Gary Teale won’t hide as relegation beckons for St Mirren

Gary Teale hasn’t had much time for smiling.

St Mirren haven’t been officially relegated yet, but the last rites have been spoken over them.

Tomorrow night offers a chance of temporary redemption when Ross County come to town.

However, after watching his side dismantled 5-0 by Motherwell, their other main relegation rivals, last Tuesday night, Teale is not sure what to expect.

“Listen, I have learned already that the manager’s job can be a very lonely role,” he said.

“You can feel hopeless, just hopeless. You watch your team suffer a defeat like that one and you torment yourself about how you could have done this thing or that thing differently.

“There are so many things that go through your head.

“I have spent decades hearing people say that coaching and management is the next best thing to playing, and I have found that to be right on the money.

“When you are a footballer, all you have to do is go out and enjoy the sport. But as a manager you have responsibility for the whole team and, through that, for the health of the football club.

“As a player you are disappointed when you lose, but then you get over it. As a manager it kind of lingers for a long time.

“Maybe as you go further on in the role and start enjoying a bit of success, you can enjoy it more.

“There would be an obvious satisfaction in setting up a team a certain way and seeing it work out.

“In seeing players you have brought into the football club or promoted at the football club develop and progress their careers.

“But to go into a big game as a player and be confident that you are going to be able to use your ability to make an impact on that match that takes a bit of beating.

“I have got the passion and the ambition for this challenge. If I can do as manager what I did as a player, I will be more than fulfilled.

“I had decent highs in my playing career and incredible lows in my career as well and the lesson you learn is don’t get too high, don’t get too low.

“I am not going to hide behind anything I will stand up and take the criticism which is coming our way.

“That has to be the way because I am the manager and at the end of the day it is my responsibility to lead this group.

“I will do that for the remaining six games.

“That said, I don’t know if some experienced bosses could have dealt with what I have had on my plate in the last few months.

“But it is a decent learning curve.

You pick things up all the time.

“For example, Ian Baraclough was good enough to give me some advice after the Motherwell match.

“He told me that player recruitment is one of the most important parts of the job, and he was fortunate to bring some top-quality experience into the team in the shape of Scott McDonald and Stephen Pearson.

“I went for those type of players as well but in our case they ended up joining other clubs.”