{"id":17802,"title":"Dun-Deal","description":"A couple of games into Stephen Robinson's tenure at St Mirren it became clear the job was to salvage what he could from a physically and mentally spent squad, play to its strengths and get us across the line to league survival. With a healthy league position, and a decent run of results preceding Robinson\u2019s appointment - from the outside looking in anyway \u2013 this recalibration of expectations was a hard one for many fans to take. As Saints embarked on a run of just one win in nine games, frustrations rapidly grew, with the majority of noise being directed towards Robinson himself, despite the Northern Irishman\u2019s (admirable, in this humble writer\u2019s humble opinion) transparency about his own frustrations with the state of the squad left to him by his predecessor","content":"

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By Andrew Christie<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

A couple of games into Stephen Robinson's tenure at St Mirren it became clear the job was to salvage what he could from a physically and mentally spent squad, play to its strengths and get us across the line to league survival.<\/p>

With a healthy league position, and a decent run of results preceding Robinson\u2019s appointment - from the outside looking in anyway \u2013 this recalibration of expectations was a hard one for many fans to take.<\/p>

As Saints embarked on a run of just one win in nine games, frustrations rapidly grew, with the majority of noise being directed towards Robinson himself, despite the Northern Irishman\u2019s (admirable, in this humble writer\u2019s humble opinion) transparency about his own frustrations with the state of the squad left to him by his predecessor.<\/p>

As last week\u2019s 1-0 win away to St Johnstone (Saints\u2019 first in Perth since 2014) all but secured our Premiership survival, thoughts can now turn to the summer and what will likely be a massive rebuilding effort from Robinson and his team, both on and off the pitch.<\/p>

Before that time, however, there was the matter of welcoming Mark McGhee\u2019s struggling Dundee to Paisley with Saints hoping to mathematically ensure survival beyond all doubt.<\/p>

Luckily, the visitors were in a giving mood, with Captain Charlie Adam rolling back the years (to 2006, to be exact) and delivering a beautiful \u201cassist\u201d<\/a> for St Mirren striker Alex Grieve to coolly slot home. It was the type of momentary leave of sense that would have had every \u201cPoor Quality Scottish Football\u201d Twitter account running to their keyboards faster than their 30-goal-a-season grandmother in a pre-season bleep test. At the same time, however, it was very very funny, wasn\u2019t it?<\/a>\"\"
That being said, the eventual 2-0 win was far from handed to us. The performance we saw from St Mirren was everything fans had been clamouring for in recent weeks; the energy, desire and hunger on show outlining a desire of every player on the pitch in the 3412 system.<\/p>

The second goal in particular can be seen as indicative of how capable this team can be in this system.\"\"
In pictures 1 and 2, we can see the commitment in the middle of the park from Ethan Erhahon (a standout in Saints\u2019 engine room alongside Alex Gogic), who wins the ball not once but twice, breaking up the Dundee move and recycling possession in the final third. Finding Marcus Fraser in space on the right, the young midfielder starts a dangerous attack.<\/p>

The right-sided combination of Fraser and Richard Tait (just out of shot in the bottom left of the frame in picture 3) was we frequently found joy from; the pair working excellently together to manipulate a rather stagnant Dundee front line, the two defenders alternating between dropping deep and letting the other overlap and attack.<\/p>

In picture 4, Fraser is allowed to drive forward and pick out Curtis Main (another player who put in an Absolute Shift, Mate) who drills a sublime high finish past Harrison Sharp in the Dundee goal. Main and his strike partner Greive had the games of their respective seasons; splitting wide to stretch the Dundee backline to breaking point. Main\u2019s goal would ultimately seal the 2-0 win and rounding off a tremendously satisfying performance for the onlooking Stephen Robinson.\"\"
With consecutive league wins in the bank for the first time since early February, confidence is high going into Wednesday night\u2019s game against Livingston for the Battle for Seventh Place (look man, it\u2019s the split\u2026 we take what we can get down here).<\/p>

David Martindale\u2019s men currently sit in seventh place, three points ahead of us on 45 points, and will be buoyed by Saturday\u2019s point at home to St Johnstone meaning they have broken their second-highest points total in the top-flight (look man, it\u2019s the split\u2026 we take what we can get down here).<\/p>

Despite several Saints injuries leaving our squad somewhat depleted (Conor Ronan, Jordan Jones and Curtis Main will all likely miss the remaining two games of the season to receive treatment), if we can play with anywhere near the same level of intensity and drive as we showed on Saturday, that coveted (I know\u2026 gonnae just\u2026 please\u2026 ) Seventh Place is very much within our grasp.<\/p>","urlTitle":"dun-deal","url":"\/blog\/dun-deal\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/dun-deal\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/miseryhunters.co.uk\/blog\/dun-deal\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1652187749,"updatedAt":1652188168,"publishedAt":1652188168,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":106606,"name":"Misery Hunters"},"tags":[],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/atqyua45nlphzqg3mbeerqzx6nqrxd2xjd3ou2opw5h0wzxb.jpeg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/atqyua45nlphzqg3mbeerqzx6nqrxd2xjd3ou2opw5h0wzxb.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/atqyua45nlphzqg3mbeerqzx6nqrxd2xjd3ou2opw5h0wzxb.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"metaTitle":"","metaDescription":"","keyPhraseCampaignId":null,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":38572,"title":"The Back Five #13","url":"\/blog\/the-back-five-13\/","urlTitle":"the-back-five-13","division":106606,"description":"Misery Hunters writer Andrew Christie takes a sideways look at the final week of the pre-split Premiership season.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/notoghzagiijv1jeqpqcjsz8tphpl06uzivafns53fuw4mpb.png.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/notoghzagiijv1jeqpqcjsz8tphpl06uzivafns53fuw4mpb.png.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":15930,"title":"Walking on Broken Glass","url":"\/blog\/walking-on-broken-glass\/","urlTitle":"walking-on-broken-glass","division":106606,"description":"By Andrew Christie","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/3f1ytelvulzf9ddlq5dqnhmqd3duw5pz411aoaccx7vli28a.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/3f1ytelvulzf9ddlq5dqnhmqd3duw5pz411aoaccx7vli28a.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":16922,"title":"Waiting For Robbo","url":"\/blog\/waiting-for-robbo\/","urlTitle":"waiting-for-robbo","division":106606,"description":"Boy oh boy, remember how long we spent in the first half of the season sweating with a back three against teams we'd expect to be comfortably putting away on our road to a top six? That was rough.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/oxcwhmejquvkkj0a9ufvgqfnscjf6zdutyusnwsvmblp1hfu.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/oxcwhmejquvkkj0a9ufvgqfnscjf6zdutyusnwsvmblp1hfu.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}