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Frank Mcgarvey diagnosed with cancer


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If memories are right, we beat Hearts in Edinburgh with a goal my Paul Chalmers late in the season of 1987/1988.

As usual, we were fighting the drop so happy as we hit a pub after the game.

As the scores came on the telly, Falkirk had lost so we were staying up.

Then we heard a Heart fan said in a loud voice, that result mean we will need to put up with that wee **** McGarvey again next year  😂 

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Apart from reading and watching so many memories of a great St Mirren player it made me think he was even greater than what i thought.

How many players can say they were signed or played for three of the great managers. Alex Ferguson, Bob Paisley and Jock Stein.

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

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17 minutes ago, Tommy said:

If memories are right, we beat Hearts in Edinburgh with a goal my Paul Chalmers late in the season of 1987/1988.

As usual, we were fighting the drop so happy as we hit a pub after the game.

As the scores came on the telly, Falkirk had lost so we were staying up.

Then we heard a Heart fan said in a loud voice, that result mean we will need to put up with that wee **** McGarvey again next year  😂 

Remember it well. The abuse Frank got from the hearts fans  for the whole 90 minutes made Chalmers goal all the sweeter

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I remember the first time I saw Frank play for St Mirren. He came on as a sub to make his debut away at East Stirlingshire on April 26th 1975 on the second last game of the season. We were a very poor team back then finishing 6th in the old League Division 2 behind the likes of East Fife and Montrose.  The crowd was only 833 and we were already 5-0 down when Frank appeared. But despite the miserable day I was thrilled to watch this great wee player who came on and knew he was a diamond who would shine for us the following season. And so it proved.

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5 hours ago, Cookie Monster said:

Apart from reading and watching so many memories of a great St Mirren player it made me think he was even greater than what i thought.

How many players can say they were signed or played for three of the great managers. Alex Ferguson, Bob Paisley and Jock Stein.

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk
 

Dalglish. He’s in good company!

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FANTASTIC FROM ST MIRREN.INFO ON FACEBOOK

 

With our first home match since the untimely passing of club legend Frank McGarvey, I will assume that we are going to take time to remember him and his decade of service to the club over his two spells.

I was fortunate enough to see him play during both of his spells with Saints. In fact, he scored in the very first Saints match I attended, along with Jimmy Bone, in a 2-1 victory over Aberdeen in October 1978.

Browsing through my collection of trading cards I have scanned the ones that feature Frank from the early days of the 1970's up to his assistant manager spell in the late 1980s. 

In 2013/14, many years after he had retired, Topps included Frank in their Match Attax collection under a heading which summed up his standing in the memories of Saints fans...... LEGEND!

The following is an article I wrote for the Saints programme a few years back....

FRANK McGARVEY
1976-77 First Division winner
1987 Scottish Cup winner
St Mirren’s greatest post war scorer!

McGarvey arrived at Love Street in December 1974, but was loaned back to Kilsyth Rangers for the season.
He joined Kilsyth from Colston YC in July 1974, establishing himself as a prolific scorer, scoring 15 times. That form prompted Saints manager Alex Ferguson to hand him his debut as sub against East Stirlingshire on 26th April 1975. It wasn’t a happy start as Saints lost 5-0!
Two days later, he was back in the Kilsyth team, scoring in a 2-1 victory over Blantyre Celtic.

He returned to Saints team for a friendly against KR Reykjavik in August 1975. He wasted no time showing fans what he could do, scoring four in a 5-3 win.
Following this impressive display, he became a regular during 1975-76.
His first competitive goal came in a League Cup win over East Fife on the 9th August. He went on to score 11 times from 40 appearances.

1976-77. The season Fergies Furies came of age. None more so than Frank. He scored seventeen league goals as Saints marched to the First Division title and promotion to the Premier League.
Frank was the star as the title was clinched at Dens Park on the 19th April, claiming his first senior hat-trick in a 4-0 rout of Dundee.
This form was not unnoticed and on 29th April Frank won a Scotland U-21 cap against England. He added a second against Czechoslovakia in September, as his form continued in the top league.
He again scored 17 league goals with 6 in cup competition to remain top scorer.
He gained further honours when he played for the Scottish League against the Italian League on April 26th 1978.

1978-79 was another good year as he continued to score goals. Not quite managing the 17 of the previous two seasons, but 13 kept him top scorer.
Three of these goals came at Fir Park as Motherwell were defeated 3-0. For that match Frank borrowed a pair of boots from Alex Beckett. They didn’t seem to do him any harm!
This form attracted the attention of English clubs and it was no surprise when Liverpool paid £300,000 to take him south in May 1979.

After 10 months in the Anfield reserves, Frank returned to Scotland for a five-year spell at Celtic, culminating in scoring the winner in the 1985 Scottish Cup final. 
Surprisingly, immediately after this game he was told he had no future at Parkhead and was on his way back to Paisley for £80,000.

He was soon back in scoring form, netting in his second match. He ended the season with 12, including a double in a UEFA Cup victory over Slavia Prague. His second goal was a cheeky back heel flick which sealed a 3-1 aggregate win.
He put Saints on the road to victory in the 2nd leg of the 2nd round against Hammarby, before being subbed near the end of the match……the least said about what happened next, the better!

The 1987 Scottish Cup was, by his own admission, one of the highlights of his career.
Wins over Caledonian, Raith Rovers and Morton took Saints to Hampden for a semi-final against Hearts. With the score tied at 1-1, the ball broke to Frank inside the six-yard box and he managed to guide it under Henry Smith, and Saints were in the final.
16th May 1987. Ten years after helping Saints win the First Division; he played his part as the Scottish Cup returned to Paisley.

Saints failed to capitalise on the cup win and 1987-88 was disappointing for the club and for Frank. He managed just two goals from 34 matches.
In April 1988 manager Alex Smith resigned. Tony Fitzpatrick took over and Frank was named player/assistant manager.
He continued to play throughout the 88-89 season, but again struggled to find the scoring touch, finishing with three goals.

His final season at the club saw him concentrate more on the managerial role, making just four appearances during 1989-90. His final match was against Hibernian on the 16th September.
At the end of the season he joined Queen of the South as player/manager. 

And now that ‘Greatest post-war scorer’ claim!

Most records show Frank three goals behind Tommy Gemmell in the post war charts.
However, deeper inspection of these records indicate that they don’t include goals scored in the Spring Cup of 1976 or the 1978 Anglo Scottish Cup.
Adding these nine goals to his total, hoists Frank, not only above Gemmell, but into an elite group of just five men, who have scored over 100 goals for the club.
His record reads 102 goals from 341 matches.

RIP Frank
Thanks for the memories.

 

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