Lee Erwin looks at home at St Mirren after nine clubs by the age of 23

So many oddities and almost nobody on hand to witness them. That has been the story of a Scottish football season played under the duress of Covid-19 as St Mirren and Celtic can testify, following their encounter in Paisley on Wednesday night, when the champions left with a 2-1 victory to bring them to within three points of Rangers at the top of the Premiership.

Lee Erwin, for example, has had a peripatetic career for a 23-year-old. St Mirren, for whom he signed on a free contract after a spell at Ross County, are his ninth club in a series that includes outfits as diverse as Arbroath, Leeds United and Tractor Sport Club, the latter being based in Tabriz in Iran.

Erwin was not fond of his time with Tabriz and described his accommodation in a local hotel as being akin to ‘solitary confinement in a prison’, but he did make history there in November 2018 when, against  Zob Ahan, Erwin was sent on after 53 minutes and got the fastest hat-trick in Iran Pro League history in seven minutes.

Wednesday’s contribution, a scuffed shot for the opener after only three minutes, was Erwin’s first goal for the Buddies, on his first start to extend what seems to have developed into something of a habit. When he was with Kilmarnock, he marked his first appearance with a goal against Dumbarton and he also began his Motherwell career with a scoring strike which he would be wise not to bring up in conversation now, because it was against St Mirren.

Erwin would probably have dominated the headlines against Celtic had he found the mark after half time with a second shot which went narrowly over the top, but he was justifiably pleased to have got his stint in Paisley off to a productive start. “As a striker you want to score and get up and running as quickly as possible,” he said.

“To be honest I felt I could have had another one in the second half with the shot I put over the bar. We had a good start to the game and then conceded two goals which could have been easily avoided.

“We went in at half-time feeling we didn’t do a lot wrong but I felt the overall performance was good and we have to take that into our game on Saturday.

“The gaffer says he wants me to play up front for the team. He wants me to stay up the park and bring people into the game. That’s what I like to do so I’m happy with that. Sometimes you get a feel-good factor from someone and I get that from the manager here.

“I’ll be further up the pitch than I have been so hopefully I can get more chances to score. There are plenty of people in the squad who can score goals if I’m not scoring. We have a lot of goal threats. I’ll just be doing my best.

“I’m at the stage in my career now where I need to play regularly. You want that at any age but I need to be going into a Saturday knowing I’ve got a good chance of playing.

“Do I feel my career has stalled a little bit? Definitely. I could sit here and say I made the wrong decision to go abroad but you don’t know about these things until you actually try them.

“I’m just looking to get back playing week in and week out. When you don’t play, when you feel you’ve merited it, then it’s difficult and disappointing but this is a fresh start for me and I’ll be working hard.”

Celtic, meanwhile, made their contribution to the collectors of singular statistics when Shane Duffy recorded his second club goal on his second appearance to equalise Erwin’s opener and James Forrest got the winner with a perfectly weighted header which, he confirmed later, was only the second occasion he had ever used his skull to score.

His previous headed contribution came against Kilmarnock on April 8, 2017 and was a point-blank effort.  “My first was from about a yard, too, at home to Kilmarnock,” Forrest said. “I’m just pleased to score and help the team win.

“It’s always a hard place to go to, especially with the way St Mirren play. We showed a good bit of character after going a goal down.”

Celtic are at home to Livingston tomorrow (Sat) when a win of more than 1-0 would put them top of the table ahead of Rangers’ trip to Hibernian 24 hours later. “It’s massive,” Forrest said.

“We had a couple of games at the start of the season which were postponed so it’s taken a while to get going. We’re slowly but surely getting to where we want to be.”