SO bad was the disciplinary record of St Mirren's former player-coach that for a while it seemed as if he had changed his name by deed poll to Jim Goodwin-Booked.

The Irishman, though, has been a reformed character of late. Gone are the late tackles, the flying elbows and the scything challenges. Even the menacing skinhead hairstyle has vanished, replaced by a silver side parting that has softened his image further. You still wouldn't take liberties with him on a football pitch but Goodwin seems to have found some inner peace after all these years of charging around.

A final warning from St Mirren, after he was handed a three-game ban for throwing an elbow out at Dundee United's Aidan Connolly, seems to have had the desired effect. Eleven games have now passed since Goodwin last picked up a yellow card, the 33 year-old now making headlines for positive reasons including a goal last weekend against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. He admits this transformation of character had been long overdue.

"Obviously the last incident up at Dundee United was a huge wake-up call and [improving my disciplinary record] is something that I have been trying to do for a wee while," he admitted ahead of this afternoon's trip to face Aberdeen. "My bookings, outside the stupid off-the-ball stuff, are never really for swearing at the referees or anything like that. They were for tackles or too many fouls, they were not necessarily stupid. But those ones, the violent conduct ones, were stuff that I could be doing without. It's stuff that's not acceptable in the game. I'm aware of that and I have been made aware of that. This time I think the penny has dropped. It's up to me to change people's perception of me. There are certain people out there who do have a certain perception of me and think maybe I'm a bit of a liability and it's up to make to try to change that opinion. In recent weeks people have been talking about me in a positive manner which is nice to read on a Sunday or a Monday when you get the papers, rather than worrying about what the compliance officers watching Sportscene are going to spot."

Goodwin has learnt to try to keep his anger in check whenever things aren't going to plan on the field. "I definitely let my emotions get the better of my in years gone by. But it's probably only through the fact that I care so much and wanted to do well for my team-mates. And when the game was getting away from us I probably let my frustrations get the better of me. Now I need to keep reminding myself before every game and keep talking to myself during the game that I can't allow myself to get wound up, especially when teams are getting the better of us. Sometimes I have to accept that. I have to pick and choose the tackles I go into now but my commitment certainly remains the same and my desire to win and get stuck in is not going to change."

The new image was not a deliberate part of his transformation but seems to be having the desire effect. "The hair wasn't pre-planned but maybe the referees don't recognise me anymore! Since I've grown the hair I've not picked up a booking in 11 weeks and that's a record for me."