Ground 4: St Mirren Park

St Mirren Park: it was sunnier than this for most of the game. Honest.

Game: St Mirren 1 vs. 2 Hibernian

Date: 18^th August 2012

Competition: Scottish Premier League

Attendance: 5,039

Admission: £20

Programme: £2.50

This post won’t be as long as I would like as unfortunately I’m struggling for time with a combination of work and heading off on holiday this weekend which will mean this is the final post for a few weeks.

As I left Stair Park I wasn’t sure what game I’d go to but my friend Mark suggested a trip to Paisley for the Hibs game and it sounded good to me – the prospect of seeing my team in the flesh for the first time this season added to the fact that this was a top vs. bottom clash (albeit after two games) made it an enticing match.

We headed through on the train to a warm and muggy Paisley to be greeted by tens of fire engines in the town square. Slightly surreal but certainly a bit different. We had a quick pint whilst watching the end of the Ross County-Celtic clash which saw Saints’ fans taunt the sole Celtic supporter with a “we’re top of the league and you’re no” chant which was very amusing.

A quick ten minute walk north west towards the ground and we’d arrived at St Mirren Park, St Mirren’s stadium that opened in 2009 following the sale of former ground Love Street to Tesco. On my previous and only visit in  2009 I felt the ground lacked a certain amount of identity, that it could have been anyone’s ground. Not much has changed although on this Saturday afternoon with a big crowd it certainly felt like a better ground than my previous visit.

I’ve embedded a video clip of the highlights from the game to save me from my awful prose on the game, but I’d like to mention a few key points from the game. Firstly, Dougie Imrie, playing on the left wing for the Saints was dangerous throughout the ninety minutes. A shrewd acquisition from Danny Lennon, who has moulded the team in his own image: talented and comfortable on the ball but tough and mean off it. As a Hibs fan, this was the first performance in several years that I’ve taken any comfort from – we finally look like a side going places and although far from being a complete side there is the green shoots of recovery which is very pleasing. Hibs were lucky to come away with the three points and had the game lasted ten more minutes I’m sure it would have been a draw.

Apologies again for the lack of content in this week’s post but hopefully normal service will be resumed in a few weeks when I’m back from my summer holidays.