Saints’ Centenary Match

As the highlight of the Club’s Centenary celebrations, St. Mirren invited European Cup holders
Liverpool to Love Street for a challenge match on Monday 12th December 1977. It might have been a
glamour friendly match, but there were also two trophies at stake; a solid silver salver valued at
£600 for the winning team and a Man of the Match statuette valued at £300, both of which had
been donated by local businesses.

From the moment the pipe band skirled its way around Love Street until the fascinating finale, it was
a heart stirring occasion, even for the non-Buddies in the 18,000 sell-out crowd.

The recently promoted Saints acquitted themselves well against the European Champions. After an
eventful first half in which Frank McGarvey had hit the post, Ray Clemence had saved a cracking
Tony Fitzpatrick shot and a Kenny Dalglish effort had been ruled offside, St. Mirren lost the initiative
in 57 minutes when Dalglish knocked home a cross from David Fairclough to score for the visitors.
However, the young St. Mirren team refused to bow down to their more illustrious opponents and
their efforts paid off in the 87th minute when Billy Abercromby got on to the end of a Frank
McGarvey cross to equalise from close range.

The match then went to a penalty shootout. The first eight spot kicks were successfully converted
but then Ray Clemence brilliantly saved from Frank McGarvey. Jimmy Case stepped up, apparently
to end the excitement, but Ally Hunter pulled off a world class save of his own to keep the sides
level. Bobby Reid’s effort was then held by the England goalkeeper and substitute Dave Johnson
smacked home the spot kick that climaxed the sparkling occasion. The Man of the Match award
went to Tony Fitzpatrick for a splendid performance.

The 20-page glossy programme was printed in black, red and white throughout. After a short
Chairman’s welcome, there was a double page feature about Liverpool’s successes over the previous
fifteen seasons and pen pictures of the Reds’ players. Manager Alex Ferguson then had a page
extolling the virtues of the Merseysiders. The centre pages gave the team line ups, either side of a
photo of the Liverpool squad with their European Cup, English First Division and Charity Shield
trophies. Page 13 compared the Buddies’ Triumphs with the Reds’ Records and the following two
pages described the trophies which were up for grabs that evening. There followed a double page
spread in which a few of the St. Mirren players named their favourite Liverpool stars. Finally, a short
article described how the Love Street floodlighting system was being upgraded to be brighter than
that of many English First Division clubs of the day, although there was disappointment that it was
not ready for this special occasion. Almost half of the programme was devoted to adverts.

A miniature colour reproduction of the Centenary programme was included in the Club’s 125 th
anniversary programme for the match against Ross County on 5th October 2002.