Pandemonium at Paisley (1954)

(first published in the match programme for St. Mirren v St. Johnstone, 30^th October 2024)

St. Mirren welcomed Rangers to Love Street on 30^th October 1954 on League business at the end of an horrendous month in which they had shipped four goals in three successive league games. Despite the setbacks, Saints were only two points behind the Ibrox club and both of them were still close enough to early season League leaders Aberdeen.

The St. Mirren programme, no. 121 in the series, was the usual eight-page issue printed black on white and costing threepence. It featured the famous image of "Cairter's Corner" which had been introduced to the programme cover in the previous season and which would dominate for another ten years to come.

The full match details appeared below the cover image, as did the more prominent information about the next match to be played at Love Street, a league fixture against Celtic on the following Saturday. This emphasis still confuses programme dealers and collectors to this day, as the eye is naturally drawn to the larger text.

Opposite the list of fixtures for the season on page two, the "Club Notes" discussed the current form of the visitors from Govan. Critics had been writing them off as a spent force, to the point that the only solution seemed to be to buy practically a new team. However, in stark contrast to Saints' month, Rangers had stormed back to new form and had banged in no fewer than twenty-one goals in their last four matches.

The opinion of the anonymous writer of the "Notes" was that there was nothing basically different in the Ibrox Club's style of play and that St. Mirren had the men to hold them. In Saints' most recent match, a 1-0 victory at Brockville, the half-backs and inside-forwards had linked well enough to show that they could pose a real problem to an Ibrox defence which had not yet been seriously tested.

Just as the St. Mirren managerial post had only recently been taken up Willie Reid, this was also the first visit to Paisley by new Rangers boss Scot Symon, and he received a warm welcome in the programme notes.

There was also the news that, on the Monday after the Rangers match, St. Mirren would be taking to the air for the first time in their history for a floodlight fixture in London against Crystal Palace.

The centre pages, as usual, featured the team line-ups bordered by adverts from Paisley-based merchants. The home side took the field as printed (although the Editor hedged his bets by listing a choice of centre-forward). Rangers made two changes from the listed eleven, Niven replacing Brown in goal and Little taking the field at left back instead of McKenzie.

The only other reading matter was the Half-time Scoreboard on page seven, which listed fourteen Scottish fixtures, albeit two of them were rendered invalid by rearranged Scottish Cup ties on the day.

In addition to the age of such an issue, the current interest in items involving Rangers is likely to inflate the price of this programme nowadays, quite easily above three figures.

Love Street's biggest crowd of the season, 35,054, saw the visitors storm the St. Mirren goal from the start, forcing Jim Lornie into a string of remarkable saves from Paton, Waddell, Young and Grierson. The question was, how long could Saints hold out?

However, Saints' outside-left Brian Callan began to take control and his angled shot just failed to evade George Niven in the Rangers goal. Callan again tormented the Rangers defence and drew a foul from George Young, which earned the Rangers defender a reprimand from the referee and boos from the home crowd every time he touched the ball thereafter.

Rangers did find the net, but Grierson was adjudged to have fouled Lornie. However, with three minutes of the half remaining, the same two players collided just as the Rangers man tried to shoot and a penalty was awarded. "Penalty King" Johnny Hubbard netted from the spot to give Rangers a 1-0 half time lead.

St. Mirren got their own penalty award after 58 minutes. Callan once again tormented the Rangers defence, only for Ian McColl to stick out a knee and fell the winger in the box. Willie Telfer ran the length of the pitch to bury the resultant kick past Niven.

That was the turning point and St. Mirren now realised that Rangers had run themselves down. The Paisley forwards began to hold the ball instead of needlessly getting rid of it. Jimmy McDonald had the ball in the net, but it was chalked off for an infringement against McColl.

The winner, fifteen minutes from time, was a fitting climax to a hectic game. John McGuigan took a corner on the right and Niven rose to catch the ball, but dropped it, injuring himself in the process. In the ensuing melee, McDonald buried the ball into the visitors net to give St. Mirren the points.