Jump to content

Ex-Player.


J.M.

Recommended Posts

Greetings, Good morning, I wanted to ask about former club players, especially from the 86/87 season, I'm interested in knowing their positions on the pitch, starting with the following players:

* Steve Clarke - Right full-back
* Peter Godfrey - Central Defender
* Neil Cooper - Central Defender, Defensive Midfielder
* Derek Hamilton - Left Full-back

it is right? will you help me?

Link to comment
Share on other sites


2 minutes ago, J.M. said:

Greetings, Good morning, I wanted to ask about former club players, especially from the 86/87 season, I'm interested in knowing their positions on the pitch, starting with the following players:

* Steve Clarke - Right full-back
* Peter Godfrey - Central Defender
* Neil Cooper - Central Defender, Defensive Midfielder
* Derek Hamilton - Left Full-back

it is right? will you help me?

Correct, but I'm not sure about Neil Cooper as a defensive midfielder, 

Stevie Clarke could play all across the back 4 but Right back was his more natural position..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, DumboBud said:

I thought Stevie Clark mainly played left back for us, Tommy Wilson keeping him out of his best position. 
 

The more things change the more they stay the same, we have rarely in recent years had a proper left back. 

Stevie played a season as a centre half

Then later on played in midfield

He played right back when wee Tam Wilson was out for a season thanks to the Thuggish Ally Dawson

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest TPAFKATS
Paul Lambert played most of his sports career as a defensive central midfielder, in his early years in the saints did he also play in that position?
Don't recall him being a defensive midfielder he was more creative than that.
Something he became after he moved from Motherwell to dortmund I think?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saw Paul play on what may well have been his first game for us against Hibs at Easter Road and am sure he played in a wide right midfield role we had not long moved to Edinburgh to live and I believe Miller was our manager

Don't recall him being a defensive midfielder he was more creative than that.
Something he became after he moved from Motherwell to dortmund I think?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

With Ian Ferguson we would be facing a case similar to Lambert's, that is to say, over the years they are remembered as more defensive players but that in their first years, both in St.Mirren, they were more creative players than defenders?

Would Billy Abercromby be in charge of performing more defensive tasks in the center of the field? I think he could also play in defense, could it be?

Edited by J.M.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest TPAFKATS
With Ian Ferguson we would be facing a case similar to Lambert's, that is to say, over the years they are remembered as more defensive players but that in their first years, both in St.Mirren, they were more creative players than defenders?
Would Billy Abercromby be in charge of performing more defensive tasks in the center of the field? I think he could also play in defense, could it be?
Don't recall Aber playing in defence unless covering due to injury during a game?
My fading memory just has midfielders, they all attacked, some more than others, and all defended.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/18/2020 at 9:39 AM, Yflab said:

Nah think I’m talking shite.

One thing about Neil Cooper was he was a very consistent player for us. Usually a 7/10 each week. Rarely injured or suspended iirc.

85/86 saw Neil Cooper play a number of games in midfield with Steve Clarke in central defence most of that season.

The side that beat Slavia Prague 3-0 in the UEFA Cup was:

Money -
Wilson, Godfrey, Clarke, Hamilton - Rooney, Cooper, Fitzpatrick, Speirs - Gallagher, McGarvey

Subs- McDowall and Scanlon 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, Yflab said:

Thanks. My initial response was that he had then I changed my mind as I could not be arsed trawling the programme site for evidence. Cheers Capn.

He was definitely playing in central defence when he first arrived in 83/84.

John McCormack has been partnering Mark Fulton in central defence and he was moved into midfield when Cooper arrived.

He arrived around the same time as Derek Hamilton and they were Alex Miller’s first signings other than Drew Jarvie.
 

We went on an amazing run after Miller arrived, beating Rangers 3-0, then Celtic 4-2 (2-0 down after 20 mins then 3-2 up by half time then Scanlon’s late long range clincher), then we beat reigning champions Dundee United 4-0 in midweek. United had all their big guns back then, Gough, Hegarty, Narey, Malpas, Bannon, Sturrock, Dodds and almost reached the European Cup Final. McAvennie scored a hat trick.

Side for those games was

Thomson - Clarke, Cooper, Fulton, Hamilton, - McCormack, Fitzpatrick, Abercromby, Scanlon - McAvennie, McDougall

 

Edited by Sue Denim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Yflab said:

I remember that Stevie Clarke scored a scorcher of a goal just on the half time whistle in that game that was chalked off while the shot was airborne.

We made some blunders in the transfer market at the start of that season.

Sold Billy Stark to Aberdeen very cheaply and before freedom of contract and signed striker Rowan Alexander. Possibly Ricky McFarlane’s thinking was that McAvennie would assume the attacking midfield role but Alex Miller decided, quite rightly, that he was a striker when he arrived.

And we swapped Lex Richardson for another striker, Eric Sinclair, who I think played once.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Yflab said:

I remember that Stevie Clarke scored a scorcher of a goal just on the half time whistle in that game that was chalked off while the shot was airborne.

I can remember an almost identical situation Yflab, but my aged brain has John McCormack as the unfortunate "goalscorer" who had it disallowed. A bullet header from a corner on my imagination.

Perhaps there were two similar occurances,  but most likely your recall is sharper than my fuzzy brain.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Billy Stark one I could understand , he had gone a bit stale and had been a great servant , plus we got some money. The Richardson/Sinclair deal was a disgrace though and was  the rock that Ricky McFarlane perished on . When Miller came in , Sinclair's feet hardly touched the ground. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, Sue Denim said:

We made some blunders in the transfer market at the start of that season.

Sold Billy Stark to Aberdeen very cheaply and before freedom of contract and signed striker Rowan Alexander. Possibly Ricky McFarlane’s thinking was that McAvennie would assume the attacking midfield role but Alex Miller decided, quite rightly, that he was a striker when he arrived.

And we swapped Lex Richardson for another striker, Eric Sinclair, who I think played once.....

In the 86/87 season the Saints would use a 4-3-3 scheme, with the midfielders who played the most as starters Billy Abercromby, Paul Lambert and Ian Ferguson? being Abercromby the one who did a more defensive job? .... although he also played many games as a starter Brian Hamilton who I think was also a defensive-style midfielder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Yflab said:

I remember that Stevie Clarke scored a scorcher of a goal just on the half time whistle in that game that was chalked off while the shot was airborne.

Was that goal not scored in a 3-3 draw against the Arabs? Scored from way out on the right, in front of the enclosure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

79/80 to 84/85 was without any doubt the best period in our club’s history.

A 3rd place, a 4th place, 3 5th places and a 6th in the League.

3 cup semi finals

An Anglo Scottish Cup win

3 of only 4 European adventures in our history.

For a club like ours it was a golden period and I feel privileged that those were my formative years as a St. Mirren fan.  The mid 70s gave me the bug and then that period just sealed the deal. 
I could have extended it out to 87 to capture the cup win, but as magical a day as that was, from 86 onwards, as a league team you just felt that the rot had started to set in a little and we were definitely no longer the consistent force we had been before. 

Edited by TPAFKA Jersey 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, J.M. said:

In the 86/87 season the Saints would use a 4-3-3 scheme, with the midfielders who played the most as starters Billy Abercromby, Paul Lambert and Ian Ferguson? being Abercromby the one who did a more defensive job? .... although he also played many games as a starter Brian Hamilton who I think was also a defensive-style midfielder.

86/87 was a long season with 44 league games plus the cups and there was a change of manager half way through. A whole lost of players were used and formations tried. It was probably the first time I’d ever seen us without more or less a settled 13/14 players who’d be used throughout the season.

Ian Ferguson didn’t arrive until a few games into the season and we initially had Dougie Bell on loan in midfield. Tony Fitzpatrick was still a regular as well as was Gardner Speirs until he got injured.

Paul Lambert actually started the season playing as a striker alongside McGarvey with Brian Gallagher playing wide in a 4-3-3.

Steve Clarke started the season in central defence but was switched to right back just before Chelsea signed him. My suspicion is that he was switched to right back to allow Chelsea to see him there before signing him. Once he left then Neil Cooper replaced him. Peter Godfrey has been the centre half but got injured and was replaced by David Winnie who had been playing left back. Derek Hamilton then came back into the side at left back. Tommy Wilson was the right back for most of the season.

 

Miller reverted to 4-4-2 with Ian Ferguson in midfield and Ian Cameron coming into the side wide left after Speirs was injured.

Paul Chalmers also arrived to play up front.

Billy Abercromby played a few games at left back that season and was then suspended for 12 games have his triple sending off against Motherwell.

Alex Smith switched to 4-3-3 in the latter part of the season. Paul Chalmers scored twice in the cup win at Cappielow but after he got injured, Smith pushed Ian Ferguson up front. Abercromby came back into the side from suspension and replaced the injured Fitzpatrick in midfield.

The midfield 3 in the cup final were Hamilton, Abercromby and Lambert with McGarvey, McDowall and Ferguson up front.

 

Edited by Sue Denim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...