St Mirren braced for 'nightmare' Ross County away day as manager jokes 'turkey sandwiches' will be pre-match meal

With new rules brought into play on Boxing Day, St Mirren are now unable to have their pre-match meal at a hotel ahead of the key Premiership clash, with manager Jim Goodwin joking his wife may need to make turkey sandwiches for his squad to have on the bus on the way up to Dingwall from Paisley.

The Buddies had planned to stop at a hotel in Inverness, but that has now been scrapped, with hospitality forced into cold storage for at least three weeks due to a new variant of Covid-19.

“Look, Ross County is always a really difficult away day. But on Boxing Day … it’s a nightmare, to be honest with you,” said Goodwin.

“We got an email from the Kingsmill Hotel in Inverness, where we were due to go for our pre-match meal.

“Unfortunately because of the restrictions that kick in we won’t be able to go there anymore.

“So I think my wife will be making turkey sandwiches for the boys on the bus. It’s just another obstacle to be put in our way.

“We were due to set off at half past eight to get us up to Inverness for half eleven. The boys usually like to have their meal three hours before.

“But we’ll not need to do that now. The lads will probably be happy to get an extra hour in their bed.

“It’s not ideal preparation, it’s not professional to be perfectly honest with you, but what can we do?

“There’s a pandemic going on, the government are shutting hotels, we can’t get any food up there so we will need to bring a packed lunch and do it like the good old days when we used to be at school.

“That’s it, hopefully that little bit of adversity will help us a little bit, we’ll see.

“We’ve got a really big challenge coming. Ross County is an opportunity to get points on the board but it is always a difficult away day.

“And then we have Rangers after that so we need to make sure we are organised against County and bounce back and not lose another game."