Saints Go Nap Against the Sons (1996)

(first published in the match programme for St. Mirren v Hearts, 3^rd February 2026)

St. Mirren welcomed Dumbarton to Love Street on 3^rd February 1996 with both sides sitting in the bottom half of the First Division. Whilst Saints' recent good results had pulled them away from the relegation zone, the Sons remained rooted to the foot of the table having lost all six matches in the year to date.

The Saints programme for season 1995/96 was a full-colour issue consisting of 32, B5-sized pages. Three different cover photos were used throughout the season, the Dumbarton issue using a photo of Robert Dawson holding aloft the Phoenix Honda Challenge Cup, which was won against Rangers at the beginning of the season.

Manager Jimmy Bone's piece welcomed Saints back to Love Street after four games spent on the road. (In fact, the previous midweek had seen the visit of Morton to Paisley in a rearranged game, but no programme had been issued.) He commented that Norrie McWhirter's return from injury had coincided with an upturn in Saints' results, but also bemoaned the lack of discipline that had seen avoidable red cards issued to three players in recent matches.

A welcome was extended to the players and officials from Dumbarton. Whilst the Club's recent League results had not been too kind to them, they still couldn't be taken lightly and, with the spectre of relegation in the background, a tight match was anticipated.

Page five then presented an interesting interview with former Love Street goalkeeper Denis Connaghan, who fondly recalled his time at the Club, as well as having had spells with Celtic, Clydebank, Clyde and Morton.

"Saints in Camera" featured action from the recent games against Clydebank, Dundee and Hamilton, while "What's on at the 'Plex" covered activities at the St. Mirren Sports and Leisure Complex.

 

Ricky Gillies was the subject of "Portrait of a Saint" and "News and Views" featured a number of items of current interest, including the sad news of former Saint Jimmy Drinkwater's passing.

As usual, the centre pages were allocated to the team line-ups, however numerous changes to both sides prior to the match rendered these pages worthless.

"Down the Years" detailed Saints victories against Hibernian (1971) and Kilmarnock (1946) and a defeat to Raith Rovers (1921). This piece sat opposite the regular "Fan File" spot, which featured 36-year old Graeme Curtis.

"Predominately First Division" by Jim Jeffrey looked at the effect of the bad weather on the Scottish Cup Third Round matches scheduled for the previous weekend, when only 6 of the scheduled 15 ties took place, and also remarked on the recent upturn of results for Hamilton Academical.

Two pages were devoted to the visitors from across the Clyde. Notes on the playing squad were augmented by a detailed look at "Star Visitor" Hugh Burns. There was also a historical article about Dumbarton's appearances in three consecutive Scottish Cup Finals between 1881 and 1883. The first two of these were lost to Queens Park, but they eventually triumphed over Vale of Leven at the third attempt. All three finals went to replays.

"Hall of Fame" focussed on St. Mirren's record goalscorer David McCrae, who netted 222 league career goals during the 1920s and 1930s, whilst "Connections from a Bygone Era" recalled players who had played for both Saints and Sons, including Roland Fabiani, John Boyd and "Chic" Charnley.

Two pages of "Saints Stats" presented a wealth of information for the season to date and the remaining thirteen pages of adverts completed the issue. It is readily obtainable nowadays at a reasonable price.

An unsurprisingly small crowd of 1,871 gathered at Love Street for the St. Mirren v Dumbarton clash, which was one of only two First Division matches to survive the wintry February weather (the other being Dundee United v St. Johnstone).

The Buddies started the match well and certainly showed an improvement from their midweek performance and defeat at home to Morton. However, in a first half of numerous chances for the home side, all they had to show for their efforts was a 21^st minute Barry Lavety headed goal.

As chances continued to be squandered at the start of the second period, thoughts of a possible Sons equaliser began to emerge. However, the home fans' nerves were eased after 57 minutes when Mark Yardley set up Lavety for another headed goal to double the score. Two minutes later, Paul Fenwick dived in to head his first goal for Saints and, in 69 minutes, substitute Stephen Watson raised the tally to four.

Immediately after, Manager Jimmy Bone sent on 17-year old Chris Iwelumo and the youngster marked his debut with a goal three minutes from time when he ran on to a Jim Dick pass, shrugged off a couple of challenges and slammed the ball home to make the final score St. Mirren 5 Dumbarton 0.