THE chilling sound of silence would have felt positively balmy for St Mirren on Saturday given the frosty reception emanating from their support.

The Paisley punters turned the Lanarkshire air blue with a clutch of chants directed at both their team and also their manager during the latest blow to scud them this season.

As Hamilton Accies rattled in their final goal in the 3-0 defeat, a chorus of boos and calls for Tommy Craig's head echoed out from New Douglas Park's Spice of Life stand. The irony.

There is no denying the perilous state that St Mirren currently find themselves in, even at this relatively early stage of the season.

Losing 10 of a possible 14 SPFL Premiership games and being the only team in Britain not to have recorded a clean sheet yet this season are the standout bullet points.

Marc McAusland was part of that leaky defence on Saturday, and he told SportTimes: "You can hear the fans booing when you are on the park. All you can do is just try and get on with it and not lose another goal.

"They are angry, and rightly so. We are disappointed in ourselves at being 3-0 down.

"If I was a fan I'd be really down, but you need to just look to the next game.

"I thought the first half was an even game and we were unfortunate to go in 1-0 down.

"In the second half we were three-down pretty quickly. We did create chances but the game was pretty much dead by then.

"The three goals we lost were poor from a defensive point of view and we need to work on that.

"We just need to try and keep a good team spirit."

Something that is easier said than done given the current run St Mirren are on.

Despite not winning a game since October 4 (a 2-1 away victory at St Johnstone) McAusland has stressed that the belief is still within the club to somehow address their worrying slide.

And while some may focus on the 14 games which have only offered up eight points from a possible 42, the 26-year-old prefers to look at the 19 still to play.

He said: "If we don't lose goals we don't lose games. We've not been doing that, we've not had a clean sheet this season, and that reflects very badly on the goalkeeper and defenders.

"We've had 14 games in the league, there's a long way to go and we know we can turn it around.

"It's down to the players to do that. The gaffer does get criticised from the fans, but it's down to us at the end of the day.

"We know the gaffer gets it in the neck but it is the players that ultimately win the game and make a difference."

The Paisley team will deserve all the plaudits in the land if they can start their resurgence this weekend.

Craig's side host Inverness Caley Thistle - who beat the Buddies last month - in the Scottish Cup.

Their task is made all the more tougher given the likes of John McGinn, Steven Thompson and Ellis Plummer will still be missing for the tie.

But McAusland is keen for those in the St Mirren squad to take advantage of that and show everyone, especially their manager, that they are good enough.

"The cup gives everyone in the squad an incentive to try and win a place in the team," he said.

"There are no definite starters and hopefully with people coming back in the next week-and-a-half we will have more options."