It was probably the first time since becoming Rangers manager, said Derek McInnes after his men had edged out Aberdeen on Sunday lunchtime, that he had enjoyed watching his team. At least somebody did.
No doubt the Rangers supporters who made the journey north at an ungodly hour on the Sabbath and the tens of thousands watching on from elsewhere were delighted with the three points, particularly in the context of a hugely difficult start to the season, and to McInnes’s reign, but easy on the eye it was not.
I have always thought that Stephen Robinson has been unfairly maligned throughout his time in Scotland as being a manager who unduly weighs his priorities towards substance over style, but his Aberdeen team more than played its part in dragging this contest down to the level where it was played – nay, slugged - out.
Given what was at stake for the men in the respective dugouts, particularly McInnes after the awful European exit to Jablonec, it was understandable that many reflexively opined that the result was all that mattered.
Just a few hours later, though, I was fortunate to take in a doozy of a ding-dong battle in Paisley, where two teams in St Mirren and Motherwell rattled off 45 shots between them, shared six goals and tried for the most part to actually play some structured, passing football. It was almost like a different sport to what had been witnessed at Pittodrie.
It was thrilling. Motherwell were irresistible in the opening half hour or so, zipping the ball about and suffocating the hosts to go two goals up. St Mirren came roaring back, blitzing three goals in a nine-minute spell before the break that included an early goal of the season contender, as Declan John finished off a brilliant, incisive counter that was bordering on a work of art.
The second half couldn’t possibly live up to the drama of the first, but Motherwell got their point in the end by being bold, with one of the many attacking players thrown on by Alfred Johansson in his new acquisition, Jardell Kanga, putting the cherry on the top of an enthralling contest by rattling a 94th minute equaliser into the top bin.
What was notable in the aftermath of the game was the sense I picked up from the St Mirren support, and those within the club, that as disappointed as they were with the late Motherwell goal denying them all three points, they were nevertheless absolutely delighted with what they had seen from their team under new manager, Craig McLeish.
It was the same buzz that was so evident about a year or so ago around Fir Park, when Jens Berthel Askou was settling in at Motherwell and his men were starting to catch fire, even if their results in those early weeks were not matching the levels of their overall performances.
In short, it was the sound of people enjoying their football.
There was a tendency at times last season for those not of a Motherwell persuasion to scoff at what Berthel Askou was trying to do. And ironically, from many a St Mirren fan after their team – under Robinson – had pummelled Motherwell in the League Cup semi-final.
Many of those fans are now thoroughly enjoying the early days of their own transformation into a slick, passing outfit, as McLeish brings the game model he implemented throughout the Saints youth set-up into the first team environment. And so they should.
For so many years now, we have been told by naysayers that teams cannot play in such a fashion in Scotland and get away with it. We don’t have the players for it. You will be picked off at the back. Don’t be so naïve.
Well, frankly, nuts to all of that.
What Berthel Askou showed last season is that you can get results in the Scottish Premiership by playing attractive, technical, sophisticated football, and it is not snobbish to say that is the way teams should be aiming to play. In fact, if Scottish football wants to avoid further humiliations on the European stage, and avoid falling further behind their continental counterparts, then it is long overdue for our top teams to move away from the kick-and-rush, second-balls-are-everything attitude that has held us back for so long.
This isn’t a dig either, incidentally, at Scottish coaches. Don’t tell me that homegrown managers can’t be at the forefront of this transformation, not when 64-year-old John McGlynn was blazing a trail through the divisions with his Falkirk side playing in such a progressive style long before just about anyone here had even heard of Berthel Askou.
In my view, most clubs, particularly the more modest ones in the division, will come around to the notion that this is the way forward. St Mirren will, I am sure, see their attendances swell in a similar manner as Falkirk and Motherwell have over the past 12 months or so. They will look at the players those two clubs have moved on this summer after showcasing them in attractive teams, and the amount of money they have been able to draw in as a result, and surely fancy a bit of that for themselves.
Can it work further up the chain, where there is a pressure to win every week? Why not? Hearts will be an intriguing case study this season under Wouter Vrancken, and they are now showing some signs of being a seriously effective – and seriously attractive – outfit.
Former Hibs manager Bobby Williamson once infamously said that if you wanted to be entertained, go to the cinema. But as they flock to support their teams who are daring to put on a show and are lapping up the fare on offer at The Falkirk Stadium, Fir Park and the Marbill Coaches Arena, Scottish football fans are proving that they are a more discerning audience than many perhaps have given them credit for.
The nuclear fallout from the Old Firm’s failures on the continent last week would have you believe that there is nothing to be positive about when it comes to Scottish football. Yet that bleak diagnosis is not reflected everywhere. At Falkirk, Motherwell and now St Mirren, supporters are responding to teams prepared to play with ambition, structure and imagination.
There is plenty to be positive about when it comes to the direction the Scottish game is heading in, and increasingly, plenty of entertainment to be had.
You just need to know where to look.
