St Mirren considering SPFL appeal over sanctions

| 06 December 2020

St Mirren considering SPFL appeal over sanctions

The league ruled the Buddies had breached Covid-19 protocols ahead of the postponement of their matches against Motherwell and Hamilton.

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin has revealed the club will decide soon whether to appeal against the recent sanctions imposed on them by the SPFL.

The league ruled that the Paisley club had breached Covid-19 protocols ahead of the postponement of their matches against Motherwell and Hamilton, who were both awarded 3-0 victories. St Mirren were also handed a suspended £40,000 fine.

Goodwin felt that there had been inconsistencies in the punishments meted out to other clubs for similar breaches earlier in the season.

After Saturday's 1-1 Scottish Premiership draw with Aberdeen, he said: "I'm limited in what I can say and there's so much I would love to say.

"But we are extremely disappointed with the outcome and the board of directors will now decide what our next steps will be. We will fight to hopefully get a better outcome.

"I think there are one or two things that have come out of the tribunal that have happened at other clubs and dealt with in isolation.

"I'm talking about car sharing. Individuals knew that wasn't allowed. I can't see how you can hold the club responsible for that one.

"I'd love to say more and we'll take a moment later in the week to really put our case forward.

"We're not expecting a great deal of sympathy for the mistakes we have made but there are things that need to be looked at and maybe a bit of fairness applied."

St Mirren were held by Aberdeen despite playing the majority of the second half against 10 men after Lewis Ferguson was sent off.

Dons manager Derek McInnes praised his players for battling to earn the draw after a Jonny Hayes opener was cancelled out by a Jamie McGrath penalty.

He said: "It's a decent point in the circumstances, it has to be. We came to win the game and we made more tackles in the first 10 minutes than we made in the whole first half a week ago.

"The commitment and spirit of the team was good and we scored a very good goal. It wasn't perfect – St Mirren looked lively and Jon Obika was too much of an influence linking play for them.

"I thought we dealt with St Mirren well and the crosses they threw in. It was all hands to the pump and there was bags of spirit from the team to get a point."