It is turning into another very good 2024/25 Scottish Premiership campaign for fans of St Mirren and manager Stephen Robinson, and as we head towards the month of February, it is looking likely that we will ultimately better last season's fifth place finish as right now fourth spot is within reach.
Poor form in the final few games of our last campaign sadly ended hopes of slightly better but it was still an improvement on the previous year, and we have notched up 30 points from the opening 24 matches, so with last weekend's 3-0 victory over fourth placed Aberdeen we are tied in sixth spot with Hibernian, but should absolutely be looking one point ahead to Motherwell in fifth, and then Aberdeen themselves in fourth given we trail them by only five points.
For fans who play games like live blackjack online uk you have to make sensible choices, and it is almost the same approach here as with seven points to Dundee United in third spot, the Buddies would be doing themselves a disservice right now to not be looking at improvement and fourth as a minimum for the rest of the campaign as the points are their to be fought for.
After a lightning quick start under Jimmy Thelin, Aberdeen are now wobbling but they are still no mugs and with us having suffered four defeats on the spin ourselves, the organised nature of our 3-0 victory makes it even more impressive. They had far more of the ball, and on Pittodrie soil had the greater chances, but we better managed their possession and made the chances that came our way count and the early goal from Toyosi Olusanya set the tone perfectly for us to basically sit back and wait for our moments. That was exactly what we did with a second, and then third goal coming.
The headlines for the next week and a bit may naturally go to Aberdeen as the pundits and commentators pour over their continued slide in form and their now long, and unexpected, winless streak, but the plaudits that go our way right now are rightly deserved.
As 50 year old Robinson himself acknowledges, a few months back it was pie in the sky for St Mirren to be entertaining the potential of back to back European qualifications, but having dug in and worked hard, we are back in that exact spot. Some in the league would turn their nose up at that, especially as by some way there are those clubs who can call on far bigger resources and have far bigger budgets than our gaffer does, but he keeps making it work - albeit with a few major bumps in the road that frustrate everyone.
For now though, the result can be considered a statement win and if that leads us back to greater consistency and form for the games that remain ahead of us, then Europe is absolutely not off the cards for another year, and neither is potentially chasing down that fourth spot to show additional real year on year improvement.
If we can do that, or at least get close to it, maybe we will be better placed to deal with the pressures at the next time of asking as again Robinson acknowledges that after the summer we had, we probably have no rights to be here anyway.
