For 25 years, Tommy Docherty has performed the same grass-cutting ritual ahead of the following day�s big game. Yesterday he completed his duties as groundsman for the final time.

For a quarter of a century, Tommy Docherty has performed the same grass-cutting ritual ahead of the following day's big game. Yesterday he completed his duties as groundsman at St Mirren's Love Street stadium for the final time.

"It's just another thing in a long line of stuff that I've been doing for the last time," said the 44-year-old, who first came to club on a government training scheme in 1984.

"It's been decades of highs and lows, mostly lows, and now we're stepping into the unknown."

The "unknown" is a new stadium in Paisley's Ferguslie Park less than a mile away, ending 114 years of Love Street as one of the historic names in Scottish football.

A £15m deal with Tesco to sell the ramshackle old ground cleared the club's debt and gave Ferguslie Park the opportunity to turn its small steps towards shedding its unenviable reputation as one of Scotland's most deprived communities into a stride.

Tesco no longer intends to build a superstore on the site,and is seeking to do a deal with housing developers instead.

But for the misty-eyed and diehards gathering at Love Street yesterday for one last look ahead of today's final game, the deal ensured Paisley retained a treasured asset - its own football club.

Decked out in the club's black and white, Darren Kelly and son six-year-old Cameron came to say goodbye.

"If it's a choice between Love Street and St Mirren there's no choice at all", said Darren, 35. "But it'll be good for Ferguslie Park. No-one wants a rickety old football ground as a neighbour, but a nice new state of the art ground could show people a different side of the area."

"I won't be able to see the ground through the tears so I had to come today for a last look", said friend Paul Gilligan Outside the ground, Douglas Nesbitt came with wife Elaine and daughter Kirstin to video the final day for posterity and to visit the tenement overlooking the ground where he was born 46 years ago.

Elaine said: "It's easy to knock Ferguslie but there are much worse places which don't have the reputation. Hopefully the new ground can help shake that."

Even those who stand to lose from the move are sympathetic to the reasons why.

Rita Raj has owned the St Mirren licensed grocer facing the stadium for 11 years. She does get additional trade every other weekend but does not think her business will go into terminal decline when the bulldozers move in next month.

Mrs Raj said: "They're good fans. I've never had any bother here but the crowds aren't what they used to be."

Helen Meehan, whose top-floor tenement overlooks the ground, has been earning extra income on matchdays as a waitress for those receiving corporate hospitality.

Even though that also ends today Mrs Meehan still believes the move is for the good. She said: "I'll be sad to see it go. The parking could be a bit of a nightmare but it'll be a shame when it disappears."

One man who can claim some of the credit for the move is Terry Kelly, a councillor who went against the grain when, as part of the ruling administration, he backed the proposal against the recommendation of the local authority.

He said the profile boost for Ferguslie Park would be the most tangible impact of the move, as well as an influx of 8000 visitors spending money in the area every fortnight.

Today's final game will also be emotional for Mr Kelly, whose son was a popular ballboy at the stadium before dying from leukaemia a decade ago.

Mr Kelly, whose home is 150 yards from the new stadium, said: "This is a lifeline for St Mirren and a new lease of life for Ferguslie Park. Thousands of visitors every fortnight can only provide a financial stimulus and the new ground gets rid of a huge undeveloped site. If nothing else it brings the profile up of an area quietly reinventing itself over the past years. They're delighted it's here."