Saint Mirren

Sports club "St. Mirren" was formed in the city of Paisley in the second half of the 19th century. It included cricket, rugby and football players. But with the growing popularity of football at the end of the 19th century, St. Mirren gave priority to football, and in 1877 were officially formed as the St. Mirren Football Club. They got their name in honor of St. Miron, the patron saint of the city of Paisley.

Initially, the main colors of the club were blue and scarlet. After the first season, the colors were changed to white and black. Club players are still wearing striped black and white t-shirts.

St. Mirren played their first match on October 6, 1877, defeating Johnston Britain 1-0. In 1881, the team reached their first final of the Renfrewshire Cup (they lost 1: 3 to the Tornlibank team). In 1883, they won the tournament for the first time (3: 1 against Tornlibank).

In 1890, St. Mirren and another club from Paisley “Abercorn” were one of the founders of the Scottish Football League (today there are 5 clubs left).

It is noteworthy that in those years the St. Mirren club played evening matches in the light of oil lamps.

In 1908, they played for the first time in the Scottish Cup final, but were defeated 5-1 by Celtic. They later won the trophy in 1926, 1959 and 1987.

In 1922, St. Mirren was invited to play in the Barcelona Cup tournament, the home tournament of the Barcelona club . They won the tournament by defeating the Notts County in the final.

From 1974 to 1978, the “future sir” Alex Ferguson was the head coach of St. Mirren, during which the team rose from the bottom of the Second Division of the Scottish Football League with an average match attendance of about 1000 people to the championship in the First Division in 1977. Ferguson discovered and revealed the talent of players such as Billy Stark, Tony Fitzpatrick, Lex Richardson, Frank McGarvey, Bobby Reed and Peter Weir, and his team showed offensive attacking football. The average age of the players who won the title was 19 years old, and the club captain, Fitzpatrick, was only 20 years old. St. Mirren is the only club to have fired Ferguson from his coaching post. He challenged the decision on his dismissal from the labor dispute committee, but was refused without the opportunity to appeal. The official version of Ferguson’s dismissal was “breach of contract,” including illegal payments to football players. At a meeting of the tribunal in this case, St. Mirren’s chairman, Willy Todd, said Ferguson had “no coaching skills.”

On May 31, 2008, The Guardian published an interview with Todd (who was 87 years old) who fired Ferguson in 1978. Todd explained that the main reason for Ferguson’s dismissal was his negotiations with Aberdeen about the transition. Ferguson told reporter Jim Rogers of the Daily Mirror that he had notified St. Mirren's headquarters of his departure to Aberdeen. Todd regretted the incident, but accused Aberdeen of not offering any compensation for Ferguson

In the 1979/80 season, St. Mirren achieved the highest, third, place in the Scottish Championship, losing only to Aberdeen and Celtic. In the same season, the team became the last Scottish club to win the Anglo-Scottish Cup. The following season, Saint Mirren first participated in the UEFA Cup (they lost to the French Saint Etienne in the second round).

The club flew out of the Scottish Premier League in the 2000/01 season and returned to it in 2005/06.

In 2010, they reached the final of the Scottish League Cup, where they lost 0-1 from the Rangers.

• First Division :
  • Winner (4): 1967/68, 1976/77, 1999/2000, 2005/06
• Scottish Football Cup :
  • Owner (3): 1925/26, 1958/59, 1986/87
  • Finalist (3): 1908, 1934, 1962
• Scottish League Cup :
  • Owner: 2012/13

•   Sergey Baltacha
•   Victor Munoz
•   Billy Thomson
•   Hugh Murray
•   Paul Lambret

• Official website