Squirrelhumper Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 11 hours ago, Flybhoy said: I had both those strips! Is that McDiarmid? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flybhoy Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Taken at St Johnstone aye, im assuming at one of those training camp type things. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScarf Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 12 hours ago, Flybhoy said: An absolute lad to the right of two utter gimps. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PauloPerth Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 3 hours ago, Squirrelhumper said: I had both those strips! Is that McDiarmid? I think that was around 1992, and was the launch of the SFA soccer sevens and fun fours at McDiarmid Park. I think they had the full Scotland squad demonstrating the games. Andy Roxburgh had very good vision and ideas for developing our sport. And if this had been any other sport in Scotland, or football in many other countries, the idea would have flown immediately. But being Scottish football, we then had 15-20 years of complete dinosaurs standing their ground and insisting 6 year olds should be playing 11 a side football on full size pitches with full size goals and match balls, because that's what we've always done. The SFA even funded free metal 7-a-side goalposts to any clubs/ schools/ BB's etc in the whole country that got on board, worth about £300 a set I'm sure. Of course I could be wrong, and this might be a separate occasion altogether! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrelhumper Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 6 minutes ago, PauloPerth said: I think that was around 1992, and was the launch of the SFA soccer sevens and fun fours at McDiarmid Park. I think they had the full Scotland squad demonstrating the games. Andy Roxburgh had very good vision and ideas for developing our sport. And if this had been any other sport in Scotland, or football in many other countries, the idea would have flown immediately. But being Scottish football, we then had 15-20 years of complete dinosaurs standing their ground and insisting 6 year olds should be playing 11 a side football on full size pitches with full size goals and match balls, because that's what we've always done. The SFA even funded free metal 7-a-side goalposts to any clubs/ schools/ BB's etc in the whole country that got on board, worth about £300 a set I'm sure. Of course I could be wrong, and this might be a separate occasion altogether! Aye, I remember playing 11 a side when I was about 7 then going to 7 a side for a few years then back to 7s. I was a goalie and playing in full size goals was no fun for a 7 year old! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H Wragg Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 It was definitely Orange. Only changed when the stadium was redeveloped and they had season at Hampden.When did these seats go in?I seem to remember seeing games from maybe late 70s/early 80s where the seats were of the wooden backed variety. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirrelhumper Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 4 minutes ago, H Wragg said: When did these seats go in? I seem to remember seeing games from maybe late 70s/early 80s where the seats were of the wooden backed variety. Mid 80s I think. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PauloPerth Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Back to the main topic here. The last game at Muirton Park. There was a sort of 'open day' on the morning of the final home match v Ayr United where you could wander round the inside of the stand, still got my photo of me and Alex Totten stooped under the low ceiling of the cramped manger's office. In order: view from the Ice Rink End of the Main Stand which had been closed for matches since aftermath of the Bradford fire in 1985, the back of the Town End terracing facing the Ice Rink End, in the Enclosure next to the segregation fence Aberdeen FC kindly paid for, again back of the Town End looking towards the Enclosure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PauloPerth Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Late to the party, but just my take on it... As others have mentioned, the sadness at leaving Muirton Park was greatly reduced by the excitement of moving to a brand new ground. Bear in mind no team in Scotland had moved to a new stadium for a few generations. It was a huge deal, and got great media coverage across the U.K. as well as in Scotland, especially in the aftermath of the Hillsborough tragedy. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened with Saints if we'd stayed at Muirton. Geoff Brown said in interviews that the board had toyed with the idea of building a new stand at the Town End of the ground. Whilst the move undoubtedly brought huge interest in Saints locally, it coincided with a very successful manager and the best chairman and board in the country. Personally, I think we'd have made it to the premier league within the next few years anyway. In the bottom division promotion tussle with Ayr, we had 5000 at Muirton. When we clinched promotion v Arbroath we had 2500 in attendance.. As Tam said, we took 9000 to a Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers at Celtic Park as a part-time club. We would take a third of that now. So the interest in Saints was already growing before we moved. The first season at McDiarmid, we played some of the best attacking football I have probably ever seen from a Saints side. Initially, folk didn't really know where to sit so the atmosphere was poor for the earlier games. Then I think there was a rallying cry in the fanzine 'Wendy Who' for all the choir to sit at the scoreboard End of the East Stand. After that the atmosphere was brilliant, especially when you think of the home promotion battle with Airdrie, which I think has been posted on this thread already. Seems laughable now, but in our second season at McDiarmid Park, the first back in the Premier League for 6 years or so, we averaged 9000, and I remember a newspaper describing McDiarmid Park as a 'lion's den' for visiting teams. About 8000 home fans in a small packed ground, with often all three sides singing, was a great time to be watching football. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenconner Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 On 24/10/2018 at 21:28, ah-dee said: On 24/10/2018 at 18:47, Flybhoy said: Roy Aitken, Davie Hay and Brian McClair with the 1986 League trophy, Celtic were presented with it on a Monday afternoon at a deserted Celtic Park after their unexpected last day triumph on the Saturday, before the days of helicopters taking trophies around the country on the final day it was at Dens Park where Hearts were expected to get the draw they needed against Dundee to win the title.....cue a timely intervention from a wee curly headed Bobby Ball lookalike why did celtic have red and yellow seating? bought second hand? The orange seats went into the new front stand which replaced the old enclosure at the time of the stand roof being replaced. The old Celtic Park stand seats ended up colour coded in 5 sections with a blue section. The three new stands at ibrox had the same colour coded sections without of course any green. Maybe somebody can tell us if the Centenary Stand at Ibrox wooden benches were colour coded by section. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Tennis Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 I'm pretty sure that there was quite a big feature on Saint and Greavsie about the new ground getting built by St Johnstone. The tone was very much about this being the way forward. A couple of hours later, Hillsborough happened. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7-2 Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 38 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said: I'm pretty sure that there was quite a big feature on Saint and Greavsie about the new ground getting built by St Johnstone. The tone was very much about this being the way forward. A couple of hours later, Hillsborough happened. That may well have been part of the build up to the aforementioned semi-final against the original Rangers as it was the same day as Hillsborough. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7-2 Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 (edited) A couple of other pics of the last game, again nicked from Chips post on WAP. Following on from the earlier pics, the executive seating area 1980's style complete with the post-Bradford emergency exit addition. Edited October 26, 2018 by 7-2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PauloPerth Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 40 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said: I'm pretty sure that there was quite a big feature on Saint and Greavsie about the new ground getting built by St Johnstone. The tone was very much about this being the way forward. A couple of hours later, Hillsborough happened. I remember that day as a young teenager very clearly. We'd ran the Souness's millionaires very close in the Scottish Cup semi-final that day at Celtic Park and got back to the bus and listened in shock to the reports coming in from Hillsborough. The thing that wasn't really reported that much, but I always felt was quite poignant, was that at probably exactly the same time, Rangers fans were getting lifted onto the track due to overcrowding and a crush. Luckily Celtic Park didn't have the big fences. About 0:53 in this video: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Tennis Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 What was the crowd for that last game at Muirton? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PauloPerth Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 2 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said: What was the crowd for that last game at Muirton? It was over 6000. Awful end of season game v Ayr United we lost 1-0. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PauloPerth Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 The crazy thing about that semi final and replay v Rangers at Celtic Park, which held over 60,000 at the time, was that the reported attendances were 47000 and 44000. If ever there was ever any doubt about Celtic lying about attendances, then not after those games! You couldn't move, and there was barely a space in the ground anywhere. More Muirton porn; in the quarter final we beat Morton in a midweek replay after a 2-2 draw. The game was delayed as 8300 or so attended, with some Saints fans having to stand in the Morton end. Brilliant seeing a packed Muirton under the floodlights as there are so few colour videos like this of the old ground. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flybhoy Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 Danny McGrain and Frank McGarvey at Love Street on a dramatic final day of the season in 1986. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 I wonder if those in charge of our game ever look at the old footage like in the videos posted here and ask why so many fans stopped going? Unlikely 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. X Posted October 26, 2018 Share Posted October 26, 2018 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.