Читать книгу Ally McCoist - Rangers Legend - Alistair Aird - Страница 9

Formed by a group of young local cricketers who sought a winter pursuit to fill the void left by the off-season of their traditionally fair-weather activity, St Johnstone Football Club came into existence in early 1885. The club’s name was derived from Saint John’s Toun, the ancient name of Perth, the city in which the club is based. The team played their first match on 7 March 1885 and emerged victorious, defeating Caledonian Railway 1-0.

Their first ground was a vacant piece of land called Craigie Haugh. This was later named Recreation Grounds and was officially opened on 15 August 1885 when Queen’s Park hammered Our Boys from Dundee by six goals to nil. St Johnstone contested their home matches at Recreation Grounds until 1924 at which time, after outgrowing the ground, they moved on to Muirton Park at the north end of Perth.

Muirton Park would be home to St Johnstone for the next sixty-five years, and the inaugural match at the ground was a Scottish First Division fixture against Queen’s Park on Christmas Day of 1924. The Saints had returned to the top flight of Scottish football the previous May after winning the Second Division championship, their first major honour, and finished a respectable eleventh in the First Division in 1924/25. They remained in the top division for five years until they were relegated after finishing bottom of the heap in 1929/30.

Under the management of former Rangers stalwart Tommy Muirhead, St Johnstone regained their place among Scottish football’s elite in 1932 when, aided by thirty-six goals from top goalscorer Jimmy Benson, they finished runners-up to East Stirlingshire in the Second Division. The club held on to their top-flight status until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, finishing as high as fifth in seasons 1932/33 and 1934/35, and scored some fine victories in that period, notably against Rangers, who were the dominant side of that era. They defeated the Ibrox giants twice in successive seasons at Muirton Park, winning 3-1 on 18 November 1933 and 2-0 on 23 March 1935.

Another noteworthy success recorded by St Johnstone in the 1930s was the achievement of reaching the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup in 1934. The Perth outfit defeated Vale of Leithen in round two and, having received a bye in the third round, despatched Queen of the South in the quarter-final to set up a last-four showdown with First Division champions Rangers at Hampden Park. St Johnstone lost narrowly on the day, with a goal from James ‘Doc’ Marshall giving the Glasgow giants a 1-0 victory. Rangers then proceeded to hammer the other Saints, St Mirren, 5-0 in the final one month later.

When the Scottish League was reconstructed into an ‘A’ and ‘B’ division in the wake of the war, St Johnstone ended up in the latter and, despite further reconstruction in 1955, they remained in the lower tier until manager Bobby Brown, a man who had kept goal for Rangers with great success during the 1940s and ’50s, guided them to the Second Division title in the 1959/60 season. However, the spectre of relegation haunted Muirton Park once again at the end of the 1961/62 season when they finished second bottom of the First Division. During the campaign, the Saints gave Rangers an almighty scare in the semi-final of the League Cup, storming into a 2-0 lead before succumbing by three goals to two after extra-time, but they failed to reproduce that form over a sustained period in the league and were relegated on goal average.

A third Second Division title saw St Johnstone bounce straight back up to the higher echelons of Scottish Football in 1962/63, and the club also made their second successive appearance in the semi-finals in the League Cup. On this occasion, though, Hearts comprehensively defeated the Perth side by four goals to nil.

After a successful spell at the helm, Bobby Brown vacated the manager’s chair in 1967 to take over the reins of the Scottish national team and Willie Ormond took charge at Muirton Park. Over the next few years, Ormond, a celebrated member of Hibernian’s much-lauded ‘Famous Five’ forward line that had terrorised defences in the late forties and fifties, began to sculpt one of the most celebrated sides in the club’s history.

For the majority of the 1960s, St Johnstone had finished in the lower half of the First Division table, but Ormond managed to steer them to a sixth-place finish in 1968/69 and, a season later, took his charges to Hampden to contest the League Cup final. It was the first time the Saints had appeared in the final of one of the major competitions in Scotland.

Drawn in Section Three alongside Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle and Dundee, the Perth side romped into the quarter-finals, topping the group with a 100 percent record. They scored a magnificent twenty-two goals over the course of the six sectional matches, with Partick bearing the brunt, shipping twelve goals in the two matches between the sides. The Firhill outfit were pummelled 8-1 on their own ground and 4-0 at Muirton Park, with Henry Hall hitting a hat-trick for the Saints in the first match. In the last eight, St Johnstone drew Falkirk and the Perth side continued their free-scoring run over the two-leg tie, comprehensively sweeping aside the Brockville Bairns 11-3 on aggregate.

Goals from McCarry and Aitken took care of Motherwell in the semi-final and now only Jock Stein’s Celtic stood in the way of the silverware. However, this was one of the greatest-ever Celtic teams, one that was on its way to a fifth successive League Championship crown and a second European Cup final appearance in four years. Nevertheless, they found it tough against Willie Ormond’s side, and only a Bertie Auld goal separated the teams at the final whistle. St Johnstone drew praise from the national press for their performance and, but for a couple of great saves from Celtic custodian John Fallon, may well have at least forced extra-time.

This was arguably the greatest era in St Johnstone’s history. Captained by Benny Rooney, they had star turns like Henry Hall, a prolific striker who would score 114 goals in 253 appearances for the Saints, John Connolly, a cultured left-sided player, and a full-back partnership of John Lambie (later to make a name for himself during his time in charge of Partick Thistle) and Willie Coburn.

Buoyed by their success in reaching the League Cup final, St Johnstone took the First Division by storm in 1970/71, finishing third, three points ahead of Rangers and only twelve points behind champions Celtic. They defeated the blue half of the Old Firm both home and away in the league, winning 2-1 at Muirton Park in December and 2-0 at Ibrox in the penultimate match of the season in April. The third-place finish earned St Johnstone a UEFA Cup place for 1971/72, the first time they would take part in European competition in the club’s history. And it turned out to be relatively successful, too: victories over Hamburg and Vasas Budapest took them into the third round where they eventually succumbed to Yugoslav outfit Zeljeznicar.

Like Bobby Brown before him, Willie Ormond left St Johnstone to become manager of Scotland in 1973, and he proceeded to enjoy great success with the national team, leading the nation through arguably their finest World Cup campaign in West Germany in the summer of 1974. Drawn alongside holders Brazil, Yugoslavia and Zaire, the Scots drew 1-1 with the Yugoslavs, 0-0 against Brazil and beat the Zairians 2-0 courtesy of goals from Joe Jordan and Peter Lorimer. Unfortunately, the Scots were robbed of a place in the next round on goal difference, thus becoming the first country to be eliminated from the World Cup with an unbeaten record.

After Ormond left Muirton Park, the excellent side he had built began to break up, although St Johnstone remained in the top flight until the end of the 1975/76 season. The Scottish League had undergone a facelift in the summer of 1975, with the First and Second Divisions being split into three leagues, the Premier Division, the First Division and the Second Division. The Saints were one of the original ten to make up the Premier Division, but their stay among the elite was short-lived: they won only three of their thirty-six fixtures and were left rooted firmly to the foot of the table with only eleven points on the board.

When Ally McCoist arrived at Muirton Park in December 1978, St Johnstone were still enduring life in the First Division. The giddy highs of the early part of the decade were now becoming a distant and fading memory, with the club finishing eleventh in the league in 1976/77 and eighth in 1977/78.

The St Johnstone squad at that time was a mixture of youth and experience. The side was captained by Drew Rutherford, a man who would go on to make 298 appearances for the Saints, and contained the rugged striker John Brogan, the fans’ favourite. Signed in 1977, Brogan was a proven goalscorer and he ended up having an enormous influence on the career of the young sixteen-year-old who was cutting his professional football ‘teeth’ at Muirton Park. ‘I learned so much just playing beside him,’ McCoist recalled some years later. ‘He taught me how a striker, more than any other player, has to think quickly. He could see an opportunity before it had happened, and when it did happen his reactions were like lightning.’¹

McCoist thoroughly enjoyed his early experiences of the professional game, even if the trip to training two nights a week was both arduous and tiring. When the bell sounded at the end of the school day, McCoist would make his way to his mother’s workplace in East Kilbride where he would grab some much-needed sustenance before boarding the bus to Glasgow. On arrival at Glasgow’s Queen Street station, he jumped on to the 17:35 train bound for Perth, which arrived at quarter to seven. The final leg of the journey was a short taxi ride to Muirton Park, where he would undergo a hard training session before repeating the journey in reverse. The result was a midnight return to East Kilbride, but although fatigued at the end of the day, McCoist knew his commitment would reap its own rewards in the longer term.

At least he wasn’t alone on the journey. Team-mates such as John Pelosi, Tam McNeill, Jackie O’Brien and Danny Scullion also made the same train journey, and while McCoist passed the time catching up with his school homework, his colleagues would run a card school to help while away the seventy-minute train ride to Tayside. Although his companions were quick to take the rise out of the young upstart, as most professional footballers are prone to do, they were also very protective of McCoist and looked out for him, particularly in his early days in the game.

As he had been told when he signed for the club, McCoist spent much of his early days plying his trade in the reserves in the now-unfamiliar role of midfielder. He made his first senior appearance in Scottish football on 7 April 1979, donning the St Johnstone number eight jersey in a 3-0 victory against Raith Rovers. The young debutant played well, and was involved in the move that led to the Saints’ second goal scored by Pat Ward.

McCoist kept his place in the starting line-up for the next three league games, but St Johnstone lost all three, going down 4-2 to Ayr United at Somerset Park, 1-0 against Clydebank at Kilbowie and then suffering a 2-0 reverse against Stirling Albion at home. This terrible run of results sucked St Johnstone into the relegation quagmire at the foot of the First Division. With McCoist still only sixteen, manager Alex Stuart felt that he required the experience of his older players for the remainder of the campaign and the youngster was left out of the action for the last four league matches.

Three wins from those four games was enough to preserve St Johnstone’s First Division status and they finished the 1978/79 season in twelfth position in the table, one place above the drop zone, managing to stave off relegation to the Second Division by finishing six points clear of second bottom Montrose. The club’s form in the cup competitions was nothing to write home about either, with exits at the first hurdle of both the League Cup (a 2-0 aggregate loss to Second Division Berwick Rangers) and the Scottish Cup (a 4-2 defeat to Premier Division Morton in a replay after the first game away from home at Cappielow had ended 1-1).

With his promising career still very much in its infancy, the appearance of the name A. McCoist on the team-sheet for the first eleven was sporadic. In his second season at Muirton Park in 1979/80, he made his first appearance as a substitute in the first league match, a 2-2 draw with Hamilton Academical, and over the course of the campaign made a total of fifteen league appearances, nine as part of the starting eleven and six as a substitute. He also made his Scottish Cup debut in January 1980, but St Johnstone lost in the third round for the second successive season, going down 3-1 to the eventual First Division runners-up Airdrie. The result was disappointing to say the least, as the winners of the tie had been drawn to meet Premier Division pacesetters Aberdeen at Pittodrie in round four.

In addition to their early demise in the Cup, St Johnstone endured yet another poor season in the First Division, languishing in the bottom half of the table and ending the campaign in eleventh place, six points clear of relegation. The poor finish effectively cost Alex Stuart his job, and he was succeeded in the close season by Alex Rennie. The arrival of Rennie, part of the playing staff at Muirton Park during the sixties and seventies, would prove a pivotal moment in Ally McCoist’s football career.

Although he now had several first-team appearances under his belt, McCoist was still without a goal in competitive football. He had netted a double in a friendly match against Dundee on 16 January 1980 and another in a pre-season friendly with Hartlepool that ended in a 2-2 draw, but in the competitive matches he had appeared in he had played mainly in a midfield role and, although he did like to get forward, opportunities to get on the scoresheet had so far eluded him. That was all about to change, though, thanks to the foresight of Alex Rennie.

St Johnstone were rocked in the summer of 1980 when club legend John Brogan walked out on the Muirton Park side after a clash with the club’s board over wages. Arguably the best goalscorer outside the Premier Division at that time, Brogan had netted twenty-nine goals in the season just finished (he would go on to score 222 goals in a career that also took him to Albion Rovers, Hibernian, Hamilton and Stirling Albion, and his 115 goals for St Johnstone is still a club record today), so his departure left a huge void to be filled. Rennie felt that the man to step into Brogan’s shooting boots was McCoist, so the youngster was moved forward from his midfield berth with the hope that he could take over Brogan’s mantle until the dispute was settled. It proved an inspirational piece of management.

McCoist revelled in his new role and settled in immediately, scoring his first senior goal in St Johnstone’s second league game of the season on 16 August 1980, volleying in a cross from Brannigan in the seventy-third minute of a 3-0 win over Dumbarton at Boghead. Having waited almost two years to score his first competitive goal he did not have to wait much longer for his second, as he netted the only goal of the Tayside derby the following weekend as the Saints defeated Dundee by one goal to nil at Muirton Park.

Despite losing 1-0 to Stirling Albion in their opening league match and falling to Clydebank over two legs in the first round of the League Cup, St Johnstone were showing no ill-effects from the loss of Brogan and made a promising start in the First Division title race. They were in the top half of the table for most of the early months of the season, and only some wretched home form prevented Rennie’s men from pushing early pacesetters Hibernian for top spot.

Their excellent start had much to do with McCoist’s electrifying goal-scoring form. The eighteen-year-old was ‘on fire’ in the early matches, netting a brace against Dunfermline at East End Park on 20 September and following this with goals against Berwick Rangers (1-1), Motherwell (2-2) and Clydebank (2-0), with the latter result going some way to avenging the League Cup exit the team had suffered at the hands of the Bankies.

McCoist’s form was winning him a whole host of new admirers; none more so than Andy Roxburgh, who was in charge of the Scotland Under-18 side. Indeed, Roxburgh was so impressed with the striker’s early-season exploits that he selected McCoist for the Under-18 side due to travel to Reykjavik in October to face Iceland in the first leg of the European Youth Championships qualifying match. Roxburgh had the feeling that McCoist was on the cusp of becoming the next household name in Scotland, believing he had the ability to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Charlie Nicholas, John Wark and Ray Stewart, who had all enjoyed a solid grounding at Under-18 level before graduating to the Under-21s and beyond.

The manager’s lofty opinion of the St Johnstone star did not appear to be misplaced either when, on a freezing cold October evening on a public park in the Icelandic capital (the match was supposed to be played in the national stadium, but was switched at the last minute by the Icelandic FA), McCoist marked his first appearance for his country by netting a crucial goal, the only one of the game, after nineteen minutes, when his shot from thirty-five yards deceived the Iceland goalkeeper.

McCoist retained his place for the return leg ten days later, and was among the goals again as the Scots booked their place at the following summer’s European Youth Championships with a comfortable 3-1 victory at Parkhead. A meagre 500 supporters, including national team manager Jock Stein, turned out to cheer on the colts, and they watched Manchester United’s teen sensation Scott McGarvey fire the Scots in front, before home favourite Dave Kenny doubled the lead. The Icelanders reduced the arrears after the interval, but McCoist secured the victory in the sixty-second minute when he thundered a low cross from Ayr United’s Colin Hume into the net.

Further recognition followed at the end of October when McCoist won his third cap in a 3-1 victory over Northern Ireland at Somerset Park in Ayr – inevitably his name found its way on to the scoresheet – and in mid-November he journeyed with Roxburgh and his squad to Monaco to represent Scotland in the Monaco Youth Tournament. Eight teams entered the event, with the participants being split into two sections of four. The winning team from each section would then meet to contest the final.

The squad was littered with some of the best young talent Scotland had to offer. Under the watchful eye of Roxburgh and his assistant, Walter Smith, McCoist was joined by Neale Cooper and Eric Black of Aberdeen, Davie Bowman of Hearts, Iain Ferguson of Dundee and goalkeeper Nicky Walker of Leicester City. Having now left school, McCoist had taken up a part-time business studies course in Hamilton, but his involvement in the tournament in Monaco brought that to a premature end. Faced with the decision of either sitting his exams or travelling to Monaco, there was only going to be one winner: the course was abandoned and McCoist boarded a plane bound for the principality.

The Scots were grouped with West Germany, Switzerland and France, but they got off to a poor start when they lost 1-0 to the Germans in their opening fixture. Eintracht Frankfurt’s Ralf Faulkenmayer scored the only goal of a game in which McCoist had the dubious honour of becoming the first Scottish player to cool off in the ‘sin bin’ that was under trial at the event. Two minutes into the second half, he was guilty of fouling a German player by the name of Herdst, an offence for which he was duly admonished by the referee and banished to the sin bin for the statutory period of six minutes.

Two days later, Roxburgh’s side faced the Swiss, but they had to do so without the services of their captain Neale Cooper, who was recalled by his club side Aberdeen, who required him to sit on the bench for their Premier Division fixture against Partick Thistle. The Scots played very well against a Swiss side that had forced a 1-1 draw against France in their opening fixture, and could well have been a few goals ahead at the interval but for the reflexes of the Switzerland goalkeeper. He denied McCoist twice in the opening period, but the eighteen-year-old eventually got the better of him in the fiftieth minute when he nudged home a cross from Hearts midfielder Dave Bowman at the far post. A second goal from stand-in skipper David Moyes in the seventy-eighth minute gave Scotland a 2-0 win, and that success, coupled with France’s 5-0 thrashing of West Germany, suddenly gave rise to the prospect of Roxburgh’s side making it through to the final. A 1-0 win in their final group fixture against the French would suffice, provided the West Germans did not conjure up a six-goal victory against the Swiss.

For twenty-two minutes of the match against France the dream of meeting Italy in the final looked like becoming a reality. In the fifty-fifth minute, McCoist maintained his excellent record in a dark blue jersey by netting his fifth goal in only his sixth appearance in Scotland colours with a fine volleyed finish, but just when the end was in sight, the French scored a controversial equaliser to eliminate the gallant young Scots. A disputed free-kick was awarded against Scotland, which was quickly taken and the ball found its way to the Nantes sweeper Michel der Zakarian who beat Nicky Walker with a fine header. It was a devastating finale, and many of the youngsters wept in the dressing room at the end of the match. ‘Our dressing room was gutted at full time,’ recalled McCoist. ‘I don’t mind admitting I cried my eyes out. I couldn’t believe football could be so cruel.’²

McCoist’s involvement in Monaco meant that he missed out on St Johnstone’s league match against Dunfermline Athletic at Muirton Park, and his presence was sorely missed as the Saints were defeated by four goals to two. Normal service was soon resumed, though, and McCoist was on the scoresheet again in late November, with Motherwell once again on the wrong end of his sharp-shooting skills as the young striker bagged another double in a 2-2 draw at Muirton Park. The following weekend his solitary goal against third-placed Ayr at Muirton Park was enough to halt a six-match winless run at home, although he was powerless to prevent a heavy 4-0 defeat against Hibernian at Easter Road in the next league match that ended the Saints’ unbeaten away record. Despite this result, though, St Johnstone were still handily placed in the league, lying fifth, which was a far cry from the relegation struggle the club had endured for the previous two seasons.

McCoist’s scoring exploits at club and international level had suddenly thrust him into the limelight, and he was beginning to attract interest from other clubs. His free-scoring start to the season had not gone unnoticed and no fewer than five scouts watched him score that winning goal against Ayr United. At the age of eighteen, he was regarded as being one of the hottest young players in the Scottish game, with a market value of anywhere between £150,000 and £300,000 being touted.

With McCoist in such prolific form it was no surprise that St Johnstone were among the post-Christmas favourites for promotion to the Premier Division. And the young striker started the New Year just as he had ended the old one, grabbing the only goal of the game in the home match with Berwick Rangers. He was among the goals again in an epic match with fellow promotion chasers Ayr United at Somerset Park a fortnight later, scoring twice in a pulsating 3-3 draw.

League business was placed to one side the following Saturday, the penultimate weekend of January, for the opening round of the Scottish Cup. St Johnstone were drawn against Hamilton Academical at Douglas Park and they progressed to the next round courtesy of a comprehensive 3-0 win. The prize for the Perth side was a plum draw against the mighty Glasgow Rangers (McCoist’s boyhood heroes) in the fourth round at Muirton Park. Although he had played, and scored, against sides with experience of playing in Scotland’s top flight, the match against Rangers would undoubtedly be the biggest of McCoist’s career to date.

Although still a formidable force in the Scottish game, Rangers were in the middle of a lean spell in the early 1980s. After having ended the 1979/80 season without a trophy, they were enduring a terrible run in the Premier Division, having won only four of their previous twelve league matches, and the week before travelling to Perth to face St Johnstone they had gone down 2-1 to Dundee United at Tannadice to fall further behind the leaders in the chase for the championship. Thus, in the midst of growing disquiet among the Rangers faithful, their manager, John Greig, was looking at the St Valentine’s Day cup-tie in Perth as a means of restoring some confidence in his battered and bruised squad.

And initially, at least, it looked as though Rangers would do just that, as goals from Colin McAdam and Ian Redford saw them race into a 2-0 lead, but what followed took St Johnstone to the verge of one of the biggest giant-killing acts in Scottish Cup history. The plucky home side refused to be overwhelmed by their illustrious opponents, and goals from Jim Docherty and John Brogan, back in the line-up after resolving his pay dispute shortly before Christmas, restored parity, and when Brogan scored again to put St Johnstone ahead for the first time, Rangers were on the ropes and rocking. The scoreline remained at 3-2 as the game entered its closing moments and pulses were racing on the terraces, in the dugouts and on the pitch. It took an injury-time goal from Redford, his second of the game, to spare Rangers’ blushes and force a replay at Ibrox four days later.

McCoist, no doubt overwhelmed by the occasion, did not play well in the match, but he was intent on rectifying that when he turned out at Ibrox the following Wednesday for the replay. However, there was to be no glory for the visitors, as Rangers took command of the match, eventually running out 3-1 winners and going on to win the trophy by defeating Dundee United in the final in May. McCoist, though, playing in the Ibrox amphitheatre for the first time, made an impression on both the club’s hierarchy and the home fans, as he grabbed St Johnstone’s consolation goal, forcing the ball over the line after the Rangers goalkeeper Peter McCloy had parried a long-range shot from Tam McNeill.

In addition to success at club level and youth international level, McCoist gained further recognition in the international arena when he was selected in Scotland’s semi-professional squad for a four-team tournament in Holland. Although McCoist did not play in any of the games against either England, Italy or the host nation, the whole experience was a valuable one and it represented yet another step up the professional game’s steep learning curve. His selection for the semi-professional squad was further acknowledgment that his stock was on the rise and, in the wake of the cup-tie with Rangers, he added to his league tally when he netted his fourteenth league goal of the season in a 4-1 home win over Dunfermline Athletic, a result that stretched the Saints’ unbeaten run in the league to eight matches and pushed them up to fourth in the table.

Next on the agenda were relegation-threatened Berwick Rangers at Muirton Park, and with the match being filmed by a television unit from Scottish Television, McCoist chose this match against the ‘wee Rangers’ to showcase his burgeoning talents to a wider audience. He opened the scoring after four minutes when he slotted home a pass from John Brogan and doubled his tally seven minutes later with a firm header before completing his first professional hat-trick in the twenty-sixth minute when he knocked in a rebound after the Berwick goalkeeper had parried his rasping drive from 25 yards. Although Berwick pegged the score back to 3-2 early in the second half, goals from Kilgour and Brogan restored St Johnstone’s three-goal cushion before McCoist added some extra shine to the final result by firing in his fourth goal in the dying seconds of the game.

St Johnstone, now lying third in the First Division, were in with a really good chance of finishing in one of the two promotion spots and they cemented their claim for one of those places when they travelled to Easter Road in mid-March and beat the league leaders Hibernian by two goals to one, thanks to goals from Brogan (his fifth in three games) and Docherty. A 4-1 reverse at Dens Park in April – McCoist netted the visitors’ only goal – against fellow challengers Dundee threatened to derail their promotion charge, but a 2-0 win over Raith Rovers helped steer the Saints back on course, and when goals from McCoist and Brogan forced a 2-2 draw with East Stirlingshire in their penultimate league match, Alex Rennie’s side leapfrogged Raith to occupy the coveted second promotion place for the first time that season. All they had to do now was stay there.

With Hibernian confirmed as champions, there was effectively a three-way fight for second place between St Johnstone, Dundee and Raith Rovers. St Johnstone were now in pole position going into the final round of fixtures, and they retained their position when they narrowly won their last game of the season by one goal to nil against already relegated Stirling Albion at Muirton Park. With Raith drawing their last fixture, only Tayside rivals Dundee stood between St Johnstone and a return to the big time. The Dens Park side lay one point behind, but had a game in hand over the Perth side, which was scheduled to take place a week after St Johnstone had completed their fixture list. As they had a superior goal difference, Dundee only needed to take a point from their final match against East Stirlingshire to clinch promotion to the Premier Division, but they claimed both points courtesy of a 1-0 victory. It was a bitter end to what had been a tremendous season for St Johnstone. They finished the campaign on fifty-one points, six behind champions Hibernian and an agonising one point adrift of Dundee.

Although disappointed at missing out on the prospect of Premier Division football, McCoist could at least take consolation from his own form during the season. He missed just one league match over the course of the campaign – the 4-2 home defeat by Dunfermline in November as a result of his trip to Monaco with the Scotland Youth team – and his goal in the 2-2 draw with East Stirlingshire was his twenty-second in thirty-eight league appearances. His strike against Rangers in the Scottish Cup took his final tally to twenty-three goals in forty-three appearances, and he was rewarded for his outstanding contribution when the St Johnstone Sports and Social Club voted him as their Player of the Year for the 1980/81 season, his first individual accolade in the professional game.

However, there was no rest for the prodigious youngster. Just days after the curtain fell on the domestic season, McCoist joined up with the Scotland Under-18 squad bound for West Germany, where they were taking part in the European Under-18 Championships. Having previously been run under the guise of the FIFA Junior tournament and the European Junior tournament, this was the first year the competition had operated as the European Under-18 Championships, and the Scots were one of sixteen nations taking part.

The entrants were split into four groups of four, with the group winner progressing to the knockout stages of the tournament. Scotland found themselves pitched into one of the toughest groups alongside Spain, Austria, and defending European champions England, with the Austrians providing the opposition in the Scots’ opening match of the competition. Orchestrated by sixteen-year-old Paul McStay, the Scots produced a ‘superb display of open, attacking football’³, but despite their best efforts, Andy Roxburgh’s side were thwarted by an inspired display by the Austrian goalkeeper. Even the prolific McCoist was denied a goal when the keeper blocked his close-range effort in the forty-sixth minute. Scotland’s industry eventually paid off, though, when Manchester United’s Scott McGarvey struck the only goal of the game with five minutes remaining.

Forty-eight hours later, a staggering crowd of 35,000 turned up at the Tivoli Stadium in Aachen to watch Scotland’s second match, an encounter with the Auld Enemy, England. The reigning European champions and pre-tournament favourites boasted a squad bursting with talent, but having lost their opening game against Spain 2-1, they emerged for their clash with Scotland with their future in the competition hanging in the balance. And given the nature of their display in their first match, there was no reason for the Scots pups to feel intimidated by their English counterparts. Indeed, they went into the match full of confidence, bidding to emulate their senior colleagues who, just four days earlier, had defeated England 1-0 at Wembley thanks to a John Robertson penalty.

Although there was no repeat of the wonderful football showcased against the Austrians, Scotland duly completed the Double to end England’s reign as European champions with a performance based on grit, determination and fighting spirit, traits that have historically been synonymous with the Scottish national team. The only goal of the contest arrived after just eight minutes when McGarvey, the goal-scoring hero against Austria, turned provider, sending in a marvellous cross that McCoist headed into the net. It was the eighteen-year-old’s first-ever goal against the Auld Enemy.

With the Spaniards defeating the Austrians 3-0, the outcome of the Spain v Scotland match would decide Group D. Boasting a superior goal difference, Spain only needed to draw the game to progress to the last four; for Scotland, nothing less than a win would do. What unfolded in Duren was a brutal match punctuated by a number of cynical fouls by the savage Spaniards. There were no fewer than eighty-two stoppages during the course of the match, with the French referee, Daniel Lambert, trying manfully to keep a lid on the proceedings. Remarkably in the midst of such malevolent behaviour, he dished out just three bookings to Spanish players and the match had moved into injury-time before one of their players, Sergio Marrera, was ordered off after he kicked out at Scott McGarvey.

Just as had been the case earlier in the season in Monaco, the Scots were eliminated with an unbeaten record. Spain took the lead in the fifty-second minute thanks to a diving header from Real Sociedad’s Baquero, but Scotland responded in typically bullish fashion and restored parity within four minutes. Just minutes after McGarvey had had a goal ruled out for offside, McCoist stepped forward to score a superb goal, bending a free-kick from 25 yards round the defensive wall and into the top left-hand corner. It was a wonderful effort from the St Johnstone starlet and it prompted the Scots to flood forward in search of the winner. Alas, it was not forthcoming, although Celtic’s David Moyes did strike the post with a header six minutes after McCoist’s equaliser.

Although Scotland had fallen at the first hurdle, the trip to West Germany catapulted Ally McCoist to the attention of clubs all over the United Kingdom. Suddenly he was hot property, with his prowess in front of goal reportedly attracting interest from English giants Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers, and when St Johnstone were drawn in a tantalising League Cup section alongside Premier Division sides Celtic, Hibernian and St Mirren at the outset of the 1981/82 season, the chase for McCoist’s signature really began to hot up.

The Saints began their Section One fixtures with a trip to Easter Road to face newly promoted Hibernian. On their previous visit to Edinburgh in March, the Perth side had won 2-1, and they repeated the scoreline to get their season off to a flying start, with McCoist opening the scoring and then setting up the winning goal, scored by Beedie.

Next up were reigning Premier Division champions Celtic at Muirton Park, but the lofty status of Billy McNeill’s side did not frighten the home team. They had after all given Celtic’s Old Firm rivals Rangers a run for their money at the same venue only six months previously, so Alex Rennie and his players were confident of causing another shock. And they did exactly that, felling the Glasgow giants in dramatic fashion with a 2-0 win. McCoist broke the deadlock seven minutes before the interval when he latched on to a Joe Pelosi pass, outpaced Willie Garner and rounded Celtic goalkeeper Pat Bonner before slotting the ball into the back of the net. He had a hand in the second goal too, winning the penalty that was converted by substitute Jim Morton.

Claiming the scalp of Celtic was a splendid result for St Johnstone, who now topped the section after the opening two games, and the First Division side looked set to sail into the quarter-finals. However, the chances that their prolific young forward would still be in their ranks should that circumstance arise were looking increasingly unlikely: the journalists in the Scottish media who conducted the match analysis for the Celtic game were purring about the maturity of McCoist’s displays. In his match report in the Evening Times, Chick Young reckoned that McCoist was ‘a snip’⁴ at his £400,000 valuation, and that he had taken his goal with ‘the arrogance and cool of a natural born striker’⁵, while Alex Cameron in the Daily Record called the youngster Perth’s ‘best asset since the advent of Bell’s [Bell’s Whisky had its origins in Perth in the late 1800s]’.⁶

Despite such lavish praise, McCoist was remaining grounded. ‘I’m happy enough to leave everything to the boss,’ he said. ‘OK, I want to be a full-time player and I would like that chance as soon as possible. But I will be sad to leave St Johnstone. They have been tremendous with me and I’ll stay there until they decide that a move is on. I’m willing to be guided by them.’⁷

Press speculation linking McCoist with a move to England was now an almost daily occurrence, but it did not appear to faze the eighteen-year-old and he scored his third goal in as many games when he netted in the Saints’ 3-2 home defeat against St Mirren three days after the Celtic triumph. A number of scouts had been in attendance as St Johnstone’s unbeaten start to the campaign had drawn to a close and when Alex Rennie took his team to Parkhead to tackle Celtic the following Wednesday, representatives from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Middlesbrough were among the 14,600 crowd. They watched Celtic gain revenge for the shock loss at Muirton Park, with the Hoops hammering the visitors by four goals to one, and they saw McCoist nullified for most of the evening. However, the Celtic defence could not keep him quiet for the whole night, and he maintained his goal-a-game ratio by netting St Johnstone’s consolation goal.

Joining Middlesbrough and Wolves in the chase for McCoist’s signature were Sunderland, and Rangers were also interested, tabling a £300,000 bid on the eve of St Johnstone’s fifth League Cup sectional tie with Hibernian. Following the 2-1 defeat against Hibernian, a match that would be his last in the blue of St Johnstone, McCoist spoke with Rangers manager John Greig before, in the company of his father, Alex Rennie and the St Johnstone chairman Alex Lamond, embarking on a whistle-stop tour of each of the interested English clubs to talk over what was on offer.

By the end of a hectic weekend, reports in the media suggested that Wolves had won the race for McCoist’s signature. Their manager, John Barnwell, had acquired the services of the rugged Scotland striker Andy Gray for a record fee of £1.5 million in 1979, and he had designs on creating an all-tartan strikeforce at Molineux. However, despite making a very good offer, McCoist elected to join Sunderland instead. ‘Most people thought I would agree to join Wolves,’ he told the Glasgow Herald, ‘but the thing that swayed it for Sunderland in the end was that they are just that little bit nearer home. I’m a bit of a home bird and East Kilbride is only a couple of hours away from Sunderland.’⁸

The decision to join Sunderland also meant that Rangers, McCoist’s boyhood heroes, had missed out on snaring the talented striker. Ever since he could remember he had dreamed of pulling that famous royal blue jersey over his head and running out at Ibrox as a Rangers player, but the attraction of the English First Division and the prospect of pitting his wits against centre-halves such as Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson at Liverpool and Terry Butcher and Russell Osman at high-flying Ipswich Town tipped the scales in Sunderland’s favour. ‘The lure of playing in the English First Division was all that stopped me going to Rangers,’ he said. ‘John Greig impressed me a lot. The set-up was good, too, and I knew that I would have the chance of playing in Europe. But it’s been an ambition to play in the top league in England and that’s what eventually took me south.’⁹

On Wednesday, 26 August 1981, Ally McCoist put pen to paper and signed for Sunderland in a deal that cost the Wearsiders £400,000, a club record fee and a significant outlay for such a young player. His three-year stay in Perth had yielded twenty-seven goals in sixty-eight appearances and had brought him international recognition in the shape of ten caps for the Scotland Under-18 team. He had developed both physically and mentally during his time at Muirton Park and was now on the verge of opening a new and potentially exciting chapter in his embryonic career. Sadly, his stint south of the border did not turn out quite the way he had planned.