Dirty Sanchez

I see the new ref was also the 4th official for the real ref at all his recent Euro games including AC Milan v Spurs. A bit like Ant and Dec, these two.

Many years ago I had some roaster attempting to recruit me into what was effectively a pyramid scheme disguised as a business opportunity. I don't know this guy Richard from Adam, but I had a long look at his website, and the content and tone of it is the absolute epitome of what I have described above.

Made a change for Main to get a foul for f**k all rather than having them given against him for f**k all.

Yes, the Logan burial is at the monument in the background. Here's the mansion and monument superimposed on the current view.

There's a nondescript patch of grass behind the away end at St Mirren Park that wasn't touched when the stadium was built. This was because it contains human remains, namely those of the former landowner James Logan, who lived in a long demolished mansion on the site, that predates any other building in the area by donkey's years. The nondescript patch of grass was once a memorial garden to Logan, who died in the 1840s, featuring a fenced off monument incorporating his lead coffin. The mansion and gardens originally backed on to woodland, and it was only in the 1930s, when the council bought the land, that the housing estate was built up around the gardens. It was in Logan's will that the gardens should be maintained and accessible. I have a relative who claims to have been an eyewitness to some coffin material being brought up while local street urchins were...erm...'playing' on the monument in the 1960s, which caused a bit of consternation at the time. I've had that story corroborated elsewhere, and it was stuff like that which lead to the demise of the gardens and monument. There's only a slab still remaining where the monument used to be, but Logan's body was never removed. The two entrances to the car park are the entrances to the two streets that were formerly there, the bottom one being Logan Drive, named after our man. The footprint of Logan Drive runs right down the centre of the pitch, from end to end.

I went twice, two years apart during Giuliani's reign, and the difference, even then, was striking. Even around the Times Square area there were all manner of sketchy characters hanging around after dark, who were properly threatening. The area was also rife with adult cinemas, sex shops, etc. The number of adult themed businesses that had disappeared and been replaced by legitimate stores during that two year span was unreal. I've been back in the past couple of years and it's like Disneyland now compared to the 1990s, and by all accounts it was worse if you go further back than that.

Shades of STV's Bryce Curdy famously shoving a lightbulb up his arse.

Crocker actually acknowledged that, then added that even it it had stayed 11v11 they would have come back and won anyway. Why bother with the superlatives then? Or putting it on the telly?

Did Crocker just reach the vinegar strokes as he said "five" during his sign off there? Strange vocal inflection, if not. My money is on the commentary box floor needing mopped.

Boyd and Walker's analysis of the two penalty calls.

The watching the game from the pub talk reminds of driving down Gallowgate during the 2005 Scottish Cup Final, to the sight of throngs of people decked out in Celtic colours milling around the streets, not even watching the game on TV.

What's with the empty seats? That's extraordinary when there's one goal in it.

I'm incognito in the home end here and the fans around me were snorting in disbelief when the ref gave a foul for the challenge on Flynn, never mind what came after.

In the semi-final, with 20 minutes left of the 2nd leg at Ibrox, Rangers trailed 3-2 on aggregate to St Mirren, with Saints already having had a goal disallowed and not been given a penalty when Lex Richardson was pushed over after he'd rounded the keeper and was about to shoot into the empty net to make it 4-2. I've never seen a linesman so apparently thrilled to have disallowed a goal, strutting around like a peacock swinging his flag theatrically like a fanny. The 1980-85 Rangers team were a honking mid table outfit, who never came anywhere near to winning the league. A bit weird, then, that such a team would reach eight cup finals during the same period. How did they ever do it? Clip 1 -Disallowed goal, featuring swaggering linesman: Clip 2 - Penalty incident that may well have been given at the other end.

Gudmundur Torfason was sent off for sticking his fingers up at Ayr United fans. He got booked for something else, then got a second yellow for sticking his fingers up at the fans in response to their reaction to his first booking, seconds after he had got it, with the referee still in attendance.

Repeat of 1980, please. Knocked out in the last 16 by Celtic. Celtic win the cup, opening up another UEFA spot for the league, which we take.

Be quicker naming the teams that we beat rather than the ones we lost to. Next time we had a meaningful run in the cup was 2005. Won about three games or something between 1988 and 2003ish, losing to Clydebak x2, Clyde x2, etc along the way. First League Cup game after the Scottish Cup win had fans of Second Division St Johnstone invading the pitch at Love Street after knocking us out. Those two games with Partick Thistle were great old school cup ties, with good crowds in at both ends for the two games and the replay under the lights adding to the cup tie feel. In the first game I remember Thistle (I think Charnley) having a goal disallowed and the ref not wanting to spoil the fairytale when Paul Chalmers was taken out in the penalty box just as he was about to pull the trigger in stoppage time.

Yes, but sounded like, whatever it was, it was nothing to do with his goalkeeping.

I heard the question of Thomson's lack of involvement with the national team being put to Andy Roxburgh, in person. Roxburgh gave a kind of cryptic answer, saying that there were, quote "reasons for his non inclusion" and reminding us that Jock Stein had originally "jettisoned him", in Roxburgh's words.

The 1982 semi final was supposed to be held at Muirton Park but both clubs kicked up enough of a stink to get it moved to Parkhead on the grounds that Muirton was too small. Then the game attracted a crowd that Muirton could have accommodated. The consternation about Muirton was well covered in match programmes of the time.

In the Marching In video from the early 1990s, one of the directors of the time used the phrase "schooled in adversity" to describe the experience of following St Mirren. That's always stuck with me as a nice way to explain your state of mind.

Funnily enough, Scotland were playing France the same day we played at City Park and Spartans were pitching their hospitality as a double header with watching the egg chasing on TV, which obviously received the appropriate derision.

There was a meeting with the cops and other interested parties and they were only allowed to stage the game there on condition that the away ticket allocation was increased by 150% and the height of the perimeter fence was raised so that you couldn't just easily step over it like Gilmour did. The wooden bit on the right is the start of the extra fencing that was put up. The metal fence is the boundary of the adjacent disused railway/footpath, and whole host of people watched the game from there too.

A couple more of City Park, minus the Main Stand, that I took at Spartans v St Mirren on 5th Feb 2006. The free view from the street outside and the grassy slope of the away section, taken while I was still incognito, having got in with a home end ticket.

City Park. It's always sad when a ground is overlooked by houses with great free view, but no one bothers to watch.