St. Mirren's hope to be title contenders, if not the champions, of the Scottish Premiership. We're in a good position at the minute, and with the full force of the Black and White army behind them, this year could be the year that we power forward to the top. Level on points with the Rangers, and with a long season to go, will we reach the top? That depends on the upcoming three matches - Ross County, St. Johnstone, and Celtic.
The Performance So Far
The performance so far has been typical St. Mirren style - a mixed bag of results. Starting strong with four wins and three draws, it seemed the team had a strong training camp over the summer and was ready to take us to the top. That was until the 3-0 defeat to the Rangers with a 10-man squad after Ryan Strain rightfully earned a red card in the 28th minute. That put Rangers into 2nd position, but still level on points with St. Mirren at 15 each.
We're a long way away from Celtic, who look to be firm favourites to win the league, charging ahead with 22 points. And when you look at the performance stats against the Rangers, we need to step it up. 70% possession, 593 passes compared to St. Mirrens 253, and 88% pass accuracy compared to our 69%. Shots on target for the Rangers were 8. The shots on target for St. Mirren? A big fat 0. Let's not go into detail about the 4-2 defeat against Hibernian in the Scottish League Cup - performances like that will lose us any chance at any title.
Our best performance came against the Hearts, who trail us by 4 points. With a 1-0 defeat, St. Mirren made up for the fact the Hearts had 70% of the possession and 3 shots on target 5, converting our 5 shorts into 2 goals.
The Next Three Matches
There might be 38 games left, one of the longest seasons you can play in, but three challenging games ahead of us could decide our title fate. Ross County and St. Johnstone should be relatively easy games. Ross County is on the 21st of October - they've only won two games this season. We play St. Johnstone on the 28th of October - they're bottom in the league with 4 points, not having won a single game.
The game we need to worry about is Celtic on the 1st of November. Celtic, as always, have had a dominating season, winning 7 games and drawing 1 - they're yet to lose a game. The statistics on websites like 32red sport aren’t looking good – unless you fancy Celtic.
After signing Maik Nawrocki for £4.3 million and Luis Palma for £3.5 million off the back of a nice transfer fee for Jota (£25 million) to go to Saudi Club Al-Ittihad - the club has been performing like magic.
If we manage to beat Ross County and St. Johnstone, the defeat against the Celtics doesn't matter as much. What does matter, however, is that if Celtic win their next three games, including against us, we've lost all chance of title contention - 2nd place contention it will be.
Do We Have What It Takes?
Yes. We have what it takes to beat Ross County and St. Johnstone, but not necessarily against Celtic. The mistakes we've been making lately are too costly - with one red card, the game is over. Lack of possession, the game is over. We must strengthen our midfield and defence and play the passes against the opposition to move the ball forward - that's what we're missing.
Do you think St. Mirren will win the Scottish Premiership this year? We're already performing better than last year, so the hope is to at least take back second place from the Rangers.