THE reaction of the St Mirren fans packed into two sides of Fir Park at full-time on Saturday afternoon told its own story. They, like the dejected players stood in front of them, were naturally despondent having just watched their team lose a close Irn-Bru Cup final to Dundee United. Everybody involved with the club – from the supporters, to the players, the management team and the directors – all wanted St Mirren to lift silverware this season and this trophy was always going to be the most realistic way of achieving that. Instead goals from Tony Andreu and Thomas Mikkelsen, either side of a Rory Loy strike, saw the trophy head to Tannadice.

But there were no boos come full-time. No shouts of anguish or frustration, or other visible signs of anger. Instead the St Mirren support stood as one to applaud the team as they made their way towards them in almost apologetic fashion before shuffling to the other end of the pitch to collect their runners-up medals.

The sustained applause was both an acknowledgement of the effort put in by the players in the final, but also a sign that this was simply a blip in a much longer and more significant journey. It was also further evidence that the bond between dressing room and terraces is stronger than at any time over the past four years. Losing one game – albeit a cup final – was never going to destroy that connection.

Jack Ross and his players will perhaps come to look back with regret on the chances they created but passed up in an entertaining first half. Loy struck the post after being played in by Lewis Morgan, the winger dragged a shot wide after a nice touch from John Sutton, Kyle Magennis was snuffed out by goalkeeper Cammy Bell after latching on to Adam Eckersley’s cross, before Gary MacKenzie headed wide from a Stevie Mallan corner. All would come back to haunt Saints when Mikkelsen headed in what would prove the winner 15 minutes from the end. This time they had no response.

Nobody could question their effort, even if the usual big performers like Mallan and Stephen McGinn were quieter than Ross would probably have liked. Having Cammy Smith cup-tied also left the manager with limited options to call upon from the bench. St Mirren, come the end, simply had nothing more to give.

There are bigger more significant battles ahead, however, and the hope must be that they can quickly shake off any lingering disappointment. From a previous position of looking dead and buried at the bottom of the Championship just a few months ago, their form since the end of January has been, barring the odd blip here and there, nothing but impressive. Next weekend they welcome Ayr United to the Paisley 2021 Stadium for what already looks a hugely significant match-up, while Dumbarton are their visitors a week later. Saints are in danger of running out of matches but certainly at this point not out of hope, as Ross confirmed.

The Saints boss said: “The supporters in Paisley quickly tell you what they think of our performances, and their reaction at the end of the game was reflective of how they felt their team performed.

“We’d be happy to take that level of performance into our remaining games. There is a group of players who believe in what we’re doing, and believe in each other, so if we can maintain that level in our remaining games, we’ll win enough of them.

“We are making steps in the right direction. Winning would have been a big step but producing that level of performance was a small step forward and we still have a long way to go.”

Ross was magnanimous about United as they celebrated their trophy success but could find no fault with his own players’ performance bar those missed chances.

He added: “I’d like to congratulate Dundee United, first and foremost. In terms of the game, I thought we were the team on the front foot for large parts of it and I thought we created the clearer opportunities. I have absolutely no complaints about my team’s performance. I thought they produced a performance worthy of a cup final but they never got their rewards on the day. I couldn’t have asked any more of them.

“We showed a good reaction to losing the first goal. We felt a little bit hard done by to be a goal down but a player of Tony Andreu’s quality is capable of producing moments of magic like that. Our response was indicative of where we have been as a group over the past couple of months. The character they’ve shown, and the performance levels, have been superb.”