Danny Grainger is ready to make a fresh start under a familiar face at St Mirren

Graeme Macpherson
Football Writer
Tuesday 30 July 2013

A S home debuts go, Danny Grainger's for St Mirren tonight could scarcely be more demanding.

The former Hearts full-back, who completed a one-year deal with the Paisley club at the weekend, will line up against a Newcastle United side packed with many of their star names, including Papiss Cisse who returns to Alan Pardew's side for the first time this summer. With St Mirren beginning their SPFL Premiership campaign away to Inverness Caledonian Thistle this Saturday, they will not be short of a test in their final warm-up friendly of the summer.

Grainger is just glad to be on board. A difficult final year at Tynecastle saw him suffer a cruciate knee injury that meant he missed the final six months of the season, during which time he was informed his contract would not be renewed.

He trained with Sheffield United and Blackpool over the summer, and local club Carlisle United were also keen, but it was St Mirren who took their interest further, snapping up the 27 year-old as a replacement for Paul Dummett, who, ironically, may line up for Newcastle this evening. "It's been a long summer getting my rehab finished so I'm delighted to get the deal done," Grainger told Herald Sport. "I'm just looking forward to the season starting now. I knew it would be hard to get a new club given the amount of players who were out of contract plus the situation with my knee. I knew it wouldn't happen overnight, but it's done and dusted which is the main thing for me and my family.

"I talked to a few clubs down south, and spoke in-depth with Greg Abbott [the Carlisle manager] about the possibility of going there. But this move just seemed to tick all the boxes for me. I can't wait to get going and hopefully we can build on the success of last year's League Cup win and maybe take that form into the league."

Grainger's move to Paisley sees him reunited with Danny Lennon. The St Mirren manager served as a mentor to the defender during the pair's time together at Gretna and Grainger is looking forward to working under him. "I'm delighted to get the chance to work with Danny again," he added. "He was my youth coach when I was younger and then I played alongside him when I stepped up into the first team at Gretna. I kept in touch with him quite a bit over the last few seasons and we spoke a lot when my contract ran out. So it's good to be working for a manager that you know."

Grainger, from Penrith, grew up with a soft spot for Newcastle but that will not come into play this evening when is busy trying to keep Cisse, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sammy Ameobi et al in check. "I'm looking forward to it as you love pitting your wits against the best in the business. This one will be no different. They play in the Premier League for a reason so it will be a very hard game. But it will be a good test for us ahead of Inverness on Saturday."

Taken from the Herald