Betfred Cup
Sunday 14th July 2019
A ‘Super’ Sunday of sport with England and New Zealand playing out undoubtedly the greatest Cricket World Cup Final EVER whilst Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic participated in an epic Wimbledon Men’s Singles Tennis Final on the lush green centre court of Wimbledon.
Also on TV was St Mirren versus Dunfermline Athletic in the Betfred Cup - though it’s safe to assume that apart from fans of either side, not too many neutrals would have been tuning in to BT Sport to watch it.
Despite the temptation to stay indoors and watch the classic finals, I’m part-way through a short break in Scotland, which was booked weeks ago, and St Mirren Park was always going to be my destination of choice today.
Coincidentally, my only previous visit to Paisley (at least to see a game) was back in 2011 when Dunfermline were again the visitors. In that campaign, the Buddies and the Pars played out a 4-4 draw as well as a more ‘run of the mill’ encounter which ended 2-1.
You can guess which game of the two I saw!
One thing I wasn’t prepared to do today, nevertheless, was pay to watch this game and following a glancing look at the St Mirren website earlier this week, I applied to be a programme seller for the day in order to get a free ticket, programme and a bit of pocket money to boot!
Every little helps, as the saying goes, and I’m sure the money saved will be invested wisely on further trips around Scotland over the coming days.
Thankfully, I was able to see the full game as well as hearing the belting pre-match tune of ‘The Saints Are Coming’ from the turnstiles just outside the stadium!
Of the competitive games I’ve seen over the past week this one was undoubtedly the best as the second-tier visitors produced a first half display which was one of the best examples of quick, incisive, purposeful and decent counter-attacking play I’ve seen in a long time.
I didn’t have the chance to see Gary MacKenzie in his days at my hometown club, Doncaster Rovers, but on this showing I can only imagine he wasn’t the best as him and his central defensive partner were wide apart too often and got cut to shreds several times over.
Dunfermline took the lead when Josh Coley played an intricate one-two in the middle, ran with the ball which panicked a back-peddling and disjointed St Mirren backline, then slipped in Josh Coley who showed no mercy as he finished brilliantly.
A one-goal lead became a two-goal advantage as the visitors soon struck again in a carbon copy attack, just involving different personnel, with Andrew Ryan scoring and Kevin Nisbet providing.
Some of St Mirren’s problems were of their own making, even though Dunfermline were red hot when driving forward.
The third goal involved yet more intricate midfield play and creative build-up and when Ryan’s shot ricocheted back off the post, whilst the Buddies defence just statically stood there ball-watching, Tom Beadling had the instinct and fore-thought to put himself in a position where he could tap home the rebound.
By half-time, the home fans can’t have been happy and it’s probably only the fact that it was manager Jim Goodwin’s first competitive game that meant the ‘loudmouths’ weren’t booing the team off and barracking the players.
A few weeks from now, once league points are at stake, jobs are on the line and there’s a tense relegation dogfight going on, the natives probably won’t be as understanding if they witness a similar type of defensive shambles.
In the second half, St Mirren did make a fist of it and a couple of goals in quick succession made the game interesting.
But Dunfermline, to their credit, managed the game pretty well in the closing stages - wasting precious seconds here and there by feigning injury and the odd substitution, etc.
It’s a group stage win that pushes them forward to now having a great chance of progressing to the knockout rounds, just like last season.
Meanwhile, having only scraped to survival by the finest of margins last term, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Paisley men might have bigger concerns than what happens in the Betfred Cup this season.
One theory which dawned on me during the game was just how much of a ‘halfway house’ this level would be for the crème de la crème of youngsters in England at EFL clubs who are in desperate need of game-time.
Even though some players/teams hide it well, there IS ability in the Scottish Premiership/Championship - as was demonstrated by Dunfermline’s fluid, sweeping, counter-attacking play in the first 45 minutes which caused no end of problems.
There is a physical presence too, which some youngsters would be unable to adapt to, but for those lads with an edge/roughness to their game - meaning they aren’t soft as shite and have some backbone - it could be a progressive step in their development to ultimately forging a lengthy senior career at a decent level.
Both St Mirren and Dunfermline are decent-sized ‘proper’ clubs who’ll pull in a few thousand fans every week. Inevitably living away from home would enhance/improve their life skills - so it’d be a decent experience for a young lad as opposed to going on loan to a non-league club to get experience and playing long balls with a few hundred folk watching each week.
But that’s just my thoughts on an alternative way to potentially bridge the massive gulf between youth and senior football south of the border!
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