Goodwin eyes summer as Buddies face call-off again

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin believes Scottish football will eventually be played in the summer months.

Goodwin faces a second postponement at Fir Park inside four days with their William Hill Scottish Cup replay against Motherwell tonight in doubt because of persistent rain.

The Buddies boss saw some players overcome knocks because of the free weekend after playing seven matches in 25 days following the end of the winter break.

Goodwin is a supporter of the winter break and would go further by playing more league games over the summer.

“I am a big fan of summer football,” the Irishman said.

“I understand the festive period is a big one in Britain because financially it’s great for clubs – you have people who maybe live abroad coming home at that time of year.

“But the reason we have the backlog of fixtures is because of adverse weather conditions.

“The likelihood is in the summer months you are not going to get as many postponements.

“I would love to follow the League of Ireland. They started Friday and will play right through to October and be off November, December and January. It makes sense to me. The weather is bad in the months we find ourselves playing in.

“The attendances in Ireland have dramatically increased due to that better weather.”

Well have Christopher Long (thigh) and Mikael Ndjoli (knee) missing.

Christy Manzinga is available following his red card against St Johnstone last week with his onegame ban applying to league action.

Goodwin has an unchanged squad for the trip.

However, Ryan Flynn, Stephen Mcginn, Kyle Magennis (all knee) and Gary Mackenzie (hamstring) remain out.