Our awful start to the season means there has been plenty of speculation in the past fortnight, with manager Danny Lennon rumoured to have been quite close to the sack at one point after steering Saints to just one point from four games. However, he's still here and he and his team need our full support tomorrow. We desperately need a win and the only way we can achieve that is with everyone pulling together. Regardless of your thoughts on Lennon, his future and his squad, we're all Saints fans and we should all be backing our team to the hilt as we look for our first home win since the end of February.
On paper, Motherwell don't seem the ideal team to try to end that run against. They're going pretty well at the moment and finished second last season. However, for some reason - probably because we're St Mirren and do odd things - we're not too bad against them. We managed to go unbeaten against the Steelmen last season and they last beat us in August 2011. If we can keep that run intact tomorrow then it should ease the pressure and lift the mood a bit, even if we don't win. Three points are vital, but drawing with a team that could well be best of the rest again come the summer wouldn't be too bad, even though it wouldn't help our current predicament.
Lennon has made a great deal of trying to cut out the individual mistakes in a bid to bring about a reversal of fortunes, but arguably that wasn't the problem in our last game against Partick Thistle. They were simply the better side and fully deserved the win. Whatever our problem - poor tactics, unmotivated players, a poor display or something else - the past fortnight will hopefully finally have seen us put things right. We keep hearing from the manager and the players how they can't understand why we're not pushing for the top six, we need a rub of the green and how they don't know what is causing our woes. If they haven't solved the problem since the Thistle game they probably never will.
Hopefully tomorrow will see us go back to basics - or at least starting with players in their natural positions. The team against the Jags was odd to say the least and we'll surely see both Gary Teale and Paul McGowan come back into the side. McGowan has oddly been benched for the last two games while Teale showed how important a player he is when he came on at half-time against Partick. He should take over the right midfield slot from Conor Newton, who should never have been asked to play that role last time around.
Hopefully we'll see a better performance from Stephane Bahoken tomorrow. He seemed willing to shoot from anywhere against Thistle, which wouldn't have been so bad if his shooting hadn't been so poor. The international break should mean he knows a bit more about our players, manager and style of play and there can be little excuse if he isn't clicking with Steven Thompson tomorrow. Fellow newboy Jake Caprice will probably be benched, although could start at rightback if changes are made to our shaky defence. Another potential change is Lee Mair, who it seems has finally been brought in from the cold, but David Barron is still missing.
While Motherwell lost a number of players over the summer they did keep hold of their manager. Stuart McCall was linked with the Sheffield United job and had talks with the Blades, but decided to stay at Fir Park rather than move to the English League One side. How much longer he sticks around in Scotland remains to be seen. For the past two seasons Motherwell have finished third and second and his stock will only rise further if he can repeat that feat having had to make a number of changes over the summer. His side have started reasonably enough, having put their Europa League disappointment behind them, and they will surely be there or thereabouts when it comes to dishing out the European places at the end of the campaign.
Key players left all over the park for supposedly bigger, better and higher paid things during the close season. Darren Randolph was one of those who decided to opt for pastures new and the only surprise about his move was he had to opt for Championship side Birmingham, his fine displays in recent years somehow not earning him a move to the Premiership. Lee Hollis, who has been second choice at Fir Park for the last few years, has done a decent job so far, with Gunnar Nielsen currently playing back-up. The recruitment of Stephen McManus was a decent bit of business by McCall, the experienced centre half being let go by Middlesbrough. He should help boost the defence that was still pretty strong with Shaun Hutchison and Simon Ramsden (who is suspended) sticking around, as did Steven Hammill and Fraser Kerr.
The midfield also needed some boosting after Chris Humphrey went to England and Nicky Law chased the cash to Ibrox. With most of his players heading south, McCall looked north for the replacements and signed Iain Vigurs and Paul Lawson from Ross County. They did well for the Dingwall side last year and it'll be interesting to see if they can cope playing for a bigger club. The experience of Keith Lasley should help them adapt to their new surroundings, his years in the top flight also helping out Stuart Carswell. The midfield was strengthened further just before the window shut when Lionel Ainsworth was signed on loan from Rotherham.
The summer also saw McCall swap one former Saints striker for another. Two years ago Michael Higdon was signed from us to replace John Sutton. With Higdon going to NEC Nijmegen over the summer McCall brought Sutton back, the striker having had a nightmare in his two years with Hearts. Now that he's back in familiar territory he should recapture his old form, something that has already happened for James McFadden. I assumed he'd move on over the summer after showing he was fit again, but he has stayed on and is one of the best players in the division - and I'm including the Celtic squad in that. Estonian striker Henri Anier looks pretty handy, his arrival having offset the departure of fellow countryman Henrik Ojaama, while Robert McHugh is also a threat.
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