Paisley Saints

St Mirren  1  Motherwell  2

Scottish Premier League

To be brutally honest, when the Scotland gig presented itself to me, the month of February was not one whereby I expected to find much in the way of football options on a Wednesday night.

January for example, was completely barren, not a sniff of a game, but when the dates came through for the following month, it just so happened to coincide with a night when there was a full Scottish Premier League fixture programme.

Oh what days of joy, take your pick, and in my case it was Hamilton Academical, complete with plastic pitch in the event of weather issues, or St Mirren. But, with the weather forecast set fair for a pleasant evening, I opted to go for the grass option which was only a wee journey (bit of Scottish dialect for you!) from my base at Glasgow Central.

Close Your Eyes Now If You Don't Want To Know The Score

With a mid-morning departure on a direct train from Derby, Glasgow was reached just after 4pm, complete with two colleagues who had already made plans to watch the Aberdeen v Rangers game in a local bar. Checked into an adjacent hotel / knocking shop, it was time to head to the town of Paisley, which was less than quarter of an hour away.

I’d done my homework, the main station in Paisley is Gilmour Street, where a mighty fine Wetherspoon’s sits right outside the entrance, and that was to be first port of call. With the app downloaded, I never needed to get off my arse during the entire time in the establishment , three pints and a mixed grill later I had to think about making my way to the ground.

Away End

I could have walked, but it seemed a damn sight easier to pay £1.50 and jump back on the train to St James station which sits right next to the stadium. This got me to St Mirren Park for 7pm and very quickly a ticket had been procured for the princely sum on £22 in the main stand. Being mindful of the fact that you can’t get any alcohol inside Scottish Premier League grounds, I did try and blag my way into a member’s only section but my pleas fell on deaf ears.

St Mirren Park is like an all-seater version of Burton Albion’s Pirelli Stadium. The ground is less than ten years old, and consists of two identical seated stands at either end, and two not dis-similar stands on each stand. It holds close on 8,000, and rarely gets tested to capacity, except of course when the Old Firm are in town.

The Other Side

Prior to moving to St Mirren Park, they played at the wonderful arena that was Love Street, just a short walk North of the town centre, it saw some great times as St Mirren established themselves as an SPL club and had several adventures into European competitions.

In the last few seasons they’ve been plying their trade in the Scottish Championship, but last season saw them win the Championship, and with it promotion back to the SPL.

To be brutally honest, sat bottom of the table this season, in all likelihood they will get relegated. The SPL is something of a lottery outside of the two Glasgow giants, the Edinburgh pair and Aberdeen. 

With crowds averaging around the 5,000 mark, they would fall into the ‘small fish’ category, tonight just over 4,000 turned up with nearly a quarter of those having travelled the short distance across Glasgow.

Home End

I’m a bit of a loner, so if I can find a seat, or ideally a block of seats with no one close to me, then I’ll choose to make it my perch for the course of the event. I managed that tonight, a seat right at the end of the main stand, on the back row gave me ample room to sit, stand, stretch out, talk to myself, twitch uncontrollably and if I chose, discretely undertake vital bodily functions!

As for the game, well the first thing that caught my eye was the Motherwell centre forward Curtis Main, a man who I’d had contact with from a business perspective not that long ago when he was at Doncaster Rovers, and a thoroughly nice chap with it. I’d never seen him play before so that was going to be interesting.

Indeed it was Motherwell who took the lead as early as the tenth minute when Jake Hastie produced a stinging shot that found the top corner of the net.

Main Stand

St Mirren toiled without any end product but they did equalise thanks to a header from Paul McGinn in the 74^th minute. The goal caused delirium amongst a group of vocal and animated supporters sat on the far side nearest to the away fans. I counted two ejections, but it could have been more to be honest!

It didn’t last, three minutes later and Allan Campbell got his head to an Elliott Frear cross and found the back of the net. No Motherwell fans were ejected at this point, but had the Police / Stewards barricade not been in place, the pitch would have been in danger.

Motherwell hung on for a deserved victory, St Mirren simply don’t have the firepower to get them out of the mire, and at the final whistle Oran Kearney, the former Manager of Coleraine, saw his side greeted with a short burst of boos and jeers.

Coming Out

After the game it was a short walk back to St James before catching the train back to Glasgow Central. It all got a bit lively as the train pulled in to Glasgow, we’d only been off the train a matter of seconds before a fight broke out on the platform. This wasn’t the smartest thing to do as the British Transport Police were effectively lining the platform, what with Celtic being at home the same evening, and the perpetrators, one of whom was clearly a Motherwell fan, the other I’m not sure, got wrestled to the ground while trying to plead innocence.

Excitement over, I decided to meet up with the colleagues who’d been watching the Aberdeen v Rangers game in a nearby bar, they were well on the way, so tales of St Mirren v Motherwell were not really that high on the conversation agenda. The Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow was our final calling point, before retiring back to the hotel for some well earned rest.

What will March bring I wonder, more of something similar will do me just fine!  

Calm Before The Storm