Pre-War Programmes Involving St. Mirren

(first published in the match programmes for St. Mirren v Annan Athletic, 19^th July 2025 and St. Mirren v Ayr United, 27^th July 2025)

Season 1946/47 saw the resumption of organised football in Scotland following the Second World War and with the renewed boom in attendances came the interest in, and widespread issue of, regular match programmes. By the end of the decade, all but five of the 32 "A" and "B" Division Clubs were issuing for weekend matches, if not always for midweek fixtures due to the challenging printing demands.

That is not to say that programmes did not exist before this time. One publication which ran from 1907 until the Second World War was the "National Football Programme". This provided the teams, half-time scoreboard and league tables for all Scottish games to be played on the Saturday of issue. In addition to this, clubs would produce "one-off" issues for Cup-ties and special occasions, but these were very much the exception.

However, there is generally a dearth of information and surviving examples of pre-war Scottish programmes, leading collectors to speculate that one cause of this was down to Scotland's proficiency in paper recycling, or "salvage" to aid the war effort.

The earliest known programme involving St. Mirren appeared during the club's 1922 visit to Spain for the opening of Barcelona's new Camp De Les Corts ground. The local sports newspaper "La Journada Deportiva" produced at least one programme to cover the matches involving Saints, Barcelona and Notts County. This was followed by an extensive match report and photographs in a special edition of the newspaper on 26^th May 1922, the morning after St. Mirren had defeated Notts County 2-1 to win the Barcelona Cup.

St. Mirren's very next Cup match also saw a programme issued. The draw for the First Round of the 1922/23 Scottish Cup sent Saints to Borough Briggs in Elgin and the home side produced a large four-page issue to commemorate the tie. This programme and match were featured in an article in the St. Mirren v Dundee programme of 21st January 2023 to mark the centenary of its issue.

In 1925, St. Mirren faced a select side in the second of two benefit matches for Welsh international Billy Meredith, who played over 600 games for both Manchester clubs until he retired at the age of 49 in the previous year. The first match in April featured a Meredith XI against a Rangers/Celtic XI, and in the second benefit on 18^th November, the Meredith XI defeated St. Mirren 4-2. The matches were played at Liverpool's Anfield ground.

Four-page programmes exist for both games, with the match details on the front page, team line ups on the back, and a centre page spread introducing the Scottish visitors and documenting Meredith's 30-year football career in words, records and a photo of the player.

As the decade progressed, a number of Scottish clubs began to produce regular issues. Hearts began in 1924, followed by Hibernian in 1925 and, on the first day of the 1929/30 season, by Falkirk, Celtic, Kilmarnock and Edinburgh-based St. Bernard's. With the exception of Hearts, all of these issues had a similar look and feel and, despite bearing the words "Official Programme", they were all produced by an independent printing company, presumably with the blessing of the associated clubs. The only known issues from that period involving St. Mirren were for the matches against Hibernian at Easter Road on 11^th September 1926 and away to Kilmarnock on 26^th October 1929. Kilmarnock also issued for the Reserve match against Saints on 19^th October 1929.

St. Mirren faced Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on 28^th April 1930 in the inaugural match for a trophy sponsored by the Wolverhampton Business and Sportsman's Committee. The 12-page match programme measured 26cm by 20cm and was priced at twopence. It was printed black on white semi-gloss paper with an outer old gold cover. Most of the issue consisted of adverts, but it contained a piece about the benefitting charities, details of both sides and photos of the Saints team and individual Wolves players.

St. Mirren brought typical Scottish playing qualities to the match and outclassed their Black Country opponents, Davie McCrae opening the scoring after twenty minutes. The home side pressed hard in the second half but all of their efforts were repelled by Saints' keeper Willie Fotheringham. With five minutes remaining, McCrae, now playing on the wing, centred the ball for Alan Gebbie to settle the match and bring the trophy back to Paisley.

The 1930s saw the continuation of programme publication by the same small set of clubs as before. All issues had the same "look and feel" about them, and the only distinction was in the paper colour used; pink for Hearts, green for Celtic and Hibernian, and white for the others.

Scottish Cup Finals tended to be covered by the "National Football Programme" publication and specific programmes were rare, the earliest known issue being for the 1924 final. St. Mirren's 2-0 triumph over Celtic in 1926 was not graced by a programme but, by the time of their next Final appearance on 21^st April 1934, a simple issue was available. The programme, printed black on white and priced at threepence, presented the basic match details on the front cover and set the Cup Final programme template for the next three years. Unfortunately for Saints, the match saw Rangers score five goals without reply, and prompted the now infamous one-word entry in the Paisley Club's minutes - "Bad".

Saints provided the opposition for more issues from the Edinburgh clubs, there being programmes for the meeting with Hibernian in 1933/34 and for matches at Tynecastle in 1933/34 and 1934/35. Kilmarnock were prolific during the decade and it is known that eight of their home matches against St. Mirren up until 1940 were represented by a programme.

Queen of the South joined the fraternity in 1933 and produced their own style of programme for first team and reserve matches right up until 1939. The "Blue and White" cover design was the same as that used by Manchester City and Huddersfield Town during that period, even though the content of the Doonhamers' programme was edited by the Supporters' Club and printed in Dumfries.

Their twelve-page issue, measuring 25cm by 16cm, contained a good mix of reading material including "Editor's Notebook", "Pars from the Pavilion", "Club Gossip" and coverage of the visitors. The team line-ups had their own dedicated page and, in a forerunner to the format of many programmes for years to come, the half-time scoreboard occupied the centre pages, surrounded by adverts from local traders. At least three issues are known to exist involving St. Mirren; both First Team and Reserve matches from 1933/34 and from the Reserve fixture in 1935/36.

Aberdeen produced programmes as early as 1905, but the only known pre-war issue against St. Mirren was for the Buddies' visit on 19^th December 1936. Issue number 20 was similar in format to the other issues of the time. The 14,000 crowd was served up a pre-Christmas treat with nine goals, Aberdeen winning 5-4.

St. Mirren's first home match of the 1939/40 season on 19^th August not only welcomed visitors Queen of the South, but heralded the beginning of programme production in Paisley. The only surviving copy of the eight-page issue is missing its front cover, but the page is thought to have been similar to others of the era, with the Club name and match details above a contemporary advert.

Page three consisted of Editor's Notes, in which the anonymous scribe picked the bones out of the previous week's 1-5 away defeat to Rangers and anticipated the visit of the Doonhamers, who, it was claimed, did not boast a good record at Love Street. Continuing on page seven, the Editor justified these claims with a rundown of previous results between the sides since the Dumfries side's promotion to the top division in season 1933/34. The "Notes" concluded with a look forward to the following Tuesday, when Saints would have an early opportunity to avenge their Ibrox defeat with the return match against Rangers at Love Street.

The centre pages displayed the line ups in 2-3-5 formation, but Saints made three changes from the printed XI, whilst Queens made one alteration. Page six then displayed the half time scoreboard for fourteen of the other Scottish League matches being played that day.

The back page provided a record of Saints' fixtures for the forthcoming campaign and, despite the season being only one game old, it also included the league tables and leading marksmen for both divisions so far. Before a crowd of 12,000, Saints' Thomas Brady scored a hat-trick (1 pen) in a 3-3 draw, the Doonhamer's goals coming from Connor, Lang (pen) and Law.

Saints played two further home games, against Rangers (22^nd Aug.) and Cowdenbeath (2^nd Sept.) before war was declared the day after the Cowdenbeath match and organised football was then suspended for the period of hostilities.

During the 1945/46 transitional season, St. Mirren restarted programme production with the first issue thought to have been again against Queen of the South on 29^th December 1945. All subsequent home matches in the Southern League, League Cup and Victory Cup competitions in 1946 saw a programme issued.