IAN MURRAY has lifted the lid on his troubled tenure as St Mirren manager and revealed an air of negativity that surrounded the club played a huge part in their early season struggles.

Murray took charge of the Paisley club following their relegation to the Championship last summer.

But poor results meant he lasted in the post only until December when he was replaced by Alex Rae.

In a revealing interview, Murray admitted he has to take the lion’s share of the responsibility for their failings but felt that relegation had “sucked the life out of the club”.

The 35 year-old, now working as a scout for Middlesbrough as he awaits his next managerial post, also admitted that poor signings and the promotion of some young players into the first team before they were ready were also complicit in the team’s downfall.

He told Sport Times: “We all made mistakes at St Mirren - myself, the staff, the players and the board – but ultimately it’s always the manager who has to live or die by the sword.

"Results weren’t good enough, no question. But there was also a lot of stuff going on in the background that was really difficult to deal with.

"Relegation hit them really hard. It sucked the life out of the club and the place was very negative.

“It’s maybe just something about the culture at that club at this moment in time. It’s hard to describe as you don’t want to slaughter anyone or paint the club in a negative light but it’s a strange place at the moment.

"The club’s been up for sale for a number of years and I think that’s had an impact too.

“Everyone had an opinion so it was hard to keep things under control. Sometimes I was finding out things [about the running of the club] second hand.

"People found it hard to hold their tongue at times when we were trying to keep something under wraps. I just found it difficult to do the things I wanted and when I did get to do certain things it rarely went as smoothly as I wanted.

“They are a good club and I hope they get out of the trouble they are in but having seen it from the inside I fear it’s going to be a long haul. I sensed early on it might not go as well as I had hoped.

"We had a lot of young guys in the squad and many weren’t ready to play at that level through no fault of their own. They needed time but we didn’t have that. But needs must so they had to play.

“Some of the players at St Mirren were also very poor and they have to accept that the way I do about my performances.

"Some of them bought into what we were trying to do but not all of them.”

Murray also claimed that, although there was an expectation that St Mirren would be pushing for promotion in their first season down, his budget was only the seventh or eighth biggest in the division.

“I think people had a perception of the club’s budget that was way higher than it actually was. We had absolutely no chance of competing with Hibs or Rangers financially. We probably would have been out-budgeted by maybe another five clubs in that division.

So we were up against it from the start. It wasn’t the wrong club for me but it was a very hard club to manage.

“Looking back I signed a few players that I wouldn’t sign again. And when you see the amount of guys Alex is letting go now it shows we were probably of the same opinion.”