St. Mirren Prevail in a Six-Minute Showdown (1980)

(first published in the match programme for St. Mirren v Celtic, 22^nd November 2025)

On 22^nd November 1980, St. Mirren travelled to Celtic Park to take on Celtic in a Premier League encounter with both sides looking to kick start their season after some poor results.

After exiting the UEFA Cup to St. Etienne earlier in the month, Saints had returned to League business with an overly-physical 1-1 draw against Rangers at Paisley, followed by a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice in which Billy Thomson had single-handedly kept the score down. As a result, they lay seventh in the table and were in danger of being sucked into the relegation dogfight.

Celtic also suffered an early exit from Europe and were trailing behind Aberdeen and Rangers in the League. They then failed to reach the League Cup Final, losing 3-0 in the second leg of the semi-final at Celtic Park in the midweek before the St. Mirren match.

The twenty-page Celtic programme measured 24cm by 17cm, with colour on the front and back covers and green and black print on the white inside pages. The full match details were displayed on the front cover alongside a photo from a recent Celtic v Dundee United encounter.

In "From The Manager", Billy McNeill aired his disappointment at the manner of Celtic's midweek League Cup semi-final exit to Dundee United. He anticipated that the visitors would come with the effort and determination necessary to lift St. Mirren out of their present plight and urged his own side to work a lot harder and show a similar attitude for the Club and the supporters.

"Behind The Scenes" provided news about up-and-coming Celtic youth players Davie Moyes and Chris McCart, both of whom would go on to greater things.

Pages six and seven listed the two squads of players and match officials, sandwiched between a photo of Saints' Doug Somner and the Half-Time Scoreboard. There was also an appeal for the travelling support to be on their best behaviour at Celtic's forthcoming match in London against Arsenal for Sammy Nelson's testimonial.

"Reserve Scene" reported on the promotion of four players from the youth set up to the first team in the space of only three months, those players being Pat Bonner, Charlie Nicholas, Mark Reid and John Weir.

St. Mirren's problem, as stated in "Today's Visitors", appeared to be the absence of goals. It had been a real puzzle to Manager Jim Clunie, as basically the same players who had scored so freely in the previous season were now failing to put the chances away. The Manager hoped that the atmosphere and opposition of the forthcoming match would encourage the team to strike the form they were capable of.

During the 1980/81 season, Celtic and Hearts (and latterly St. Mirren) incorporated a 24-page insert to the programme called "Programme Plus", designed and produced by London-based Sportopia Promotions. Despite the use of full colour, the content focussed on the English game and six of the pages were adverts. The insert ultimately failed to capture the imagination of the readership, and all three clubs dropped it from their programmes at the end of the season.

Saints almost took the lead after four minutes, but Doug Somner and Jimmy Bone both failed to take advantage of a loose pass from Tom McAdam. In Celtic's only real chance of the first half, Tommy Burns got in between Alex Beckett and Jackie Copland, but his effort went over the bar. In the second period, a Billy Stark lob evaded Bonner, but McAdam got back to head off the line.

Just when both sets of frustrated fans in the crowd of 14,839 were settling for a goal-less draw, the match sprung into life. In 84 minutes, a long ball from Peter Weir into the Celtic penalty area was half cleared by Mark Reid. Bone and McAdam challenged for the loose ball, but it broke to Lex Richardson and his crisp shot from 12 yards gave Bonner no chance.

The cheers from the visiting fans had barely started when Celtic drew level. Straight from the restart, Burns stormed towards the St. Mirren penalty area and was challenged by Copland. Referee Delaney, in spite of massed protests from the Saints players, awarded the spot kick and substitute George McCluskey despatched the ball beyond Billy Thomson.

With only two minutes remaining, a Weir corner was only partially cleared and the ball fell to Beckett some 25 yards out. Alex had time to comb what was left of his hair before volleying home a magnificent winner - his first goal in three years.

Despite the win, Saints' Manager Jim Clunie was relieved of his position just four days later, to be replaced by Assistant Ricky McFarlane.