STEVEN THOMPSON has thanked SMISA members for supporting plans to create six new murals around the Simple Digital Arena including one of his famous goal celebration in the 2013 League Cup semi-final win over Celtic.
The former Saints striker, who is now a BBC pundit, stopped by this stadium this week to take a look at the painting by local artist Mark Worst in the concourse of the Family Stand and admitted it was an honour to see one of the highlights of his career commemorated in such a fashion.
SMISA members voted in the January £2 ballot to back a proposal to create murals representing six of the club’s major trophy wins and then were asked to suggest which of those they wanted Mark to recreate on the stadium walls. Mark, with the help of some of the SMISA board, then chose the images he felt would best represent those six celebrations.
The work was completed recently giving Thompson the chance to see it for himself.
He said: “The artist has done really well so I’m really pleased with it. It’s such an honour and I hope the mural is up there for a long, long time.
"It’s a moment I remember incredibly fondly from the League Cup semi-final win over Celtic. You can tell from my face that I might have enjoyed that goal ever so slightly! And you had big Cheesy [Mark McAusland] of all people wide on the right wing to whip in this great ball for me to score.
“That was one of the best moments of my career, without a doubt – scoring for St Mirren in a semi-final at Hampden. I’m really proud of it. That put us 3-1 up against Celtic and you’re starting to think we might actually make it to the final.
“That was the best team performance we had in my whole time at the club. We were absolutely incredible. You had young Meatball [John McGinn] with his skinhead bossing Victor Wanyama all over the park.”
Thompson thanked SMISA for suggesting and funding the project. He added: “It’s great that this is something that has come from the fans. Any dealings I’ve had with SMISA they’ve always been absolutely sensational.
"It’s great to have a relationship with them and I’m always more than happy to work with them and feel a part of the club again.
“My son Struan is part of the St Mirren 2007 team so I’m at the training ground almost as much as the first-team players! I don’t get to as many first-team games in the flesh as I would like but I at least get to analyse all our matches for Sportscene. And it’s nice to be able to do that on the team you support.”