Monsieur Salut writes: you cannot dance on the streets of Raith, or even St Mirren – it’s in Paisley – but I believe you can dance on the street, since there is (or was) a St Mirren Street. I don’t suppose many of our 500 fans at the 6-0 friendly win knew that, or much cared. But David Whitfield, whom I met at Facebook where he’s a friend of Pete Sixsmith’s, was there (not the street, but the game) and kindly agreed with my encouragement and Pete’s to write a short piece about his day. With thanks to him, and Themadmistake at YouTube for the clip …
Having never been to St Mirren’s ground, I decided that when the pre-season schedule was announced this would have to be on my list as one of the friendlies that I would attend.
With the Durham branch of SAFCSA deciding that they would not run a coach, I decided to book with A Love Supreme and made my way to Carville Garage on the A690 for a 9.15am pick up. Our journey to Paisley took about four hours with a half-hour break at Gretna Services.
On arriving at the ground and with ample time to spare I found a couple of nearby pubs for liquid refreshment.
The ground is not exactly located in salubrious surroundings, being situated close to industrial estates.
Nevertheless, I made my way back there – about a five to 10 minute walk from the pub – and, after purchasing my customary match day programme, made my way to the North Stand where the visiting fans would be housed. I took up my seat in readiness for kick off.
The opening exchanges did not really produce anything of note but after 22 minutes we took the lead, Josh Maja set up by Chris Maguire and sidefooting a cracking low finish in to the bottom corner.
Once we extended our lead just after the half hour with Gooch cooly converting from the spot, we never really looked in any danger and totally controlled the game from there on,
With further goals in the second half from Maja, Gooch and one apiece for Honeyman and Luke Molyneux we ran out comfortable winners with a convincing 6-0 scorline.
Whether it is to early to get carried away with this result remains to be seen, but I do feel that we are starting to function more as a unit. St Mirren were very poor and offered little but that aside this was still a very accomplished performance and all in all capped off a most enjoyable day.
