St Mirren win Jim Goodwin red card appeal

St Mirren have won their appeal against a red card given to captain Jim Goodwin.

Successful appeal: St Mirren captain Jim Goodwin. Picture: SNS

The 32 year-old was sent off against Hibs last month in Paisley for a challenge on Kevin Thompson in a match which the home side won 2 - 0.

The Buddies appealed against the dismissal to the SFA with a tribunal today changing the sending off to a caution.

Goodwin’s challenge against the Hibs midfielder was downgraded from “serious foul play” to “recklessly dangerous play”.

Following Goodwin’s dismissal, St Mirren manager Danny Lennon said that the tackle did not merit a red card and that he believed that his player’s reputation had led to player’s over-reaction to challenges. The news means manager Danny Lennon will have one of his key players available for yet another crucial match, when they take on Ross County on Saturday in Paisley.Lennon said: “There is no doubt about that. His leadership qualities last Friday night against Partick and even against Hibs in the first 30 minutes were outstanding.“And if you look at the five teams who are down there at this moment, that is the type of character and heart that you talk about (needing), but Jim Goodwin also brings along with that his great quality in terms of his football ability.”With three games remaining the Buddies are in seventh place following last week’s 1-1 draw against fellow relegation battlers Partick Thistle.However, they are only point ahead of Hibs, County and Thistle and only two ahead of Kilmarnock, who occupy the relegation play-off spot.Lennon admits victory over the Staggies to avoid the play-off spot would be “massive”.He said: “A win and draw in our last two games saw us go from 10th to seventh and that shows you how tight our section of the league is.“So we do go into the game in decent form. We have got our noses in front, we do have the advantage that most of our points this season have come at home, so we must try to exploit that on Saturday.“Should we get the results to maintain that, it would be our highest finish since 1989. There is a big prize to play for.“They have beaten us twice and we had a good victory over them at our place when we won 2-1.“At this stage of the season another result like that would be a massive achievement.”