ST MIRREN’S John Sutton has paid tribute to his side’s long-suffering support for sticking by their team throughout their season of woe.

Each follower of the Paisley side must have walked under a street of ladders while smashing mirrors as a platoon of black cats marched past such has been the heartache of their recent endeavours.

Relegated from the Premiership two years ago, a troop of managers have come and gone as St Mirren have struggled to find their feet in Scotland’s second tier. So much so that when Jack Ross, their latest managerial recruit arrived back in September, he inherited a side already fixed to the foot of the Championship.

Nine points adrift at one stage, those who faithfully shuffle towards the Paisley 2021 Stadium have finally been rewarded with a beacon of hope from Ross and his team. A promising run of results culminated in Tuesday’s 4-1 rout of hapless rivals Morton at Cappielow propelled the buoyant Buddies out of the relegation drop zone with just four games left to play.

Sutton got the third goal for St Mirren in dreich Greenock to send over a thousand visiting fans wild in the stands on what was a fitting way to mark his 100th start for the club. And, as he reflected on the night’s events, was delighted to put a smile back on the faces of those have endured happier times.

“The one thing I will say is that the fans have been very good,” he said. “I can’t remember a time when they have given us pelters. They’ve always turned up in their numbers, they’ve always got behind us.

“They’ve made it a good club to be at and that’s really important. They are expecting some sort of promotion or play-off push this year and that didn’t happen. It’s the total opposite but they stuck with us and made it a good place to play.

“The manager stuck with it, the players stuck with it, the fans stuck with it. Hopefully we are reaping the rewards of that.

“It was a brilliant win. We were a bit disappointed after the game on Saturday but it at least got us out of bottom spot.

“Then we went into the game against Morton knowing we could get out of the bottom two. It was motivation.

“It was also a derby game. I wouldn’t say we had a score to settle with Morton, they’ve done really well against us. But we felt we had underperformed against them.

“To win like that was really special. But we know we have to kick on now.”

The transformation in St Mirren is quite spectacular considering how perilous a state they were in less than two months ago.

On February 25 they travelled to Somerset Park knowing defeat to Ayr United would see the chasm between them and their hosts widen to 11 points. Sutton scored to help secure a 2-0 win to squeeze that gap down to five.

“That’s the thing with the league, you always have a chance because you play the other teams so many times. There are six pointers,” explained Sutton. “Certainly we beat Ayr quite convincingly at home but we beat them away. We’ve kicked on from there.”

For all the optimism utton is correct to cool talk of a successful escape mission. St Mirren are not out of the woods just yet.

Only a point above a relegation play-off place and three above bottom, Ross will take his team away to Falkirk, Dundee United and Hibs with only the visit of Raith Rovers to offer any home comforts.

Sutton added: I think we could have played better against Morton but if we show the steel we are showing defensively we won’t be far away from keeping St Mirren in the league.”