SMiSA Player Of The Year Event

General SMiSA News 21 May 2007

On Saturday 19^th 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 SMiSAâs 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 Saintsâ dynamic managerial duo; Gus MacPherson & Andy Millen.

Phil Clark, the resident Love St DJ, was on hand to spin the discs and be the occasionâs 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 âClanâ 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.comâs 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 âLegendary Captainâ 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.comâs SMFCOK:

Gus MacPherson then took to the stage to the acclaim of those Saints fans in attendance who sang âWho needs Mourinho, weâve got MacPhersioâ 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 yesterdayâs 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 SMiSAâs own Dave Tennant, much to the amusement of those in attendance who cried âFixâ in their disbelief.

SMiSA secretary Wullie Bell adds his thoughts on the event:

âWe 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 weekâs 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.â

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.