³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin believes Scottish football will "end up" moving to a summer schedule.

The Paisley side's Scottish Cup replay against Motherwell on Tuesday could be their second postponed match in four days due to poor weather.

And Goodwin, 38, believes a longer winter break and more games in the summer could help ease the burden on the league's fixture list.

"I am a big fan of summer football," the Irishman said.

"I understand the festive period is a big one in Britain because financially it's great for clubs - you have people who maybe live abroad coming home at that time of year.

"But the reason we have the backlog of fixtures is because of adverse weather conditions. The likelihood is in the summer months you are not going to get as many postponements.

"I think that's the route we are going to end up going down. In the next 10 years I can certainly see an argument for summer football. We want to see good football on quality grass pitches.

"We are playing through the winter months where it must be a real headache for the groundsmen because the grass simply doesn't grow from November to March."

Four games across the Scottish Professional Football League were called off at the weekend, with St Mirren's Premiership trip to Fir Park and Rangers v Livingston in the Scottish Premiership cancelled due to poor weather, alongside Ayr United v Greenock Morton and Brechin City v Annan Athletic.

Rangers v Livingston was put back 24 hours to Sunday but no new dates for the other postponed games have been announced.

Despite having a winter break that runs from 30 December until 17 January, weather in late January and early February often leads to postponed games.

And even if the matches do go ahead as planned, Goodwin believes summer fixtures would be far more appealing for fans.

"I would love to follow the League of Ireland," said Goodwin. "They started Friday and will play right through to October and be off November, December and January.

"It makes sense to me. The weather is bad in the months we find ourselves playing in. The attendances in Ireland have dramatically increased due to that better weather.

"If I was wanting to bring my six-year-old son to a game of football I would much rather bring him in the summer months.

"When we could maybe have shorts and a t-shirt on as opposed to the weekend when we were wrapped up head to toe, getting soaked on the way into a game and then soaked on the way back out, and it's taking you four or five hours to heat up when you get home."