St Mirren's Craig McLeish Aims for Top Six Finish
St Mirren manager Craig McLeish has set his stall out early: if the Buddies are going to punch their way into the top six, they’ll do it from the back.
The man who kept them in the Premiership via the play-offs last season is talking about Europe, extra attackers and entertaining football – but every sentence comes back to the same foundation. Defend, or be destroyed.
Survival not enough for McLeish
McLeish stepped in after Stephen Robinson’s successful spell in Paisley, inheriting a club that had grown used to looking up the table rather than over its shoulder. Robinson had delivered three straight top-half finishes and a League Cup triumph; the bar is no longer set at merely staying up.
So McLeish is refusing to lower it.
"If you just aim at surviving in this league and you fall short of that, you're in trouble," he said, underlining the danger of small ambitions in a ruthless division. "We have to aim as high as we possibly can and top six and European qualification is what we're going to strive to achieve."
There’s no cautious talk of consolidation. He wants his players thinking like a top-six side from the first whistle of the season.
Goals flowing, but defence remains king
St Mirren rattled in 12 goals in the Premier Sports Cup group stage, a tally that hints at a more expansive approach under McLeish. He has leaned into that, speaking of an extra attacker and new arrivals giving his side a sharper edge in the final third.
"The way we're playing with an extra attacker, with some of the bodies we've brought in, hopefully that's the bit that we can solve this season as well," he said.
But just as the attacking optimism rises, he drags the conversation back to the club’s identity.
"Because we also can't get away from what's made St Mirren successful over the years. We have to be hard to play against. We have to enjoy keeping clean sheets. We have to love defending and being aggressive in everything we do. It's keeping those core bits and then adding the attacking side to it as well."
That’s the balance he’s chasing: the grit that kept them in the league, wrapped around a front line capable of winning games rather than merely surviving them.
"We want it to be exciting. We want it to be good to watch, fun for the players to play in. I want it to be enjoyable for the supporters. We will be hard working, we'll be high energy and we have to be tough to beat first and foremost."
High energy, high ambition – but never open. Not on his watch.
Nsio arrives, Sulemana deal collapses
McLeish is still reshaping his squad for that push. The most recent addition is 20-year-old Rangers midfielder Paul Nsio, who has joined on loan and immediately been earmarked as a key physical presence.
"Paul brings us a kind of level of physicality and athleticism that we can't source," McLeish said. "He can cover a number of different positions."
Versatility, legs, and power in the middle of the park – exactly the sort of profile that fits a team built on intensity and aggression without the ball.
Not every target has landed. A move for Ghanaian midfielder Abdul Hakim Sulemana has fallen through, a reminder that building a squad to chase Europe is rarely straightforward at this level.
McLeish will keep looking. The message is clear enough: St Mirren will go hunting for the top six, but they’ll do it with their guard up and their jaws clenched. The question now is whether that defensive steel, sharpened by a bolder attack, can turn ambition into a European night in Paisley.
