St Mirren's sorry 2-0 defeat at Motherwell on Saturday didn't erase the memory of the League Cup, but it did make the margins feel smaller. Being 10th in the league at the turn of the year is enough to tighten jaws, but context matters. Mark O'Hara and Jonah Ayunga are both out for several weeks, and Keanu Baccus remains on the sidelines.
January doesn't care what you've just won. It arrives anyway, checking bodies, counting absences, and whispering that good feelings only last as long as the squad can make them.
St Mirren's sorry 2-0 defeat at Motherwell on Saturday didn't erase the memory of the League Cup, but it did make the margins feel smaller. This is a team that has earned patience in Paisley, but it's also one that currently has very little slack.
Being 10th in the league at the turn of the year is enough to tighten jaws, but context matters. The cup win has raised expectations without masking the challenges ahead. There's no panic here, just a quiet recognition: January will shape how smooth - or jagged - the next few months feel.
And availability matters. Mark O'Hara and Jonah Ayunga are both out for several weeks, and Keanu Baccus remains on the sidelines. The squad is slim and every absence is obvious. There's little room for rotation, less for experimentation, and almost none for bad luck.
Central midfield is where the strain hits hardest. O'Hara's injury robs the team of organisation and authority, and Baccus' absence removes drive from the engine room.
Alex Gogic and Killian Phillips have carried a heavy load, but the side has sometimes looked solid rather than inspiring. What's missing is invention - a player who can take the ball in tight spaces, change the angle of an attack, and give St Mirren a new tempo. That kind of addition would be transformative without needing fireworks.
Elsewhere, the needs are smaller but no less urgent. Right wing-back competition would help with the crowded fixture list, while Ayunga's tendon injury, so soon after his cup final heroics, leaves Mikael Mandron and Dan Nlundulu as the only senior attacking options.
The team is thinner up front than anyone wants and one more forward option could stop it all from wobbling.
This isn't the moment for upheaval. St Mirren don't need rescuing and they don't need wholesale change. But a few precise, clever additions could turn what is already a proud, confident squad into something even harder to play against.
Get January right, and the cup win doesn't become an "aye, but at least we…". It hangs in the here and now, shaping what this season becomes rather than just explaining how we'll talk about it in years to come.
Andrew Christie can be found at Misery Hunters
Category: General Sports
