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Retro Saints; St.mirren 2 Celtic 3 Aet 1980


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Another huge tuning point was early on we lost our top striker Frank McDougal with a broken leg to a horrendous tackle from McGrain. McDougal got in trouble from the SFA for comments he made to the press about the tackle from McGrain.

In the next game when we played Celtic McGrain was stretchered off early after a tackle from good old Abercrombie.

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In the next game when we played Celtic McGrain was stretchered off early after a tackle from good old Abercrombie.

We met Aber that night in Toledo , I asked hm what it was about with McGrain , he said a bit of revenge for Luth plus the fact that McGrain thinks he's a superstar! ????

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Remember Celtic fans burning a Saints scarf near the fence that night. Scum

I remember we would regularly burn a tricolour when playing celtic and burn a union jack against rangers. I used to stand quite near the fence and as a young man I loved the atmosphere. I changed mind you when I got a beer can stuck in my face from group of Celtic fans who had infiltrated the north bank, and worse than that a right hander from a saints fan who was wearing a ring and burst my eyebrow! Being the big hard ticket I was I moved to the enclosure and enjoyed many happy times with some great guys who were a laugh a minute, particularly a guy called Les who used to come with his Father. Both of them were brilliant to stand beside. Best memory was Scanlons screamer and seeing the faces of Celtic fans who again had wormed their way into saints territory in the enclosure. Oh how we laughed!

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For all the talk of being robbed, must be remembered that C*ltic played with 10 men for most of the match and we were awarded a penalty!

Looking at the replay it looked like the Saints defender played the ball before scything the Celtic player down which in those days, if I remember correctly, most refs would have waved play on.

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I can remember the sheer amount of people just pushing everyone towards the turnstiles, it was frightening and although the official attendance was given as 27,000 we all thought at the time it was over 30,000.

Can't remember seeing anything like this level of support under the present regime.

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Thought we played better in the first game at Parkhead they only got the replay with a 91st minute goal from Lennox. The game in the video was played only a few days later so there was no time to print tickets and get them on sale, my main memory from that night is being spat on for the first time ever.

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Can't remember seeing anything like this level of support under the present regime.

The vast majority of the crowd were Celt*c supporters.

Celt*c supporters would never turn out in such vast numbers these days. Certainly not for a midweek Scottish Cup 4th round replay.

It also needs to be remembered that this was THE best Saints side in our entire history. We were genuine challengers for both the league and cup. We'd broken the Scottish transfer fee record at the start of that season. Frank McDougall had turned C*ltic to sign for us... Part of the background to the McAdam sending off and his own broken leg.

The game was also pay at the gate.

Those circumstances won't ever be repeated!

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The vast majority of the crowd were Celt*c supporters.

Celt*c supporters would never turn out in such vast numbers these days. Certainly not for a midweek Scottish Cup 4th round replay.

It also needs to be remembered that this was THE best Saints side in our entire history. We were genuine challengers for both the league and cup. We'd broken the Scottish transfer fee record at the start of that season. Frank McDougall had turned C*ltic to sign for us... Part of the background to the McAdam sending off and his own broken leg.

The game was also pay at the gate.

Those circumstances won't ever be repeated!

On the other hand, it did not happen by magic and it was not a fluke.

It just goes to show what St Mirren are capable of.

In the Ferguson era 12,000 attendances at Love Street did not require the old firm's involvement.

Our toy 2010 stadium should not be big enough for a successful St Mirren team but it is more than adequate for the current aspirations.

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Remember that game so well. Was right up there in terms of being most gutted at a Saints game. I was convinced as a naïve 13 year old that we were going to win the Cup that year. Will watch these highlights tonight. Like someone else said, I never knew they existed.

Re crowds, I've always been surprised at the quoted numbers for crowds back in those days. I always thought our stadium capacity was....

Pre - redevelopment of the East terracing (i.e. when it was still the old bowl) - 53,000

Post redevelopment (i.e. as per this Celtic game) - 35,000

If you take games like the 1977 DUFC Cup game, or the 3-3 game with Rangers at the start of the 77-78 season, I distinctly remember the ground being absolutely rammed. Both those games were pre-redevelopment, yet the quoted crowds were (I think) 20,000 and 27,000 respectively. How is that possible? Equally if this Celtic game was 27000 and the capacity was 35,000, there is not a chance you could have squeezed another 8000 folk in there.

I was only about 10/11 for the first 2 games I mentioned and probably 13 for the Celtic game, so maybe I've just got some romantic memory of it that wasn't a reality.

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The "Official" attendance is given as 27166.

http://www.stmirrenprogrammes.co.uk/StMirren/STM_Match_Details.php?Season=1979&GameID=1800

There were loads going in over the wall that night and I'm sure I have a memory of the big gates at the Love St end being forced open.

Certainly the biggest crowd I've been in at Love St.

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On the other hand, it did not happen by magic and it was not a fluke.

It just goes to show what St Mirren are capable of.

In the Ferguson era 12,000 attendances at Love Street did not require the old firm's involvement.

Our toy 2010 stadium should not be big enough for a successful St Mirren team but it is more than adequate for the current aspirations.

Aberdeen are a pretty successful and decent side but I think if they played St.Mirren in a Scottish Cup final in the next couple of years we would still struggle to repeat the 108,591 crowd who watched the two teams compete for the 1959 Scottish Cup.

If Saints were playing electrifying football and competing in the top half of the Premiership our home support would probably still not top 5,000 most weeks.

Life has changed, society has changed. The game has changed. C'est La Vie.

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Aberdeen are a pretty successful and decent side but I think if they played St.Mirren in a Scottish Cup final in the next couple of years we would still struggle to repeat the 108,591 crowd who watched the two teams compete for the 1959 Scottish Cup.

If Saints were playing electrifying football and competing in the top half of the Premiership our home support would probably still not top 5,000 most weeks.

Life has changed, society has changed. The game has changed. C'est La Vie.

Yes it has, and it costs more than half a crown to gain entry to the match.

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Aberdeen are a pretty successful and decent side but I think if they played St.Mirren in a Scottish Cup final in the next couple of years we would still struggle to repeat the 108,591 crowd who watched the two teams compete for the 1959 Scottish Cup.

If Saints were playing electrifying football and competing in the top half of the Premiership our home support would probably still not top 5,000 most weeks.

Life has changed, society has changed. The game has changed. C'est La Vie.

.................... and most importantly , admission price in relation to average income has rocketed !

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The "Official" attendance is given as 27166.

http://www.stmirrenprogrammes.co.uk/StMirren/STM_Match_Details.php?Season=1979&GameID=1800

There were loads going in over the wall that night and I'm sure I have a memory of the big gates at the Love St end being forced open.

Certainly the biggest crowd I've been in at Love St.

Were you not in attendance at the "Gilshan" Rangers game , big chap ? Over 42k official !

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I can remember feeling utterly dejected about losing this cup tie back in the day. But as Kendo pointed out it was justice for Luther when Aber returned the compliment to McGrain at parkhead. I stood with a few mates in the Old Rangers end at parkhead and we had a resounding round of applause as the dirty wee rat bag McGrain was carried off on the stretcher. :)

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Aberdeen are a pretty successful and decent side but I think if they played St.Mirren in a Scottish Cup final in the next couple of years we would still struggle to repeat the 108,591 crowd who watched the two teams compete for the 1959 Scottish Cup.

If Saints were playing electrifying football and competing in the top half of the Premiership our home support would probably still not top 5,000 most weeks.

Life has changed, society has changed. The game has changed. C'est La Vie.

  • Aberdeen and St Mirren would certainly struggle to match the 1959 crowd at Hampden taking into account the present capacity of Hampden. However, Aberdeen under Ferguson were probably playing in front of bigger crowds then than they were about 20 years previously when we met them in the 1959 cup final.
  • If Saints could produce a team of similar quality to that of the late 70s and early 80s I am confident that the 2020 stadium would be a sell-out.
  • Yes life has changed - St Mirren have not produced a team anything like the one featured in the video ever since - that's not to say that we will be in chronic decline for ever more.
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  • Aberdeen and St Mirren would certainly struggle to match the 1959 crowd at Hampden taking into account the present capacity of Hampden. However, Aberdeen under Ferguson were probably playing in front of bigger crowds then than they were about 20 years previously when we met them in the 1959 cup final.
  • If Saints could produce a team of similar quality to that of the late 70s and early 80s I am confident that the 2020 stadium would be a sell-out.
  • Yes life has changed - St Mirren have not produced a team anything like the one featured in the video ever since - that's not to say that we will be in chronic decline for ever more.

As things stand with TV coverage, gate prices and the economic climate, while I would love to see a really good St Mirren side playing good football in the top half of the SPFL I don't think we would see the Paisley 2021 Stadium sold out. Any manager who got us top 6 would be lured to a bigger club before the January window opened as would any matchwinning decent players and we'd soon be left with the average players the bigger clubs didn't want.

When this game was broadcast on TV I think BBC and Scotsport on STV did highlights of 1 game each week - usually the Old Firm matches and they also had to follow Aberdeen and Dundee Utd regularly since they were often winning the league or challenging for the title. In those days you might only see a very good St Mirren team on the telly 7 or 8 times a season and it was a big deal to arrive at the ground and see the big cherry pcker with the TV camera hovering above the Love St end and know our game was going to be "the" TV game that weekend. These days we have a rubbish team, its expensive to go, and if you want to see St Mirren you can see highlights or the goals from every game via BBC or St Mirren TV's online highlights. In the 'old days' if you wanted to see St Mirren you had to go and turn up at the ground they were playing at.

The finance in the 80's meant St Mirren and Aberdeen could outbid Celtic and Rangers for top up and coming players and players would choose non-OF teams when offered a choice of who to sign for - unimaginable now I am afraid.

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