It was just over a year ago on Boxing Day 1998 that Tom Hendrie took charge of St.Mirren for the first time. That game, against Hamilton, was to prove an indication of how the next year was to was to be for Saints and their new manager - eventful. The game started with the then assistant manager, Sergei Baltacha, taking charge before Hendrie took over at half-time and was cautioned for complaining profusely to the match official. To cap it all off Baltacha then resigned from his post immediately after the final whistle to be replaced by John Coughlin who had followed Hendrie from Alloa. All this in a game which ended 0-0! A disappointing result it may have been but what was clear from that day was the way in which the players had responded positively to their new boss, showing a new found determination and resilience which they had been so clearly lacking under Tony Fitzpatrick. Over the remainder of the season we were given a slight taster of what wa ahead as Hendrie introduced his attacking style of play based around his adventurous 3-4-3 formation. Despite the fact that it was not only good to watch but that it also produced results it was obvious that additions would have to be made to the squad in order to achieve promotion. Come the summer though a total of eight players found themselves either released, sold on or out of contract and on the way out with only Scott Walker and Ian Ross moving in. Despite the desperation of the fans wishing for new faces, a good pre-season, including TWO wins over the blue bigots, soon had the optimism back on overdrive. The opening day saw a dismal 1-1 draw with Ayr followed in midweek by an even more dismal last minute defeat in the League Challenge Cup at the hands of Inverness Caley Thistle. On the 9th August 1999, the day before that defeat, though came the masterstroke which was to kick-start the season and send the Bud’s soaring to the top of the League for all but one of the next twenty weeks. Yes, that day saw the return of Barry Lavety to Love Street, albeit initially only on loan (the deal was made permanent two and a half months later). On the following Saturday Lavety made a scoring return to the starting line-up in the stunning 6-0 rout away to Raith Rovers. Over the next five games he bagged a further four goals as Saints dropped only two points from a possible 15. In the last game of that run Lavety was dismissed against M*rt*n and as a result missed the following weeks trip to Brockville where he was sorely missed as Falkirk ran out 3-1 winners to inflict our first league defeat of the season. A draw at Livingston, with Tom Brown missing a last minute penalty, led to the predictable cries from the media and opposing supporters of how the St.Mirren bubble had burst. How wrong could these people have been? Raith, Dunfermline, M*rt*n, Airdrie, Clydebank, Livingston, Falkirk, 21 goals, 8 wins in a row and a comfortable gap at the top of the table. As if that wasn’t good enough we finally managed to rid Scottish Football of Dick Campbell! Nowadays it’s Jimmy Calderwood in charge of Dunfermline and the gap’s down to three points following a draw at Inverness and a defeat at home to Ayr - the first time Saints had been defeated at home in over 8 months. No matter what the lead may be at this stage the 43 points which were amassed by Saints at the half way stage of the season was a new record for the first division and one which is likely to stand for a long time to come. There’s still a long way to go this season of course and things could go terribly wrong from here - hey, it’s still arithmetically possible for us to get relegated - with the key time likely to come in March where there’s the possibility of two clashes with Dunfermline in the same week. With 17 games to go there’s still a whole lot to happen in the race for the title between now and May. One thing’s for sure though,  the past five months have been as good a time as I can remember to be a buddie and it’s been a great pleasure to keep so many buddies all over the world updated as a result of Sizzling Saints - here’s hoping the next five live up to all our expectations.