Saints Add to Gers' Woes (1983)

(first published in the match programme for St. Mirren v Hearts, 29^th October 2025)

St. Mirren welcomed Rangers to Love Street on 29^th October 1983 with both clubs undergoing a period of transition. Saints had only recently appointed former Rangers player Alex Miller as Manager to replace Ricky McFarlane, whilst Rangers were reeling from the previous evenings' news that John Greig had resigned, leaving caretaker Tommy McLean in charge for the Saints match.

Both Clubs had endured a busy start to the season with midweek European and League Cup fixtures punctuating the weekend League matches. League form had suffered and both were occupying places in the lower end of the table. Indeed, Saints were only a matter of goal difference from the bottom and were still looking for their first league victory after eight games.

The 20-page match programme for the Rangers match was the standard Saints issue for season 1983/84, priced at 40p. The predominately red cover was overprinted with the match details and included a colour action photo from a match against Aberdeen. The only other use of colour was on the back-page advert. Inside, densely-packed text in a small font was used throughout in an issue packed with information and features under the Editorship of Alex Benvie.

Newly-appointed manager Alex Miller presented his A. M. Report on page three. Owing to the postponement of the previous home game against Dundee United on 15^th October and the non-issue of the programme for that game, his introductory piece was repeated in this programme to coincide with his first home match as Manager.

Miller countered the media comments concerning his management inexperience with the assertion that his training and coaching experience and emphasis on discipline would be put to good use at Love Street. He was undeterred by the tag of "youngest manager in the Premier League" by stating that he would seek advice when required and would make good use of his new management team of Martin Ferguson and Drew Jarvie.

He recognised the importance of the supporters and their right to expect the players to work hard. Love Street was a big ground with a big crowd potential and he urged everyone to work hard towards filling the ground and realising that potential.

John Byrne's "In the Past" looked back at previous Saints v Rangers encounters. St. Mirren's 1-0 home victory from the previous season was followed by the 1904 meeting at Ibrox in which four of the nine goals in Saints' 5-4 victory came from penalties. The piece concluded with a review of the 1943 Summer Cup Final, Alex Linwood's single goal bringing the cup back to Paisley.

"Paisley Past" focussed on a 2-0 victory at Easter Road in season 1952/53 and sat above Alex Bell's 10-question quiz and opposite a number of short news items. This was followed by "Saints Centenary", which devoted a page to facts and trivia on the Buddies' victorious tour of Spain in 1922.

The centre page spread was devoted to the visiting side, presenting a review of Rangers' season thus far with pen pictures of the players and a full-page team photo.

A glowing appreciation of former Saints boss Ricky McFarlane sat above an action photo of Frank McAvennie in the recent match against Motherwell.

"Buddies Talk" featured a number of football programme-related items, including news of the forthcoming Scottish Programme Fair, newspaper coverage of a battle of words between the editors of two Premier club issues and a report of the theft and subsequent recovery of a rare item from the touring "Scottish Football Exhibition" in Dundee.

Club Captain Mark Fulton was the subject of a two-page "Saints Profile", while season stats, team line-ups and the Half Time Board drew the issue to a close.

For the second Saturday in a row, Saints fielded 35-year-old reserve team coach Drew Jarvie in the starting line-up, whilst Rangers gave a debut to Northern Ireland international right back Jimmy Nicholl and also had youngster Kenny Lyall slotting in for his first League match at left back.

Before a crowd of 12,068, St. Mirren opened the scoring after 25 minutes. A poor clearance from Rangers' skipper John McClelland was met by Frank McAvennie, who sent the ball out to Ian Scanlon on the right side. With Lyall hesitating and appealing for offside, Scanlon advanced and cut the ball back for Frank McDougall to sidefoot into the net off Rangers' defender Gregor Stevens.

After 67 minutes, the Rangers defence was posted missing as three Saints advanced towards goal. McDougall's attempted chip was touched sideways by 'keeper Jim Stewart but, before lone defender Lyall could react, Jarvie slid the ball in for Saints' second goal.

Six minutes from the end, the Ibrox defence was again non-existent as Scanlon jogged through the middle to toe the ball under the unprotected goalie and seal a remarkable 3-0 victory for Saints.