Stephen Halliday: Tony Fitzpatrick’s admirable ambitions for St Mirren

Don’t knock Paisley chief’s top-six aim

ST Mirren chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

If optimism was a narcotic, Tony Fitzpatrick would be hopelessly addicted.

As anyone fortunate enough to make his acquaintance will testify, the St Mirren chief executive has always possessed one of the sunniest dispositions in Scottish football. So his bold declaration this week that the Paisley club should be targeting a top six Premiership finish in the new season was simply typical of the positive approach to life Fitzpatrick has always been blessed with. While his sense of ambition for the club he loves is admirable, recent evidence suggests fulfilling that aim remains the tallest of orders.

St Mirren have spent 16 of the previous 26 seasons in the second tier of Scottish football. Their highest placed top flight finish in that period was eighth, achieved in both 2012 and 2014. Having avoided relegation via a penalty shootout in the play-off final against Dundee United last year, Saints’ survival this year was aided by the curtailed nature of the 2019-20 campaign – albeit their crucial win over Hearts in the last match before football’s shutdown left them well placed to stay up in any event. Fitzpatrick can recall headier days, during his own playing career with the club, when St Mirren were a top six club for seven seasons in a row from 1978-79 to 1984-85, including a third place finish in 1979-80 when they were genuine title contenders for much of the campaign. No-one should fault him for hankering after a return to those glory days.

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