As a supporter of any football club, there’s nothing worse than seeing your team get dismantled and not lay a glove on your opponents.
For anyone that supports a smaller Premiership club, this is so often the case when travelling to Ibrox or Celtic Park to take on the Old Firm.
The disparity in finances between the Glasgow giants and the rest of the top flight clubs often unsurprisingly results in a rout.
And to anyone that didn’t see last Saturday’s clash between St Mirren and Rangers, that’s exactly what the 4-0 scoreline would suggest.
I’ve seen countless gubbings in Glasgow, both as a journalist covering different teams and as a supporter with my own club.
That’s why I wasn’t surprised at the reaction of Saints boss Stephen Robinson and defender Marcus Fraser immediately after full-time.
They both knew that, while the result clearly wasn’t the best, there was no need to panic because the Paisley side created plenty of chances.
Very good chances at that.
Fraser himself had a brilliant opportunity to halve the deficit before half-time when he headed straight at Rangers keeper Allan McGregor.
McGregor, who had already saved well from Alex Greive’s close-range effort, then pulled off an even better save to deny Mark O’Hara at the back post.
O’Hara himself told Express Sport this week he’s been watching back the miss multiple times to try and work out how he could have done better.
If he had, with the score back to 2-1 it would have been game on at Ibrox.
Now I’m not saying St Mirren deserved to get something from Saturday’s trip to Govan.
Their defending simply wasn’t up to scratch, while their finishing wasn’t clinical enough.
But what is clear is that the Robinson system was still creating chances, even at one of the country’s toughest away venues.
On another day, if Nick Walsh hadn’t wrongly awarded Rangers a penalty for their second goal, or if Fraser or O’Hara had taken their gilt-edged chances, the Buddies could well have walked away with a point.
That is precisely the reason why Robinson, Fraser and O’Hara all made the same point this week that the result won’t knock the wind out of the club’s sails.
Much like the 3-0 defeat to St Johnstone, the system itself didn’t falter. Mistakes at either end cost St Mirren the points.
I have no doubt that the Saints will be flying into this weekend’s clash with Kilmarnock full of confidence they can get straight back to winning ways.
Especially given how strong their home form has been this season.
Every manager wants their ground to be a fortress, and the SMiSA Stadium is definitely close to being one so far this season with the Buddies winning four of their five clashes in Paisley.
Their only defeat, a 1-0 opening day loss to Motherwell, was a freak result as the Steelmen somehow managed to escape with a win despite being penned in by the hosts for the majority of the match.
St Mirren’s brilliant start to the season cannot be understated. After nine games they sit fourth in the table, having already played Celtic and Rangers.
Former Saints boss Jim Goodwin told me you can’t judge the start of a campaign until each team has played every other team at least once.
With home clashes against Kilmarnock and Dundee United up next, the Buddies have an excellent opportunity to turn their promising start to the season into a phenomenal one.
Hopefully fortress SMiSA will see another three points held firmly in Paisley this weekend.
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