Love Street Saturday, July 28th, 2007   Scotland         St Mirren 1-0 Greenock Morton
2007 /08

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St. Mirren 1-0 Morton By Saints Official Website July 29 2007 St. Mirren have won the last ever Renfrewshire Cup to be played at Love Street. Marc Corcoran scored the only goal in a very competetitive match. Due to me being in Malta, I missed the match so this match report has come from the official St. Mirren website. by Colin Orr ST MIRREN made sure the last Renfrewshire Cup Final to be played at Love Street saw the old trophy end up in black and white hands with a 1-0 win over rivals Morton. This fixture is typically a pre-season friendly that is anything but – but today it seemed to lack a bit of its usual edge. A flat first-half promised to make it all the way to half-time without any incident before Morton’s Chris Millar hitting the post seemed to spur St Mirren into shifting up a gear. Mark Corcoran rattled in what proved to be the winner shortly before the break and although Saints had chances to add to their lead in the second half, one-nil was how it finished. The result means Saints have come through five pre-season fixtures without losing a goal, which bodes well for the big kick-off against Motherwell a week today. St Mirren lined up with two of their four new signings in the starting eleven, Will Haining and Gary Mason taking up central positions in the 4-4-2 formation. Haining looked solid in defence, although he was outstripped for pace on one occasion in the second half. Mason turned in an impressive performance in midfield and was possibly the best player on the pitch. Of the other signings, Mark Howard was an unused sub and Craig Dargo missed out due to a knock. Israeli trialist Roy Dayan – who Gus MacPherson confirmed post-match will be offered a contract this week – started up front and, although he didn’t always see a lot of the ball, was twice unlucky not to score with good efforts from the edge of the box. There was no place for the un-named Argentinian trialist, also expected to sign on the dotted line in the next couple of days. He was sitting in the main stand – along with a certain glamour model whose husband was playing in central defence. And it was the former Maccabi Tel Aviv player Dayan who came closest to opening the scoring in the early stages when his low placed first-time shot from the edge of the box went just wide with on-loan Rangers keeper Lee Robinson left rooted to the spot. But that was the one time that either goal was threatened in a flat first half-hour with the match quickly lapsing into flat, typically pre-season fayre, lacking the bite normally associated with this fixture. It took until the 30-minute mark for Morton to pose a threat – and when they did, the Saints goal was lucky to survive. First, the Ton’s impressive Slovenian trialist Jani Sturm was sent through on goal and his lob beat Chris Smith but landed just behind the goals – although the rippling of the net sparked a brief, but sharply-curtailed, burst of celebration in the away end. Then, just seconds later, an uncharacteristically-slack pass from Alan Reid gifted possession to Chris Millar, allowing the winger to run unchallenged into the box before chipping Smith – but his effort bounced off the base of the far post and was knocked behind for a corner. This double scare seemed to jolt St Mirren into life, and a brief flurry of activity at the other end saw a string of corners and two good shooting opportunities squandered by Billy Mehmet and Garry Brady respectively. But for the first time in the game, you got the impression the opening goal might not be long in coming and, five minutes from the break, it arrived. With his back to goal, Mehmet brought the ball down and set up the incoming Brady to crash a powerful shot off the underside of the bar. Cue a brief flurry of penalty-box pinball which ended when Ton centre-half Ryan Harding’s weak clearance landed at the feet of Corcoran and the winger gave Robinson no chance with a low angled drive across goal into the far corner from eight yards out. The second period saw Saints emerge with an unchanged line-up and they started the half looking capable of adding to their lead. Hugh Murray was unlucky not to score on 55 minutes when he released a piledriver from 30 yards that beat the keeper but thudded off the bar. Two minutes later it was trialist Dayan’s turn to come close with an outside-of-the-foot effort from distance that forced a spectacular stop from Robinson and it looked at this point like Saints would go on to win by more than one. But the Buddies seemed to slip back into pre-season mode after this and allowed the visitors to come back into the game. Morton enjoyed the lion’s share of attacking possession for the rest of the match as they huffed and puffed in search of an equaliser but the closest they came was a powerful effort from Sturm tipped over by Smith. Alex Walker did manage to get the ball in the net on 79 minutes after Smith spilled a cross but the whistle had already gone for a foul on the keeper. And St Mirren comfortably held on to allow skipper Hugh Murray to lift the old trophy. Pre-season is now over. Played five, won four, drew one, scored eleven, conceded none. All good so far. Now let the serious stuff begin.