It has been a peculiar season for Stephen Robinson and St Mirren.
A glorious day at Hampden in December to win the Premier Sports Cup renders their league struggles almost irrelevant, but they host Dundee on Saturday at risk of being sucked into the relegation battle.
They only have one victory since that glorious triumph over Celtic, a narrow 1-0 success against Livingston on 20 December.
They are five points above Kilmarnock, who occupy the relegation play-off spot, and supporters must be thankful for the struggles of the two teams below them.
After a loss against 10-man Hearts earlier this month, Robinson accused his players of making him “look stupid”.
They had lost four matches on the spin at that point and the Northern Irishman was becoming increasingly frustrated by the performances and results delivered by an injury ravaged squad.
Since then though, St Mirren progressed to the last 16 of the Scottish Cup with a penalty shootout victory over Livingston and then drew against the same opposition on league duty.
Robinson took positives from both games and his squad are well rested for this weekend’s critical match after last weekend’s trip to Tannadice was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch.
He will also hope January additions Jake Young, Allan Campbell and Kion Etete can have an impact as St Mirren try to climb away from the battle at the bottom.
