It Must Be Love Street

Possible New St Mirren Signing: Erion Hoxhallari  St Mirren have been no strangers to venturing into the European transfer market in recent years, experiencing successes (Hladky, Durmus, Popescu, Muzek), failures (Djorkaeff, Chabbi, Corbu), unknown quantities (will Peter Urminsky ever play a game for us?) and really unknown quantities (Duckens Nazon - a delightfully peculiar and enigmatic international footballer who was, rather endearingly, a bit crap). However, with the pandemic, Brexit, and Jim Goodwin's fondness for signing players from the League of Ireland, it looked unlikely St Mirren would be dipping their toes into continental Europe for new recruits anytime soon. That was until Richard Wilson posted this tweet  suggesting Albanian international defender Erion Hoxhallari would be joining the club: Like the rest of you, I had never heard of Erion Hoxhallari before this weekend; unlike the rest of you, I am sad enough to devote hours of time researching him and pon...

  Looking At St Mirren's Narrow Failure To Reach The Top 6 After 33 games, played over 8 months in unprecedented circumstances, St Mirren fell short of the stated aim for this season - top 6 status - by 3 goals. Level on points with League Cup winners St Johnstone is no mean feat considering how impressive Callum Davidson has been in his rookie year as a manager; yet there's undoubtedly a lingering sense that the Buddies have let a very promising opportunity slip between their fingers. The league table, which is essentially a large spreadsheet, shows how tantalisingly close the two sides were but let's dig a little deeper behind the numbers. Goalscoring Goals For: St Johnstone 34 (6th best in division)  St Mirren 30 (10th best in division) If you've spent much time this season on social media, or discussing the team in person with other fans, you'll probably have noticed St Mirren supporters have a tendency to bemoan their lack of goalscoring prowess. Yet again, th...

 Unsung & Underrated - In Praise Of Marcus Fraser Somewhat quietly, sandwiched between clashes with the Old Firm, St Mirren managed to go on a 5 game unbeaten run. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't scintillating, and at times it was actually very fortuitous. The penalty we were awarded against Ross County, for instance, granted us our only victory in that sequence - and that should not have been given. We have looked tired, uninspired, and our performances have lacked somewhat in skill, pace, and guile. This was to be expected considering injuries and our punishing schedule. Eight games in the shortest month was taxing enough; all of our opponents were fired up too. There were no dead rubbers with Aberdeen and Livingston both gunning for Europe. Similarly, Motherwell, Hamilton, and Ross County are desperate to avoid the relegation zone. Playing some of these games - Aberdeen and Livingston especially - in appalling weather conditions meant our style of play was less important com...

 Thoughts On The Week On Monday evening, I was in attendance at the SMiSA meet the manager event held on Zoom. Jim Goodwin and Tony Fitzpatrick were on top form and did a fantastic job of answering the questions put to them (no need to take my word for it, the SMiSA social media accounts have uploaded the footage). What elevated the night from entertaining to fascinating, in my mind anyway, was at the end when Jim decided to show the Powerpoint he had prepared for his interview to become Buddies boss back in the summer of 2019. There were numerous themes which kept cropping up when the vision for the club and, by extension, Jim's foundational principles of football management were discussed. A key one, to get an early talking point for this blog going, was the emphasis on running . Players who didn't have the required enthusiasm, work ethic, athleticism, and pace, to suit this new St Mirren side would simply not be signed in the first place. Less than 20 months isn't enough...

 How Much Will St Mirren Miss Jamie McGrath? The Liverpool legend Bill Shankly once said to an injured Tommy Smith, one of his most important players, "What do you mean your knee? It's Liverpool Football Club's knee." The story might be apocryphal, however, watching Jamie McGrath be substituted after a quarter of an hour against Celtic midweek with a dislocated shoulder, Jim Goodwin could have been forgiven for thinking "That's not just your  shoulder, that's St Mirren's shoulder." If the St Mirren player of the year awards were being dished out today, my podium for player of the season would consist of Jak Alnwick, Jake Doyle-Hayes, and Jamie McGrath. Any of them would be valid recipients of top spot, in my opinion, but when assessing the trio - and the squad overall - it's hard to reach any other assessment than Jamie McGrath being our most important player. After all, Dean Lyness deputised ably for Jak Alnwick against Hibs and Kilmarnock r...

A Love Letter To Team Goals I don't know if Jak Alnwick plays golf but, at a shade after quarter past 3, he got out the pitching wedge at Parkhead. Stationed 40 yards away on the right touchline was Marcus Fraser, who was deliberately avoiding the cover of Odsonne Edouard. The chip wasn't quite perfect which, in its own way, was absolutely perfect for St Mirren. Fraser ups his pace from a casual walk to a near sprint, acutely aware that Callum McGregor is being dragged further up the pitch, as if being gradually sucked into the ball's orbit. He decides that the floor is lava, volleying a pass inside. Surely, one of St Mirren's four central midfielders will be available? Cammy MacPherson is freed from the shackles of McGregor; yet he needs to show even more urgency than Fraser did. Ismaila Soro is rapidly descending. There's no time to think. Act only on instinct. The ball goes where it should - forward. Green and white jerseys are not structured at all; there's...

  The Rollercoaster Despair and delight are familiar bedfellows when you're a St Mirren supporter. Not only will you experience both, they are frequently in close companionship, capable of arriving almost simultaneously. To go from being absolutely disconsolate on Sunday, following our defeat to Livingston in the League Cup, to complete jubilation by Wednesday evening, after going to Tannadice and winning 5-1, sums up what it means to be a football fan. It's a rollercoaster but in times like these, football provides the sustenance to keep many people, including myself, going. Ultimately, the emotional resonance the club and the sport hold is why we love the game. It Was On The Cards... I'm certainly not a talented gambler, far from it, but our defeat on Sunday really seemed inevitable. A palpable sense of foreboding engulfed me all weekend; I stuck a blasphemous tenner on Livingston to advance to the final against St Johnstone. Our prior defeat to the Perthshire side sugges...