When the final whistle went for the conclusion of St Mirren v Mechelen in the Second Round of the Cup Winners Cup back in November 1987, no one present would have known it was to be the last ever European match played at Love Street. They would also have struggled to comprehend that the Paisley Buddies would take nearly 37 years to make their next appearance on the European stage. That is exactly what happened, and having been at the Mechelen match, I was keen to bookend the hiatus by being at the clubs first continental joust since.
Back in 1987, I had inadvertently been amongst Les Buddoise (as Meadowbank fans used to call them!-We had a lot of whacky names for clubs) when Ian Ferguson struck a pearler to win the Scottish Cup for tSt Mirren at Hampden versus Dundee United, a club who had a litany of near squeaks when it came to Cup Final time. The sense of jeopardy seemed to rise at every failure for them.
In the pantheon of alternative Cup winners, it is certainly up with the best of them. It was, after all, my first ever Cup Final, a CV that would eventually see United win the oldest football trophy in the world, putting Ross County to the sword.
Qualification for Europe that season had taken St Mirren into the Arctic Circle and a narrow 1-0 aggregate progression versus Tromso. A highly commendable 0-0 draw in Belgium had brought out a sizable crowd for the return, full of that Scottish optimism of progression into the Quarter-Finals. European football was a simpler game back then, 4 rounds, and you were in the final! Mechelen were a tremendous team, not that anyone really knew at the time. Social media didn’t exist, highlight reels on Youtube, or watching entire games live from anywhere, let alone overseas wasn’t a thing. It added to the mystic, especially when Eastern European clubs came to town, who were regularly described for some reason as “crack” teams.
The late ’80’s was a purple patch for Mechelen, ably assisted by the talents of Israeli star Eli Ohan, whose two goals in Paisley ended Scottish involvement. The Belgians would squeeze by Dinamo Minsk in the Quarter-Finals, before seeing off Atalanta Bergamaschi, (who lost the first leg in Round one to Merthyr Tydfil) with a brace of 2-1 wins. That set them up for a Bene (without the Lux) showdown with Ajax Amsterdam, a final played in that most European of settings, Strasbourg. Mechelen would edge it 1-0, but a bit like the Euro drought that would befall St Mirren, no one in Belgian could have foreseen that this success was the last time a Belgian team would win a major European competition, save the Super Cup of the following season when Mechelen beat PSV Eindhoven for a double Dutch success.
Love Street was a great old stadium, until it was significantly upgraded, it had a Hampden-esque ellipse shape, with significant terraces. They subsequently brought the stands much closer as all seaters became a requirement. The new ground, well not exactly pristine now having been opened in 2009, is not very far away from the old gaff. It is a mere half a mile walk along a fairly industrial road, in fact.
Paisley is very close to Glasgow, indeed it borders it to the East. It is, however, in Renfrewshire, a separate council entity. With a population of just over 77,000, it is no small town. Famed back in the day for its weaving, the name Paisley pattern takes its name from here. Many famous sons and daughters were born in Paisley, actors Gerard Butler, Tom Conti and Fulton MacKay to name but three. The great musical talent of Gerry Rafferty, and more recently Paolo Nutini too. Journalist and broadcaster Andrew Neil is another Paisley boy, but the one they may keep quiet on will be Liz Truss!
I am pretty surprised looking back, that I was at Hampden to see St Mirren win the Scottish Cup, and then lured to a European tie, because in households with Hearts sympathies, the Buddies did nothing to endear themselves to the capital club just a couple of seasons earlier. Hearts led the league by two points (2 points for a win era), and only needed a draw at Dens Park, while rivals Celtic went to Love Street with only a hope and prayer. As all four sides trotted in at half-time, Hearts were still 0-0, while Celtic were 5-0 up! Whether psychologically that heaped pressure on Hearts, or the whole day just got to them, we will never know, but a certain Albert Kidd became the toast of East Glasgow with a late brace to down Hearts, while Celtic happily just played out a morose second period in Paisley hoping the 5-0 interval score struck the necessary fear. Job done as far as they were concerned, but Hearts fans to this day still view that half-time score with suspicion. Sadly, that was the last time anyone outside Celtic or Rangers has ever got within a sniff of winning the league title. Hearts lost it on goal difference. Ironically, in the late ‘60’s they lost the league to Kilmarnock on goal average, and had these two calculations been reversed, Hearts would have had two extra league titles!
St Mirren Park is the rather unimaginative name for the new stadium, a 7,937 capacity facility, whose sell out capacity was reached oddly in a match versus Kilmarnock only in April 2023 as both sides were vying for European slots. It is a fine modern stadium on the edge of the town, very close to the M8 just after Glasgow Airport, making arrival here pretty straightforward, even if parking can sometimes be an issue if you arrive quite late. The catering area for each stand though means lengthy queues if you are looking to quench a thirsty on a hot night as I found to my disgruntlement. I am never a man to want to spend any moments of a game down behind a stand, missing essential action, so I gave it a swerve.
Having come back to Paisley, just as they had 37 years ago with a 0-0 draw from the first leg, spirits were high, and near capacity stadium welcomed both sides onto the park for a first ever competitive match at the Metha-dome, as friends affectionately call it! Valur Reykjavik may not be the big draw that Mechelen were, but in European football, Scottish clubs can’t take anyone for granted these days. Valur had, after all, drawn 2-2 with Vllaznia Shkoder, then went to Albania and won 4-0. Caution was the watch word.
A significant half of the traditional away stand had been earmarked for the dozen or so from Iceland, many of whom had taken part in the fans’ march from the town centre to the ground ahead of the match. Two were spotted in rather odd half red, half black and white striped shirts, a nod to the potential lasting friendship between the fans, which is great. The night St Mirren had been in Reykjavik, four Icelandic clubs were all at home within a very small distance of each other. The other three visitors maybe only had a handful of fans, but the Buddies were certainly well represented, albeit restricted due to the capacity of the Valur stadium to no more than 250 tickets made available.
There wasn’t a great deal between the sides at the outset. Roared on by a passionate home crowd, St Mirren maybe had more menace, and sure enough when the first corner was swung in, ex-ICT and St Johnstone hero Shaun Rooney, made a late, brilliantly timed run towards the back post and he bulleted the Saints into the lead. Valur grew into the game and had a spell just before the break that might had borne fruit. However, calamity defending and a goalkeeper giving up on the mess too soon gifted the second just after half-time, and it already seemed to be the goal that broke the Icelandic resolve. If that hadn’t quite done the trick, the third, an exquisite effort into the top corner put the seal on progression. Around me phones were being checked, Brann had beaten Go Ahead Eagles, the names meaning nothing to them, but they knew enough, they were off to Norway, even if Brann isn’t actually where they were going! Both teams would score once more for a comfortable 4-1 win, and St Mirren deserved the plaudits at the end.
Bergen was the first ever place I visited outside the UK, all the way back in 1980. There may well have been a game on, given it was July, but back then, with little information available, you’d need to have been more enquiring than I was to find out. My first overseas game would have to wait another 7 years! I have still never seen Brann play, even if I keep half an eye on their scores. I thought long and hard about going online for a ticket, but decided I had done my “quirky” St Mirren duo of Euro games. My Brann time will come. Quite why I have never been back to Norway, where family roots started, I am still mystified myself!
Oddly, Kilmarnock, who lost that night in Bruges to Cercle, then dropped down a level to the Conference League and ended up hosting Norwegian opposition, too. Both Scottish sides are at home on the same night, and the following week, both will be Norway bound albeit to cities significantly far apart. A more southern trip to Bergen will be easier achieved than Killie’s Arctic run to Tromso. If fans of both end up at the airport at the same time, Buddies fans of a longer in the tooth variety can share tales of northern Norway with their Ayrshire rivals!
Football Adventures with James Rendall 