Saints Prevail in a Howler (1986)

(first published in the match programme for St. Mirren v Dundee United 11^th January 2025)

Motherwell were the visitors to Love Street on Saturday, 11^th January 1986 for a Premier Division match. Saints were placed in the bottom half of the 10-team table, but had games in hand over the teams above them. The Steelmen, having won the First Division in season 1984/85, were finding life hard on their return to the top flight and were bottom of the league, still without an away League win.

The programme for the match was Issue No. 14 of St. Mirren's standard programme for the season. It was a twenty-page B5-sized issue, printed black on white glossy paper with red highlights on the outside cover pages and one inside page. The cover displayed action from the home League clash with Motherwell in mid-September.

The team line-ups were listed on page three, each side showing changes between the printed and actual starting elevens. For Saints, Neil Cooper and Ian Cameron replaced Tommy Wilson and Brian Gallagher, whilst Jamie Doyle, Andy Harrow and John Gahagan replaced Andy Dornan, Andy Walker and Frank Mulvaney for the Steelmen.

Manager Alex Miller reviewed the December 0-1 loss to Hearts, admitting that the better team had won on the day. In contrast, the one touch moves that had been worked upon in training had proved decisive in Saints' 3-0 win over Clydebank on New Year's Day. Three days later at Pittodrie, Saints fell behind to an early goal and the snowy conditions contributed to a 2-0 interval deficit. Despite Brian Gallagher's second half counter, Aberdeen ran out 3-1 winners. Nevertheless, the Manager felt it had been a good performance in poor conditions with Tony Fitzpatrick being the top Saint.

Reserve Coach Drew Jarvie reported on the youngsters' 3-0 win over Clydebank on 2^nd January, all of the goals coming in the second half. He also remarked on the frequency of changes to the fixture list, either because of the weather or due to a request from the opponents on the grounds of illness or injuries, and he hoped that supporters would be kept informed of such changes through the newspapers.

John Byrne covered the previous two meetings between the sides that season and followed this up with an appreciation of Motherwell's John Hunter and a piece on early ventures abroad by Scottish clubs and the national side.

After a couple of pages of photo action from Saints' visit to Pittodrie and a caption competition featuring Peter Godfrey and Motherwell's John Reilly, "Profile" focussed on teenager Brian Hamilton, who was just breaking in to the first team.

Frank Tocher's "Editor's Notes" looked at the recent Scottish Cup Third Round draw and the fact that Celtic had been drawn at home - again! St. Mirren would be making the trip to Methil to meet East Fife and, in the Editor's opinion, Rangers' season would be over if they lost their tie at Tynecastle, which they did.

Two pages were devoted to the visitors, with one of these being a full-page photo of Motherwell 'keeper John Gardiner in action during his side's last visit to Paisley. On the opposite page, there was a detailed analysis of the Motherwell squad.

Before a crowd of 3,080 spectators, Motherwell were up against it from the start as they found themselves playing into a gale-force wind. Yet it was the visitors who made the first chance when an Andy Harrow shot was touched over by Saints' 'keeper Campbell Money.

With the wind at their backs, St. Mirren began to put the Motherwell goal under pressure and a Neil Cooper header was cleared off the line by Jamie Doyle. The pressure paid off in the 20^th minute when an Ian Cameron corner from the right was fumbled at the far post by goalkeeper John Gardiner and Frank McGarvey was on the spot to sweep the ball home.

Although Saints held the advantage, Motherwell still looked dangerous on the break and Money did well to thwart John Reilly in a one-on-one situation.

The visitors were temporarily reduced to ten men at the end of the first half when Alex Kennedy sustained a head injury, but he returned for the start of the second half and almost snatched an equaliser with a header which was touched wide by Money.

The horrendous weather conditions reduced the match to a lottery and Motherwell's hopes of gaining anything from the fixture were blown away following the loss of one of their top performers, Fraser Wishart, to injury early in the second half.

St. Mirren's 1-0 victory brought some stability to their form and deepened Motherwell's plight. However they, and fellow strugglers Clydebank, would be saved from relegation by the expansion of the top division to twelve clubs at the end of the season.