St Mirren: Jim Goodwin on being a 'sore loser', selling chocolate and his football vision

Goodwin captained St Mirren to Scottish League Cup victory in 2013

"I was never happy with my wife coming in with Mars and Nestle treats. I'm not paying for Nestle and Mars."

An unlikely quote that best encapsulates Jim Goodwin's ultra-competitiveness. Not tales of clattering into a challenge as a tough midfielder, but in working as a salesman for a rival confectionary manufacturer.

As expected, no half measures. His life before taking the job as St Mirren manager last summer was vastly different to the one he now occupies back in what he calls "the bubble" of full-time football.

Alongside leading Alloa back to the Scottish Championship and keeping them there as the league's only part-time team, he worked jobs as a car salesman, in recruitment for the construction industry and latterly as a sweetie salesman.

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Trying to lead the Paisley club to Premiership survival and cup success holds different stresses to gruelling midweek journeys to Stranraer and back to Glasgow with a van full of chocolate to get rid of, on top of battling Dundee United and others in Scotland's second tier.

"Basically you're over there at six o'clock in the morning loading up the van, then you've got to empty the van before you can think about going home," he explains. "There's no half-days, there's nobody doing you any favours.

"[In football] You do very much become institutionalised. I moved away from home when I was 15 and I had been doing football right up until I was 34 on a full-time basis. When that all stops and you've got to go and get a real job, and trying to work a computer initially for some of us... the thought of trying to fill out spreadsheet and answer emails on a regular basis was really tough at the start.

"It was a great eye-opener for me."

'We focus on the negatives'

Goodwin knows he has been fighting perception since finishing his career at St Mirren in 2016.

"I've never been this hot-headed person away from football," he insists.

Words don't always convince, but actions do, and aside from the playing persona, the job done at Alloa and the start at St Mirren mean Goodwin's reputation as a manager is increasingly one of substance. The Irishman is relatively calm on the touchline and rarely rants and raves at players or officials in interviews.

That, and the soft Irish accent, make you wonder if it is even the same person who was one banned for smashing Scottish football's most placid man, Stuart Armstrong, in the face in 2013.

"People that know me, the people that are important to me like my family and my friends know how I am as a person and how I've always been," he says.

"I am a very sore loser and sometimes things get the better of you as a player and you do get carried away in the moment, heat of battle. There have been things where I'm not proud of or I wish hadn't happened but at the same time, now as a manager, nine times out of 10 I'm relatively calm on the side of the pitch."

Unprompted, Goodwin talks of his sympathy for officials, once seemingly his mortal enemies, and is a rare, articulate and sensible voice amid the hysteria and conspiracy of referees, compliance, tribunals and appeals.

Asked if the country's relentless focus on disciplinary issues is slightly strange, he is typically honest.

"Yeah I do actually, and I think we have a real habit of focussing on the negatives at times, and that's everybody," he says.

"Everyone is very quick to point out the bad things but the good stuff that people do gets brushed under the carpet."

Goodwin was banned for a clash with Stuart Armstrong, then of Dundee United, in 2013

'Some say my head is in the clouds, but I've had a dream'

The immediate task at hand for Goodwin is trying to steer St Mirren past Aberdeen and into the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup for what would be a first appearance at Hampden since he, as part of the class of 2013, became a club legend in winning the League Cup as captain.

The main objective is to keep St Mirren in the Premiership again and so far, so good as they sit six points clear of bottom side Hearts in 10th.

He admits the club were "behind the eight-ball" as he arrived midway through pre-season with little opportunity to put his own stamp on the squad, resulting in a calamitous League Cup campaign.

Goodwin wants to manage "for the next 30 years". The long-term goal is to manage his native Republic of Ireland, but at St Mirren he is aiming high. Chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick invited scorn by suggesting the Paisley outfit could be a "top four" club. Goodwin daren't go that far, but he is an eternal optimist.

"I've always been one of these people, some people think my head's in the clouds, but I've always had a dream," said the Irishman. "Reach for the stars, as my mother used to always say. My main priority right now is to make St Mirren a genuine top-six team.

"I think we're a bigger club than people give us credit for. I think the fan base suggests that, the stadium is good , the training ground is good. We need to actually start believing in ourselves and stop talking ourselves down."

This is a vision rooted in the community. He is part of organising more regular school visits in the town and makes a point of mingling with supporters after the game, despite some inevitable stick about his team selections.

"I believe it can get bigger," he said. "I think we're averaging 4,500 [attendance] or something like that at home games. I want to make that 5000, 5,500. I want to try and have weekends where we're selling the ground out and not just because Celtic and Rangers are in town.

"That's got to be our ambition. To do that, we need to be seen more in the community, we need to be doing more with the younger fans and generate a bit of interest for them and hope they're going to be the future of the club.

"That's my vision, that's what I want to do. Fingers crossed I get the time to do it."

Goodwin is St Mirren's eighth manager in seven years. He knows time cannot be guaranteed, even for someone with his legendary status.

A trip to Hampden would help. Another trophy? That would take the biscuit.