Trevor Carson sees signs St Mirren are ready to replicate the same success he achieved at Motherwell with Stephen Robinson.
The Northern Ireland international was a key figure for the Steelmen as they reached both the League Cup and Scottish Cup finals in the 2017/18 campaign.
The North Lanarkshire side also went on to finish third in the Premiership in 2020, earning them a spot in the Europa League the following season.
While stopping short of saying the Saints had a better team than the one Robinson built at Fir Park, Carson insists the Buddies are building towards achieving the same feats in Paisley after a hugely promisingly start to the season.
Carson told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “There’s a lot of ex-Motherwell players here, of course, and an ex-Motherwell manager.
“We did get to two cup finals, but we weren’t really challenging in the league that season.
“We are here. I go into every game here thinking we’re going to win. I went into the game at Ibrox genuinely thinking we were going to win, the way we’d prepared all week.
“That’s the feeling here, winning games and being higher up the league does that.
“It was five years ago at Motherwell, so I can’t remember the exact feeling. I think we were flirting with relegation that season, even though we got to two cup finals.
“I’m not going to say it’s a better team here, but I feel there is something building here each week.”
Carson put in a man of the match performance against Kilmarnock last weekend, helping St Mirren pick up a point despite failing to hit the heights that saw them win their previous four clashes at the SMISA Stadium.
The Buddies’ number one admits it was a shame to miss out on climbing back up to third spot in the Premiership, but revealed the players wouldn’t be moping around the training ground at Ralston in the build-up to tomorrow’s meeting with Dundee United.
Carson said: “It’s not a bad trait to have, being able to grind out a draw when you aren’t at your best.
“We’re only human and sometimes things that we’ve worked on all week don’t quite come off. But credit to the boys, we still came out of it with a clean sheet and we’ll dust ourselves down and go again.
“Sitting third in the table would have been brilliant. It was nice when we were there earlier, but it’s still very early in the season. We’ll continue taking it one game at a time.
“Whenever we come in for training on a Monday morning you wouldn’t know whether we’d just won 3-0 or lost 3-0, because it’s just a case of getting back to work.”
Another key factor Carson has noticed about St Mirren this season is the number of seats being filled in Paisley continually increasing.
More than 6,700 supporters piled into the SMISA Stadium last Saturday, with Carson adding: “That’s been brilliant. The fans have played a massive part and it’s great to see big crowds in here and they’re very vocal as well.
“It’s also excellent having so many kids turning up to watch us. It doesn’t go unnoticed and we must be doing something right.”
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