The morning after.

It's become an all too familiar feeling this season. The crushing sense of disappointment after yet another defeat, and an overwhelming sea of negativity washes over social media and the forums as the Saints support face up to what is beginning to look like an inevitable march towards relegation and a return to the Championship.

After 18 months of non-stop joy we're now knee deep in the shit after a fairly meek capitulation at home to Motherwell, coupled with a win for Hamilton and another point on the board for Dundee.

Six points adrift of safety now, and with visits to Tynecastle and Pittodrie next up it's difficult to find positives in the darkness.

However, there are some, so allow me some happy clapper positivity if you don't mind.

The performances last night of Vaclav Hladky and Mihai Popescu were excellent. Both have settled into the team quickly and look better than we previously had. In that regard the "Money Ball" model looks like it has some legs.

Anders Dreyer has certainly "something" about him and I suspect that with more game time he could yet be a big player for us.

Brad Lyons is more than decent and more than capable of making a positive contribution as the season rolls towards it's end.

The jury remains out on the others to be fair.

We haven't seen enough of Muzek, Corbu or the Duck to really pass comment whilst messrs Tansey and McAllister are clearly struggling for match fitness.

All in all this morning things look bleak but this was never going to be easy.

Gelling together a new team of players, plucked from all corners of the world, was always going to be a challenge. This league takes no prisoners either, every single mistake is punished, such as backing off Jake Hastie last night or Paul McGinn diving in to allow Elliott Frear the freedom of Paisley to pick out Adam Campbell and send the Steelmen back down the M8 with all three points.

And yet Motherwell should be our inspiration.

It was only six weeks ago that we beat them on their own patch and the knives were well and truly out for Stephen Robinson. Fast forward and they've won five games on the spin and despite tumbling out of the Scottish Cup all is rosy in Lanarkshire.

That winning formula is so hard to come by, but a single win can galvanise a squad that is shot on confidence and provide the spark of momentum needed to start accruing more points.

And perhaps it's also time to give some of our younger players more game time. Ethan Erhahon in his natural position would not be the worst idea given how we easily we surrender the middle of the park at the moment.

The difficult run of games isn't going to let up anytime soon with those two tough away games on the horizon.

Things will most likely get even worse before they get better, but the point is, the fat lady has not sung quite yet.

Stick with the manager and the players, and believe that things will improve over the coming weeks. There are plenty of battles ahead and we absolutely need to stick together as we fight them.

Keep The Faith!

Transfer Windows have often been traumatic affairs for Saints fans.

A support that positively thrives on new signings, for many years the windows were a damp squib with a trickle of players moving in and out, and the "Go To Bed" signs usually going up early afternoon on deadline day.

That all changed in the famous January window of 2017 when we overhauled an under performing squad with 10 new arrivals and 10 departures. A process that ultimately ensured our Championship survival and which then snowballed into a title win the following season.

We never thought we'd see the likes again, and yet here we are on 1st February 2019 reviewing a window that has surpassed even the gigantic churn of 2017.

Thirteen players left in January, adding to the three that had already gone since the last window closed, as the club worked hard to purge the memory of Alan Stubbs and Darren Jackson as quickly as possible. Just Cody Cooke remains from that period with Josh Heaton out on loan and sure to move on in the summer.

Whilst there was emotional baggage surround the departures of Cammy Smith and Adam Eckersley the truth of the matter is only the loss of Adam Hammill had a material negative impact on the quality of the starting XI we were able to field. 

He was a terrific signing by Oran and one which certainly helped us limp over the line without being cut massively adrift.

And so having cleared out masses of deadwood the club then embarked on rebuilding.

Overseen by our new Director of Football and using the "moneyball" model we've brought in no fewer than ten new recruits, literally coming from all corners of the world.

An Englishman, two Romanians, an Irishman, a Czech, an Australian, a Scot, a Dane, a Croatian and lastly a Haitian.

Welcome to the United Nations of St.Mirren.

Let's be in no doubt about this. It's a gamble. It's a HUGE gamble.

Integrating and gelling together a new squad of players inside a month is hard enough, but when you've got umpteen language barriers to overcome and almost certainly different levels of fitness, it's going to be tough.

We're also operating in a much tougher environment. Our next few games are pretty daunting with trips to Ibrox, Pittodrie and Tynecastle coming up inside our next four league matches.

The new boys will need to settle in quick, and it's going to be a baptism of fire.

This project might well fail. We are in a league of three with only one guaranteed survival spot.

Dundee look to have strengthened pretty well, whilst Hamilton have played the sack the manager card and will hope for a bounce under Brian Rice. There's absolutely no guarantees we'll survive this.

And yet it's a gamble worth taking, surely?

Let's be frank. We were not going to survive with what we had, so why not throw the dice and see what happens?

The vast majority of these lads are loan signings. If they crash and burn and we go down anyway then at least we gave it a shot and used some imagination.

We've already done most of the difficult work that would need to be done in the summer to clear the squad, so if the worst does happen then we can pretty quickly clear the decks and begin building again for next season, under Oran Kearney I hasten to add.

And if the gamble does pay off?

Feed the Duck. It will be absolutely fucking glorious.

COYS!