St. Mirren Conquer Their Semi-Final Hoodoo (1987)

(first published in the match programme for St. Mirren v Hearts, 10^th February 2025)

St. Mirren faced Heart of Midlothian on 11^th April 1987 at Hampden Park in the Buddies' fourth Scottish Cup semi-final appearance in the past six seasons. They had lost in consecutive years to Aberdeen and Rangers (both after drawn games at Celtic Park) and to Celtic at Hampden. Paisley folk were hoping that it would be fourth time lucky.

Saints faced selection difficulties, as Tony Fitzpatrick had been ruled out and both scorers in the quarter final win over Raith Rovers, Paul Chalmers and Peter Godfrey, had failed late fitness tests. Meanwhile, much was being reported that suspensions and injuries had robbed Hearts of the services of captain Walter Kidd, Brian Whittaker and John Robertson amongst others for the semi-final.

The Scottish Football Association produced a 32-page full colour programme for the tie, measuring 17cm by 24cm and costing £1. The predominately red front cover featured the match details and an action shot of Saints' Chalmers and Hearts' McDonald from an earlier clash at Tynecastle.

An initial "Scene Setter" and important message from the sponsors, the Scottish Health Education Group, was followed by five pages on Hearts, including a double page photo display of key players from the Tynecastle side along with historical facts about the Club.

The spotlight then turned to the two custodians, Henry Smith and Campbell Money, and provided an interesting insight to their careers thus far. Who knew that Smith had excelled in cricket, tennis and pool before turning to football, or that "Dibble" was forced to make a choice between the Police force and Love Street?

"The Bosses" then focussed on the two Alex's - Messrs MacDonald and Smith. Whilst the Hearts manager had gained more fame on the park, winning eight medals with Rangers, the St. Mirren manager could claim to have masterminded the biggest Scottish Cup scoreline of the century when Stirling Albion beat Selkirk 20-0 in 1984.

The "Road to the Semis" documented St. Mirren's triumphs over Highland League Caledonian (3-0), First Division Renfrewshire rivals Morton (3-2) and Second Division Raith Rovers (2-0) on their way to Hampden. Hearts' road to the semis had been much tougher, requiring three games against First Division Kilmarnock, a home victory over Celtic and a replayed quarter final against Motherwell.

After the centre pages had listed the two squads of players and match officials in a spread dominated by adverts, the programme became more interesting for Saints supporters with five pages on the Buddies, including action shots of Kenny McDowall, Neil Cooper and Peter Godfrey. Unfortunately, "St. Mirren - the Facts" was a bit error prone, with at least three inaccuracies in the information.

A "Danger Man" was then identified for both sides, choosing to focus on Hearts' John Colquhoun and Frank McGarvey for Saints, each occupying a double page of photo and narrative. Gary Mackay and Ian Ferguson then featured in full page colour action in "Starspot".

The final piece of reading matter detailed how the tournament prize money would be distributed and explained how it was linked to the disciplinary records of the participating sides. The programme reported that, at this stage of the competition, Dundee had achieved the highest total. However, taking into account the number of ties played so far and the gate money generated, Hearts were well on course to benefit financially more than even the eventual winners of the Cup!

The programme was well balanced in terms of photos and text and contained only six pages of adverts. It is quite an easy one to obtain nowadays at a reasonable price.

In sunny, dry conditions before a crowd of 32,390, both sides created openings but did little to trouble the goalkeepers in the early stages. St. Mirren did start to stretch the makeshift Hearts defence and, in the 33^rd minute, a long ball from David Winnie found Ian Ferguson in space. He rounded Henry Smith some fifteen yards from goal and slotted it home from an acute angle, George Cowie just failing to reach the ball on the line. St. Mirren took encouragement from the lead and, shortly afterwards, Brian Hamilton stung the palms of Smith with a tremendous right foot shot.

The youthful St. Mirren side lost their way for a period in the second half and, for once, Hearts' Gary Mackay evaded the attention of Billy Abercromby to gain an equaliser off the post for the Edinburgh club in the 74^th minute.

However, Saints weren't finished and, with seven minutes remaining, a Brian Hamilton throw in found Ian Cameron practically on the Hearts goal line. The substitute crossed the ball into the danger zone, where Kenny McDowall stretched to set it up for Frank McGarvey to swivel and score the winner from seven yards.

St. Mirren were in their first final for twenty-five years, where they would overcome Dundee United with an Ian Ferguson goal after extra time.