Danny Lennon doubt remains after St Mirren statement

Buddies chairman Stewart Gilmour and the rest of his board met at St Mirren Park on Thursday morning to discuss Lennon’s position.

The former Cowdenbeath manager’s contract expires at the end of the month.

But a statement posted on the club’s Twitter account said: “The Board of St Mirren Football Club met this morning to discuss various routine matters.

“There is obviously speculation regarding the manager’s contract.

“No decision was made in relation to this and the Board will re-convene early next week to consider matters further.”

Lennon, 45, was appointed as Gus MacPherson’s replacement four years ago.

Since then he has taken the club to their highest Scottish Premiership finish in a quarter of a century after guiding them to eighth two seasons ago.

He then handed the Paisley outfit their first major trophy since 1987 when he masterminded last year’s League Cup success.

Saints have beaten off the threat of relegation this term too and could yet go one better than their eighth-place finish if they beat Hearts in Saturday’s final league fixture and Partick fail to win at home to Ross County.

But there is frustration among the Saints support that their side continue to struggle at the wrong end of the table despite Lennon challenging his side to claim a top-six finish.

St Mirren have won just 10 of their 37 league fixtures so far and saw their League Cup defence fall at the first hurdle when they were beaten 2-1 after extra time by Championship side Queen of the South back in August.

On Wednesday night Gilmour - who is leading a consortium selling a majority share in the club - admitted the board faced a difficult choice as they pondered whether to renew Lennon’s deal.

“It is a huge decision,” he told BBC Scotland before the club’s 1-0 defeat by Kilmarnock, their first loss in five games. “It’s a decision about how we take St Mirren Football Club forward. Danny has got a lot of positives in there.

“We’ve got to look at the whole picture. That’s what the guys will do tomorrow and we’ll take it from there.

“Danny has done particularly well in the last period, there’s no question of that. The team have done incredibly well.

“We always thought we had the ability there to be clear of the relegation play offs - and I know the players’ professional pride makes them want to be seventh.

“As it so happens, the board are meeting tomorrow and we’ll have a full discussion of a number of things of which the manager’s position will be a main focal point.

“We’re a very argumentative, talkative board and I am sure plenty will be said and we’ll be talking to Danny within the next couple of days.”