ST MIRREN chairman Gordon Scott admits he is handing over a lopsided squad to his new manager but hopes Jack Ross will take the chance to put that right in January. Ross has left League One side Alloa to take over at the Paisley club and becomes their fifth manager since Danny Lennon left in May 2014. He succeeds Alex Rae who was sacked last month with Saints bottom of the Championship.

Rae was busy in the transfer window in the summer – bringing in players like John Sutton and Ryan Hardie on loan – but Scott feels it has left an imbalanced look to the squad. Having just arrived at the club as part of a fans takeover, the new chairman didn’t want to interfere with Rae’s plans but admitted it is a situation that will need to be addressed in January.

Scott said: “We’re bottom of the league but we’ve got a good squad of players. The problem is we’ve got five strikers and only two can play every week. And we’ve only got three attacking midfielders, two holding midfielders and no left-back. Everyone who has come in for the manager’s job has seen the same problem. Not the quality of the squad, but the imbalance.

“But you’ve got to trust the manager. You cannot say – especially with me just walking in the door – this isn’t right, or that’s not right. Alex has forgotten more about the game than I’ll ever know. So you have to trust someone when they say this is what they want to do. It will be the same with Jack. You’ll look to build up a relationship but you can’t stick your nose in. You can’t tell a manager what to do.

“So I think he’s going to have to be very clever in terms of moving people in and out. If you’ve got five strikers in there then it’s not rocket science. They are good guys and all professional but you’ve just got too many people for the one position. So I’ve no doubt Jack will want to move a couple of them out and bring a few of his own guys in.”

St Mirren began the season expected to push for a promotion play-off place and Ross didn’t rule it out despite the team failing to win any of their opening eight league games.

The former Saints defender said: “First and foremost it’s about trying to win matches. Confidence levels won’t be at their highest - on the pitch or in the stands - which goes with the territory of not winning games.

“Once you start to do that then everything can alter. I do set targets for the players but we’ll do it within the dressing room. I believe they can climb the league quickly and get themselves into a competitive position.

“The new structure means there are various ways to achieve promotion, it doesn’t just mean winning the title, and the fact we’re so early in the season is an advantage. There’s a huge amount of football still to be played. The points difference between the play-off positions and where St Mirren find themselves just now isn’t huge but equally we need to start winning games sooner rather than later.”

Ross won’t start officially in the job until next week, meaning he will be in charge of Alloa for their Irn-Bru Cup tie against Welsh side Bala Town on Saturday rather than working at St Mirren’s match against Hibs at Easter Road.

He explained: “I know it is slightly unusual in football terms but in other walks of life it isn’t so I am entirely comfortable with it. I will fulfil my obligations to Alloa this week and will start properly on Monday.”