IT was a year ago this weekend that Jack Ross decided to take matters into his own stands. Taking umbrage at one shout from his home supporters after a 3-0 home defeat to Queen of the South which left St Mirren rooted to the foot of the Championship table, the manager simply opened the gate, entered their domain and sorted matters out face-to-face. Thankfully matters didn’t came to blows – his dad Stewart has since told him he would have been on his own if that were the case – and let’s just say even his most ardent critics must have changed their tune somewhat by now.

If titles were won over a calendar year, rather than just the usual football season, St Mirren might pretty much have been back in the top flight by now. Instead, having displayed promotion form even in the relegation positions during the previous campaign, they have merely gone from the very bottom to the very top, three points clear ahead of Dundee United, albeit having played a game more, ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Falkirk.

“I’m glad you used the word ‘debate’ because too often nowadays you hear about arguments and confrontations and it wasn’t like that – it was just a discussion,” recalled Ross. “At that time, we were going through a very difficult period but I didn’t feel I had anything to hide in terms of the work I was doing and what we do in training. So I gave them an open invitation to come watch us.

“The supporters are great here,” he added. “They were good to me as a player and I get on well with them as the manager. I suppose some people might look upon what I did as a gamble but it wasn’t pre-planned – it was my gut instinct. I’ve never been scared to go against the grain in that respect.

“Have I seen those fans again? I’m not sure. I get a lot of e-mails from fans, which I reply to personally, and one came from a guy who said he was one of those involved that day.

“Whether my group of players saw that I was prepared to put my neck on the line … I think there was a little bit of that … but I’m happy to be in the firing line. I’m happy to take that but I’ll also have an open discussion with them. Listen, hopefully, I’ll never do it again unless we’re celebrating winning something.”

This week of all weeks shows how football supporters – lifeblood of the game or not – should not always be regarded as a font of all knowledge. A Mars bar was thrown in the direction of his own full back Stelios Demetriou at Cappielow – the Greek promptly took a bite out of it before getting on with the game – and then there was the shameful mocking of Dean Shiels by the Falkirk fans who threw rubber eyeballs onto the pitch.

“Sometimes the things that are said in football grounds are mental,” said Ross. “Some of the songs being sung about Lewis Morgan at Cappielow were nuts – it’s just garbage, for want of a better expression. But in our game we just go: ‘Hey ho, that’s all right.’ But there’s nothing wrong with having a sensible conversation and most fans ARE sensible; they just get caught up in all of the madness.”

The problem for St Mirren, when it comes to speaking in these terms, is that they haven’t got anything other than pride to show for their achievements yet. As hard as they have worked to free themselves of the chasing pack, the Paisley side will be well aware that one wrong move could see that five-point gap they had carved out on Dundee United disappear.

“What happened in the second half of last season is something I’m not sure any of us will ever go through again,” said Ross. “If you look back at it, the results we produced just to stay in this division were remarkable. So I told the players during pre-season training that, if we could maintain that momentum – which we have done, the core group who remained plus the new players – then we’d be in with a shout.

“The number of people coming to see us now is fantastic as well and the relationship between the people who support the club and those who are involved in it is a lot stronger and that’s helped us as well. Of course, there’s been nothing tangible to show for that yet but that calendar year yielded a lot of points. Our total for 2017 was 68 points and I’d imagine, if you could do that during a season, you’d be close to winning the title.

“That’s our aim now for 2018 – to carry on where we left off. If we can do that then we’ll give ourselves a real chance. I lost my first six league games after taking over so there were some really tough times too – it was a real challenge for James Fowler and myself. We were speaking about it the other day and, while I wouldn’t say we didn’t enjoy what we did because we can see that there has been progress, nothing has been achieved here and, until it is, I won’t be satisfied.”