.
Globe-trotting Alan Gow, former Bulgarian Under-21 defender Viktor Genev and a 20-year-old midfielder Kevin Sadlier were picked up in February but have not shaped up.
Raffaele de Vita was on trial at St Mirren but ended up signing for County and scored three times.
Thompson, who was bursting with pride two years ago when lifting the League Cup for his boyhood heroes, is bereft.
The 36-year-old did fear St Mirren had the potential to plummet as he surveyed early-season displays.
He recognised St Mirren were weaker than at any stage of his four seasons with the club.
New Pittodrie boy McLean’s seven goals means he is likely to finish the season as top scorer for a team that has netted only 22 times in 32 Premiership games.
Next best on three is Adam Drury, also no longer suiting up for the Saints since his season-long loan from Manchester City was cut short at the turn of the year.
‘I’d say this year is probably the weakest the squad has been in terms of quality,’ said Thompson, who is out of contract this summer. ‘I got the feeling early in the season that we were weaker.
‘But you always think it’s going to turn round. Maybe we were just waiting and it never came. And now we’ve not reacted.
‘You’ve got to take responsibility as a group of players for the results — right from the word go. It’s not as if this has just been sprung upon us. I can’t remember us being out of the bottom three this season.
‘We’re now bottom. We were bottom the week before. This has been coming and I don’t think there ever was a big reaction.
‘ There’s always been an acceptance of the whole situation, really. We got off to a bad start this season and never recovered.
‘I’m not going to say we haven’t been trying. I think the attitude of the players has been good in training. But you can’t dress it up, we’ve not been good enough.
‘We’ve really struggled in the final third and defensively. Look at the goals for and against, especially for — 22. A striker would get that on his own. Kris Boyd got that amount for Kilmarnock last year.
‘Since I joined the club four years ago, we’ve always flirted a wee bit with the bottom end of the league.
‘But in amongst that we’ve had high periods — obviously winning the League Cup, catching the tails of the teams in the top six here and there. So this is horrendous.’
Two eighth-place finishes sandwich that League Cup-winning season during Thompson’s spell with his boyhood club.
The past 12 months have been blighted by coaching changes and, unlike most examples of managerial upheaval, St Mirren’s is all in-house.
Danny Lennon, who hailed the striker as a ‘born leader’ when signing him in June 2011, was let go at the end of last term and replaced by assistant Tommy Craig. Nineteen games and 13 defeats later, Gary Teale was installed as caretaker replacement and Jim Goodwin stripped of his coaching role.
The ever-present noise of takeover talk from outside the club has been of little help either but Thompson has no interest in using those personnel changes and off-field concerns as excuses.
‘There’s no way I can put a silver lining on anything when we are a group of players who have underachieved, let the supporters down, let the club down,’ he stated.
‘I can’t think of a player who has played to their potential. It’s harsh, so I’m maybe not bringing Stephen Mallan into that. This is his debut season. He is a big talent, who has a future. The rest of us — we didn’t reach the standards we can.
‘Essentially, you can point the finger wherever you like but, as a professional footballer, the buck really stops at you when you get on the pitch.
‘I’ve always felt that, regardless of who your manager is or what’s happening off the pitch. You see managerial changes all the time. In my career I’ve seen tons.
‘Hopefully we can somehow raise our spirits going into the last six games of the season and give the support a wee bit of cheer.’
Performances will need to be in marked contrast to the shocking surrender that took place at Fir Park in midweek on the back of a ‘must-win’ demand by boss Teale.
Thompson complained: ‘We needed a reaction. We knew the importance. What we got was unacceptable.
‘The carrot was there for us — beat Motherwell and it goes to four points and we still have to play them. Now it’s swung the other way. We’re not relegated yet but it’s staring us in the face.’