St. Mirren F.C.

Infobox Football club


clubname = St. Mirren
fullname = St. Mirren Football Club
nickname = "The Saints"
founded = 1877
ground = St. Mirren Park Love Street Paisley Renfrewshire PA3 2EA
capacity = 10,800 | chairman = flagicon|Scotland Stewart Gilmour
manager = flagicon|Scotland Gus MacPherson
league = Scottish Premier League
season = 2007-08
position = 10th

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shorts1=00000
socks1=000000

pattern_la2=_redborder
pattern_b2=_adidaslibero
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Saint Mirren Football Club (commonly known by the shortening St. Mirren or by nicknames; "The Buddies" and "The Saints") is a Scottish professional football club based in Paisley, Renfrewshire. St. Mirren play in the Scottish Premier League, having been promoted from the First Division in 2005-06. They are managed by former player Gus MacPherson. St. Mirren have won the Scottish Cup three times in 1926, 1959 and 1987 and have played four times in European competition (UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1987-1988 and the UEFA Cup 1980-1981, 1983-1984 and 1985-1986).

St Mirren FC background

Saint Mirren were formed as a gentlemen's club which included amongst other sports, cricket and rugby in the late 19th century. The increasing popularity of football ensured that by 1877 the members had decided to switch codes and play association football. They are named after Saint Mirin the founder of a church at the site of Paisley Abbey and Patron Saint of Paisley.

St Mirren played their first match on 6 October 1877, defeating Johnstone Britannia 1-0 at Shortroods. Two years later, the club moved to another ground; Thistle Park, Greenhills. St. Mirren's first Scottish Cup match came on 4 September 1880, a 3-0 victory over Johnstone Athletic. The following year, the Buddies reached their first cup final but were beaten 3-1 by Thornliebank in the Renfrewshire Cup. In 1883 however the scores were reversed with the saints winning the Renfrewshire Cup, 3-1 against Thornliebank. It is in 1883 that move to their third home, that of West March (early maps indicate area as West March and not Westmarch), defeating Queens Park in the first game. In 1885, St Mirren played their first match against Morton, resulting in a defeat.

The 1890 season was an historic season for St. Mirren, as they became founder members of the Scottish League along with fellow Paisley club Abercorn F.C. Of the 10 founder clubs, currently only 5 survive today in the current league system. It was during the match against Morton at Cappielow in this year, that St. Mirren played one of the first night games under light from oil lamps. St. Mirren moved to Love Street in 1894 and reached their first Scottish Cup final in the 1907–1908 season but were defeated 5-1 by Celtic. The Buddies went on to lift the trophy in 1926, 1959 and 1987. In the 1979/1980 season, St. Mirren achieved finished third behind Aberdeen F.C. and Celtic in the Premier League; their equal-highest ever finish in the top-flight. That season Saints also became the first and last Scottish club to win the Anglo-Scottish Cup, defeating Bristol City F.C. in a two-legged final. The following season, St. Mirren competed in European competition for the first time and won their initial game 2-1 vs. IF Elfsborg in Sweden, followed by a 0-0 draw in the second leg. The next round saw them play French team Saint-Étienne. Although St. Mirren's home leg ended up a 0-0 draw, Saint-Étienne pulled off a 2-0 victory in the second leg to put St. Mirren out of the cup.

The club have been relegated from the Premier League once (2000/2001) and the Premier Division of the Scottish Football League once (1991/1992) having escaped relegation from the latter in 1991 after league re-construction. In 2001, St. Mirren finished bottom of the Premier League despite losing only one of their final seven matches. The Saints however managed promotion after clinching the First Division title in 2005-2006, a season which also saw St. Mirren win the Scottish Challenge Cup, defeating Hamilton Academical 2-1 in the final at Airdrie with goals from Simon Lappin & John Sutton.

The club originally wore scarlet and blue strips, however after one season changed to the current black and white striped shirts, which have been worn all bar one season in the 1900s where cream tops were used. The reasoning behind the use of black and white tops is unclear.

In 1922, St. Mirren were invited to play in the Barcelona Cup invitational tournament to celebrate the inauguration of the "Les Corts", the then home of FC Barcelona. They won the tournament by beating Notts County in the final.

Stadium

:main|St Mirren Park

St Mirren played at four different venues before moving to their ground of St Mirren Park, or Love Street, in 1894. The record attendance is 47,438 versus Celtic F.C in 1949. St Mirren Park has seen extensive redevelopment in recent years to comply with both the recommendations of the Taylor report and SPL regulations and the ground is now a 10,866 seat venue. The ground has four stands of which the newest, the East or Reid Kerr Family Stand, was built in 2000. The oldest stand is the main stand which has a basic wooden construction. The north bank is popular with the hardcore St. Mirren fans whilst the largest stand, the steeply raked West Stand, has a sport facility underneath. It is rarely used to its full capacity.

On 16 August 2005 the Scottish Executive and Renfrewshire Council granted permission for the club to sell their old ground for supermarket development and allow the club to build a new stadium in Greenhill Road, Ferguslie Park, Paisley. The sale of their old ground will finance the new stadium as well as clear the current debts of the club. In April 2007 it was announced that a deal had been struck with supermarket giants Tesco. Under this deal, worth £15 million, St Mirren will move to a new 8,000 seat stadium for the 2008/09 season making way for a new Tesco supermarket on the Love Street site. Initial plans have indicated that the new stadium will be called simply "St Mirren Park", although this has not been confirmed at the time of writing.

Colours and sponsors

The traditional home colours of St. Mirren are black and white strips, however for the first season the colours were Scarlet and Blue. It is unknown as to how exactly the colours black and white were chosen, however popular theories include, that north of Paisley the Black Cart and White Cart Rivers meet, and that monks of Paisley Abbey wore Black and White robes. It is also suggested that the colours come from the black and white of the freemasons. The strips have varied very little, however the thickness of the stripes has often varied, with pinstripes being popular, and indeed some years have seen horizontal stripes.

Away tops are traditionally red or all black, however in some cases strips have varied from orange to light blue, as seen on last season's 2007-2008 strip. Last year, the Danish firm, Hummel International, have replaced Xara as kit-manufacturers.

St Mirren has had a number of main sponsors, mainly in the transportation industry, with several local bus companies and car dealerships like Arriva and Phoenix Honda sponsoring in the club. St. Mirren have been sponsored since 2005 by Braehead Shopping Centre a local shopping centre in the North of Renfrewshire.

Honours

*Scottish First Division: 1967/68¹ 1976/77, 1999/2000, 2005/06
*Scottish Cup: 1926, 1959, 1987
*Scottish Challenge Cup: 2005
*Renfrewshire Cup: 1882/1883, 1883/1884, 1887/1888, 1890/1891, 1893/1894, 1896/1897, 1897/1898, 1903/1904, 1909/1910, 1910/1911, 1923/1924, 1924/1925, 1925/1926, 1927/1928, 1928/1929, 1929/1930, 1931/1932, 1932/1933, 1933/1934, 1935/1936, 1937/1938, 1940/1941, 1943/1944, 1945/1946, 1946/1947, 1947/1948, 1949/1950, 1958/1959, 1959/1960, 1960/1961, 1962/1963, 1966/1967, 1973/1974, 1976/1977, 1978/1979, 1979/1980, 1982/1983, 1983/1984, 1984/1985, 1985/1986, 1987/1988, 1989/1990, 1997/1998, 1998/1999, 1999/2000, 2000/2001, 2001/2002, 2006/2007, 2007/2008, 2008/2009
*Victory Cup: 1919
*Anglo-Scottish Cup Winners: 1979/80
*Summer Cup: 1943
*Epson Invitational Tournament: 1986/87

¹As the 'old' Scottish Second Division

Club records

*Highest home attendance: 47,438: .v. Celtic on 20 August 1949 cite book| first=David| last=Ross| title=The Roar of the Crowd: Following Scottish football down the years| publisher=Argyll publishing| year=2005| id=ISBN 9-8781902-831831| pages=94, 214]
*Highest average home attendance: 17,333, 1949-50 (15 games)
*Biggest victory: 15-0: .v. Glasgow University on 30 January 1960
*Most capped player: Ian Munro and Billy Thomson: 7 Scotland.
*Most capped international player: Mixu Paatelainen 70 appearances for the Finnish national team. [ Paatelainen was not capped while with St Mirren]
*Youngest Player: Scott Gemmill 16 years & 60 days - vs. Raith Rovers (Starks Park) 8th August 2003.
*Most League appearances: Tony Fitzpatrick, 351 (1973-1979, 1981-1989)
*Most European appearances: Campbell Money, 8 (1985-1988)
*Most League goals: David McCrae, 221 (1923-1924)
*Most League goals in a season: Dunky Walker, 45 (1921-22)
*Record transfer fee paid: £400,000 to Bayer Uerdingen for Thomas Stickroth (March 1990)
*Record transfer fee received: £850,000 from Glasgow Rangers for Ian Ferguson (February 1988)
*Most League wins in a season: 27, Division Two (1967-1968)
*Most League defeats in a season: 31, Division One (1920-21)
*Most League draws in a season: 15, Premier League (1987-88)
*Most consecutive league victories: 16, Division Two (18/11/1967 - 30/3/1968)
*Longest unbeaten league run: 34, 18/11/1967 (Division Two) - 16/11/1968 (Division One)
*Most Goals Scored in a season: 114, Division Two (1935-36 in Scottish football|1935-36)
*Most Goals Conceded in a season: 92, Division One (1920-21)

Current player/assistant manager Andy Millen, holds the SPL record for oldest player in the league.

Current squad

Players out on loan

:"For recent transfers, see List of Scottish football transfers 2008-09."

Reserves and Youths

Notable former players

*flagicon|Scotland Duncan Bryce
*flagicon|Scotland Charlie Adam
*flagicon|Scotland Roy Aitken
*flagicon|Ukraine Sergei Baltacha
*flagicon|Scotland Jimmy Bone
*flagicon|Scotland Kirk Broadfoot
*flagicon|Scotland Steve Clarke
*flagicon|Scotland Neil Cooper
*flagicon|Scotland Alan Combe
*flagicon|Scotland Jackie Copland
*flagicon|Scotland Ian Ferguson
*flagicon|Scotland Tony Fitzpatrick
*flagicon|Scotland Archie Gemmill
*flagicon|Scotland Ricky Gillies
*flagicon|Scotland Dave Halliday
*flagicon|Scotland Stevie Kerr
*flagicon|Scotland Chris Iwelumo
*flagicon|Scotland Paul Lambert
*flagicon|Scotland Simon Lappin
*flagicon|Scotland David Lapsley
*flagicon|Scotland Barry Lavety
*flagicon|Scotland Frank McAvennie
*flagicon|Scotland Frank McGarvey
*flagicon|Scotland Steven McGarry
*flagicon|Scotland Barry McLaughlin
*flagicon|Scotland Gordon McQueen
*flagicon|Scotland David McNamee
*flagicon|Montserrat Junior Mendes
*flagicon|Scotland Campbell Money
*flagicon|Spain Victor Muñoz
*flagicon|South Africa flagicon|Scotland Burton O'Brien
*flagicon|Finland Mixu Paatelinen
*flagicon|Angola Jose Quitongo
*flagicon|France Ludovic Roy
*flagicon|Scotland Billy Stark
*flagicon|Germany Thomas Stickroth
*flagicon|England John Sutton
*flagicon|Scotland Billy Thomson
*flagicon|Iceland Guðmundur Torfason
*flagicon|Scotland Tommy Turner
*flagicon|Scotland Peter Weir
*flagicon|Scotland Tommy Wilson
*flagicon|Scotland Stevie Woods
*flagicon|Liberia Christopher Wreh
*flagicon|Scotland Mark Yardley

Club officials

Boardroom
* Chairman: Stewart Gilmour
* Vice-Chairman: George Campbell
* Directors: Bryan McAusland, Gordon Scott, Ken McGeoch
* Director/Secretary: Allan Marshall

Coaching and Medical Staff
* Manager: Gus MacPherson
* Assistant Manager: Andy Millen
* First Team Coach: Stuart Balmer
* Head Of Youth Development: David Longwell
* Goalkeeping Coach: Paul Mathers
* Club Doctor: Dr Gerry Canning
* Club Physiotherapist: John McCreadie
* Sports Scientist: Andy Sommerville

Managers

*flagicon|Scotland John McCartney 1904-10
*Barry Grieve 1910
*Hugh Law 1910-16
*John Cochran 1916-28
*Donald Turner 1928-29
*Daniel Graham 1929
*John Morrison 1929-36
*Sam Blythe 1936-41
*Donald Menzies 1941-42
*Willie Fotheringham 1942-45
*Bobby Rankin 1945-54
*Willie Reid 1954-61
*Bobby Flavell 1961-62
*Jackie Cox 1962-65
*Doug Millward 1965-66
*flagicon|Scotland Alex Wright 1966-70
*flagicon|Scotland Wilson Humphries 1970-72
*flagicon|Scotland Tommy Bryceland 1972-73
*flagicon|Northern Ireland Willie Cunningham 1973-74
*flagicon|Scotland Alex Ferguson 1974-78
*flagicon|Scotland Jim Clunie 1978-80
*flagicon|Scotland Rikki McFarlane 1980-83
*flagicon|Scotland Alex Miller 1983-86
*flagicon|Scotland Alex Smith 1986-88
*flagicon|Scotland Tony Fitzpatrick 1988-91
*flagicon|Scotland David Hay 1991-92
*flagicon|Scotland Jimmy Bone 1992-96
*flagicon|Scotland Iain Munro 1996-96 (24 hours)
*flagicon|Scotland Tony Fitzpatrick 1996-98
*flagicon|Scotland Tom Hendrie 1998-2002
*flagicon|Scotland John Coughlin 2002-03
*flagicon|Scotland Gus McPherson 2003-

Notable fans

*Chick Young
*Douglas Alexander
*Colin MacAllister
*David McKinney
*Dougie Vipond
*Douglas Henshall
*Captain Sensible
*Christopher Brookmyre
*Tyrone Smith
*David Jensen
*Ian Pattison
*Bill Leckie
*Hector Nicol
*Robin Birney
*Steven Thompson
*The Small Gentlemen
*Shereen Nanjiani

References

External links

* [http://www.saintmirren.net/ Official St. Mirren F.C. website]
* [http://www.stmirren.info/ 'Historical Database' of St. Mirren F.C.]
* [http://www.blackandwhitearmy.com/ Unofficial St. Mirren Website]
* [http://www.saintmirren-mad.co.uk/ Mirren Mad]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/st_mirren/default.stm St Mirren BBC My Club page]