Saints chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick last night insisted Hearts “deserved” the drop after a dreadful season saw the Jambos muster just four wins in 30 games.
There has been plenty of sympathy across Scottish football for the Edinburgh side after they were consigned to a Championship future on Monday, with all top-flight clubs agreeing that the season was unable to be played to a finish during the coronavirus pandemic.
But St Mirren ’s straight-talking club boss wasn’t prepared to dig out the violin for the Paisley club’s relegation rivals, instead insisting that the league table tells its own story.
He told Express Sport: “I have to stress this is my opinion and not the opinion of the club, but Hearts do deserve to go down.
“They’ve played 30 games and only managed four or five wins, so as far as I’m concerned they are bottom of the table for a reason.
“They had money available and made some big signings in the January transfer window but results still weren’t going their way and, to be honest, I couldn’t see that changing for them.
“I believe Celtic would not have been caught and deserved to be awarded the title and Hearts would have struggled to get off the bottom and deserved to be relegated.”
Fitzpatrick is now looking forward to putting the whole season-ending saga behind him and focus on St Mirren’s future, starting with a cash injection from the multi-million pound prize pot now available with the league over.
He added: “We should find out in the next week, maybe by Friday, what sort of figure we will get for our ninth place finish, although it might not be as straightforward as usual because there’s still a few things that will need to be worked out with how the season ended.
“From there, and with the amazing backing we’ve had from the fans, we can try to plan for the future with a bit more clarity.
“That said, this is still a very trying time for us all and who knows when football will return and what it will look like?
“But at least now, with the league declared, that’s one more question mark out of the way.”
