On Saturday 19th May, following what was a
lacklustre end to the season with a final 1-0 loss at home to Inverness Caley
Thistle, and during an equally lacklustre FA Cup Final, Saints
fans packed out Suburbia in Shuttle St,
Paisley for SMiSA’s Player of the Year event.
The event was well attended by the players themselves as
well, including Kirk Broadfoot, Hugh Murray, David Van Zanten, Ian Maxwell, Kevin
McGowne, John Sutton, Billy Mehment and many others, as well as both of Saints’
dynamic managerial duo; Gus MacPherson & Andy Millen.
Phil Clark, the resident Love St DJ, was on hand to spin the
discs and be the occasion’s MC and one by one, he introduced the players to
collect PotY awards presented by both Saints travel clubs and websites, as well
as of course SMiSA themselves.
The award winners were:
Anchor Bar Travel Club
Kirk Broadfoot Presented by Sandy
Woods
Chivas Travel Club Hugh Murray Presented by Keri Smith Jolly Buddies Supporters Club Hugh Murray Presented by
‘Clan’ Robinson Cockles Wilson
Supporters Club Kirk Broadfoot Presented by Allan 'El Nombre' Boyd & Wullie
'NSS' Robertson Buddies Online David Van Zanten Presented by Jamie
'Jazza' Cockburn
SMiSA
Hugh Murray Presented by Alistair Colquhoun
Tanya Barr (aka B&W Army.com’s Piratka) also made a special
presentation of Russian Vodka to Hugh Murray for his contribution to the club
both over the past 10 years and this season in particular.
Two further special awards from SMiSA were also made, one to
the Love St groundsman,
Tommy Docherty by trust chairman, David Grier, for his many hard years of
making sure the pitch is at its best. David said of the event altogether:
"The POTY was a fitting end of season celebration for everyone to appreciate
the efforts of the professionals and supporters at Love Street for the
fantastic efforts. SMiSA is privileged to organise the event and we just hope
the event did justice to our fantastic football club and everyone had a ball.
Suburbia rocked on May 19th and it was all for St Mirren."
Club captain, Kevin McGowne was also honoured
for his years of service to St Mirren which saw the former Saints captain start his career at Love St, and returning years later for this spell before leaving for a the
post of player-assistant manager at Montrose. McGowne was presented
with a Saints Shirt by Eric Balfour with the motif “Legendary Captain” on the
back which was also signed by many of those fans in attendance who wanted to
wish him well for the future.
Kevin went
onto make an emotional speech that can be watched here, courtesy of B&W
Army.com’s SMFCOK:
Gus MacPherson then took to the stage to the acclaim of
those Saints fans in attendance who sang “Who needs Mourinho, we’ve got
MacPhersio” in one of the other highlights of the afternoon. He paid tribute to both the
players and supporters, particularly those travelling fans who turned out at
the last 3 away games of the season, saying they were an inspiration to the
players and helped them on in successfully staving off relegation from the SPL.
Video again courtesy of SMFCOK:
As a surprise treat, Al Mitchell also put in an appearance
to perform his song 'The Buddies Came Roaring Back', which has quickly become a
hit with the Saints support following it being inspired by the amazing
turnaround at Fir Park
where Saints won 3-2 after being 2-0 down.
To listen to it, and see a selection of pictures of the event, please
click here.
You can also watch the live performance here, also courtesy of SMFCOK:
SMiSA Chairman David Grier says of that game, which will surely go down as one of the most memorable in the club's history:
"SMiSA is all about celebrating sharing the privilege of being St
Mirren supporters. This so often involves worry and disappointment (it
comes with the territory), but when we experience days such as Fir Park,
we will remember the utter jubilation of that amazing comeback,
John Sutton's winning goal, and the final whistle, everything is
worthwhile. We are one as we all relive those amazing scenes which will be
with us for the rest of our lives."
To close the event, a raffle was held with many prizes on
offer, the pick of which was undoubtedly a place in yesterday’s Saints Aid 6
event, filling the away #5 shirt which was unfortunately vacated by Brian Roy who suffered a serious calf injury last week, ruling him out of this year's event. The prize was won by SMiSA’s own Dave Tennant, much to the amusement of
those in attendance who cried ‘Fix’ in their disbelief.
SMiSA secretary Wullie Bell adds his thoughts on the event:
“We tried to bring the various supporters groups together
and the success of the event is down to the willingness of those involved to
work together and contribute. The impact on the players was there for all to
see and that is a magnified by the numbers attending. Some clubs prefer a low
key or more formal means of presentation and that's fine too but we see this as
a party and following last week’s events we had reason to celebrate. I was a
bit disappointed to miss Billy Mehmet doing his dance in Shuttle
Street but the reception for 'Gus MacPhersio' and
Gus's face when he realised what the fans were singing was priceless. We hope
to stage a similar event next season.”
One feels certain, that if the players achieve the same or better results next season, that a similar event in the May of 2008 will be just as good, if not even better.
In closing, SMiSA wish to thank Kath, and all those other at Suburbia who helped make the event possible, as well as of course all the fans who turned out for it in making it the success that it was. Also thanks must go to Piratka & SMFCOK for all their videos & pictures.
