Buddies boss excited by new home

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A look at the new home of the Buddies of Paisley

Manager Gus MacPherson is relishing the prospect of life at the new St Mirren Park after picking up the keys to the Paisley club's almost-ready ground.

Everyone is very excited about it, we are all looking forward to getting down here on a day-to-day basis," he said on a tour of the stadium.

"The most important aspect for me is the playing surface and it's top class.

"We will get some training sessions and bounce games on it and players can familiarise themselves with it."

St Mirren's current stadium on Love Street will host its last two Premier League games over the festive period with Hamilton and Motherwell the visitors.

The new 8,029-capacity ground in Greenhill Road is situated less than a mile from the current St Mirren Park.

With a brand new stadium, the club will be more attractive to top-class players Stewart Gilmour St Mirren chairman

"They have got to know what they are coming into before the first game on 31 January against Kilmarnock, so we will get down here as much as we can," McPherson continued.

"We will try to get the players down in the next couple of weeks and they can have a look round, and also get some work done."

Chairman Stewart Gilmour claimed the move, which has wiped out the club's debt, would help release the Saints' potential.

He said: "It is sad to be leaving our home for the past 115 years in Love Street but there might not have been a St Mirren as we know it if the opportunity to work with Tesco hadn't come off.

"With a brand new stadium, the club will be more attractive to top-class players and the facilities we will now have at St Mirren Park means we can do far more on the commercial side than before, bringing vital extra revenue into the club."

MY SPORT: DEBATE Are St Mirren fans looking forward to the move?

Tesco have planning permission to build a supermarket at Love Street, but they have applied to Renfrewshire Council to build a store at nearby Wallneuk and create a housing development at St Mirren's current home.

The company's Scottish property director, Doug Thornton, is pleased with the stadium they have left for the Buddies.

"The four stands are nice and intimate with the pitch, so we are hoping the atmosphere is going to be great," he said.