This article says Grieve was 'picked up by St Mirren after talks with the New Zealand Tourist Board' - saying his eligibility 'had only come to light during chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick’s talks with travel promoters for his country'. Obviously, they've got a working fax machine!
Game highlights here. Good to see Grieve making a nuisance of himself throughout the game.
That St Mirren penalty was soft, can't blame the St Johnstone defender screaming "what's that fae, what's that fae??".
Great control by Grieve leading up to the free kick.
I can hear the coaches tactical talk for his goal now - "lads, we get a big cod to the near post, get a wee cod to the back post, and whip the ball in. Fudge me lads, fitbaw's an easy game! Let's have these cods!"
Straight in the side and already making a difference. Kids got a bright future.
St Mirren have been in good form since he's come aboard, might even make it to the top half of the table for the championship round.
Finishes 2-1 St Mirren, and yes they are unbeaten in 2022 (7 games)! Greive with the winning goal. Full game & a yellow for good measure. Whirlwind few months for him!
5th round Scottish Cup tie against 4th tier (League Two) Kelty Hearts in a few days.
Kelty Hearts won't be easy beats. Promoted from a stunted Football League campaign last season, won the Championship final (Highland v Lowland) and now top of League Two by 10 points with a game in hand. They also beat St Mirrens opponents from this morning and holders of the Scottish Cup - St Johnstone, in the last round 1-0 after extra time.
However, St Mirren will be at home for this one, and based on recent form, they should be too good.
Could be a good opportunity in that one for Grieve to start cementing a starting spot if he can add to his goal from this morning.
Scores the first goal as St Mirren beat 4th tier Kelty Hearts 4-0 in Scottish Cup.
Awesome if he can keep this up and cement a starting role in the Scottish premiership. Looking forward to seeing him starting and scoring against the Celtics and Rangers of this world.
Always remember sigmund talking about it taking a while playing pro football to get a pro footballer body and stamina. Probably not a bad thing him joining half way through the season as the Scottish premier league is a long and tough one. Then after 5 months he can then have a good long pre season to get fully up to speed
Keep away from the haggis & deep fried Mars Bars wee Alex.
SMISA@smisatrust "Didn't expect so much from him so soon. Delighted he got his first goal after coming so close at Easter Road. A player with real potential and one we're delighted to have with us. Came over with 3% body fat which is incredible. He's in great shape, well mannered and a nice kid"
Jim Goodwin, the St Mirren coach, has now been officially announced as the new Aberdeen manager. Apparently Aberdeen’s current captain and member of coaching staff, Scott Brown, is among the leading contenders to take over St Mirren’s head coach role. Hopefully this doesn’t do anything to damage Grieve’s gametime.
Keeps his starting striker spot as St Mirren & Hearts are tied up 0-0 at HT. Unfortunately St Mirren are down to 10 men, having had Ronan (who plays just behind Greive) sent off in 22nd min.
No doubt Cam Devlin who's in the Hearts team, had a few kind parting words. Nathaniel Atkinson (ex Melb City) also starting for Hearts. Matt Millar on the bench for St Mirren - plenty of ex ALM guys in this one.
Edit - Greive subbed off at 63 mins (1 of 2 changes made) with score 0-0. Millar an unused sub.
Match highlights verus Hearts, as sourced by martinb.
The send off (Devlin close by), Greive with a pretty legitimate claim to a pen, and Devlin's goal. St Mirren apparently have a reputation as a physical side.
0-0 at half time but it looks like Celtic are all over St Mirren. 78% possession and 12 shots to 2 (though interesting only 2-1 for shots on goal). St Mirren pretty disciplined with only a yellow card so far. Its going to be a hard second half. Hopefully Alex gets some time off the bench
Finished 2-0 Celtic, and they keep a 3 point gap on Rangers in the SPL race. Rogic also came on at 64 mins.
St Mirren are 8th, 2 points behind in Motherwell 6th, re the top 6/bottom 6 split. St Mirren do have a game in hand.
Be interesting to see what arrangement St Mirren & Hay make re releasing Greive for OFC Tourney. Hay would maybe prefer him early stages, with Wood, McCowatt, Just & Champness all likely to come in later.
Twitter circles making it sound like he was benched because St. Mirren were in complete bus-parking mode from the first minute, and when he was brought on he was apparently the only one offering anything up front. Fans seem to adore him
Very happy for the lad but would love one of the new lads at the Nix to have a couple of goals and be making such a statement! So slightly jealous we didn’t snag him for the Nix, but maybe there’s other players out there to be discovered. Be mint and an amazing story if we made the WC and he started up front with Chris Wood! He’s competing with Kosta, Ben Waine and Just? Not an area where we have a lot of depth or players playing professionally.
Very happy for the lad but would love one of the new lads at the Nix to have a couple of goals and be making such a statement! So slightly jealous we didn’t snag him for the Nix, but maybe there’s other players out there to be discovered. Be mint and an amazing story if we made the WC and he started up front with Chris Wood! He’s competing with Kosta, Ben Waine and Just? Not an area where we have a lot of depth or players playing professionally.
Apart from Wood, Greive is only Kiwi I can see starting in an overseas league, regularly as an out and out striker. That straight away makes him valuable and exciting.
And yeah interesting that Nix didn’t seem to look at him. Big fan of Uffie, but he does seem lately to have bypassed NZ domestic talent - apart from the Academy kids.
But in his defence hard with the team basically based permanently in NSW last 2 seasons, plus Covid shutting down the NZ winter leagues early in 2021. Nix did apparently have a close look at Oli Whyte, plus Talay/Gill signed Payne, Lewis & TAHW all from Handy Prem pre Covid. Think all were signed by Uffie (not Rudan).
Starting at Ross County (8th). St Mirren 9th. Both teams on 33 points and gunning to make the top 6.
Edit - 1 of 2 subs made at HT with score 0-0. St Mirren go on to lose 1-0. Still just 3 points off 6th spot (now Ross County), but they are in the midst of a 3 SPL away game stretch. Next a visit to Dundee.
Following that an away cup tie to Hearts & Devlin.
From Flying Kiwis. Seems quickly becoming a fan favourite. Got himself a little chant at St Mirren.
WE ARE ST MIRREN THE SUPER PAISLEY SAINTS WE ARE THE NORTHBANK THE BOYS FROM PAISLEY HE SCORES A GOAL AND HE MAKES US ALL BELIEVE HE IS A STRIKER HIS NAME IS ALEX GREIVE
Subbed on in 66th min (score 1-1). As St Mirren lose 1-2 to Dundee United (4th, 39 pts).
Big dent to St Mirren's top 6 hopes (9th, 36 pts), with 2 games left before league is split. But still very congested with 7 teams in spots 4-10, separated by only 4 pts.
Saints had their keeper sent off in 89th min, and DU got their winner 7 mins later.
Greive actually substituted off himself at 90 mins (score still 1-1). Presumably not an injury, just the reserve keeper being introduced, for a striker??
Subbed on at 63 mins (score 0-3) in a 0-4 loss to Rangers.
St Mirren (10th), to play in Relegation Round (bottom 6) to finish their season. 11 points clear of Dundee (12th, relegation spot) so look pretty safe.
