Know the Ref - Hamilton home - St. Mirren FC

The last few games have been relatively free scoring by our standards, but that may come to a shuddering halt on Saturday. We've yet to score a league goal in games where this weekend's ref, Stephen Finnie, has been in charge.

It's a pretty poor run. Two league games involving him last season finished goalless - at home to Hibs and away at Hamilton, where an official finally realised that Craig Dargo being poleaxed by a keeper is a red card offence and he dismissed Tomas Cerny. On the plus side, we did score three goals when he officiated our Scottish Cup win over Brechin that season.

Soccerbase only shows three other Saints games involving Mr Finnie, one of which was apparently his first league game as a referee! That was a 0-0 draw with Dunfermline in 2006/07. 2007/08 saw the other two games, a 2-0 defeat at Hibs and a goalless draw with Gretna.

By contrast, Hamilton's three games with Mr Finnie (ignoring the one against us_ have all seen home wins. One was against Aberdeen last season where they won 2-0, although Richard Offiong was sent off. The same man bagged a hat-trick in a 3-0 win over Dunfermline the previous season, and he also scored in a win over Partick in 2006/07, Mr Finnie in charge both times. Fortunately he's now left!

So it points to a Hamilton win this weekend. This official is yet to send anyone off this season, but he averaged around one red card every three games last term.

Related Articles:

- Know the Ref - Motherwell home (part two)

- Know the Ref - Motherwell home (part one)

- Know the Ref - Falkirk away

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