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David Winnie signed for St.Mirren in
1979 on an S-Form as a thirteen year old. He was farmed out to Barrhead Boys
Club for a couple of seasons, before being called up to Saints reserve side in
1981. After becoming a regular in the
reserves, he made his top team debut against Hearts in the League Cup at
Tynecastle on the 9th November 1983. His league debut came on Christmas Eve 1983
against Aberdeen at Love Street. He went on to play in twelve matches
that first season. 1984-85 was a memorable one or the young
Winnie. He played in 34 matches, scoring his first senior goal against Dundee
United at Tannadice on the 23rd March 1985 and ended the season as joint winner
of the British Caledonian young player of the year trophy with Derek Ferguson of
Rangers. The following season was blighted by an
ankle injury and David missed large parts of the campaign. This continued into
season 1986-87. He did regain his place in the team at
the beginning of 1987, usually playing in the heart of the defence alongside
Neil Cooper. This partnership was to perform well during the successful Scottish
Cup run of that season and David was part of the team that lined up at Hampden
on 16/5/87 to defeat Dundee United in the final. After this victory he travelled
to Singapore and played in all four matches as Saints won the Epson Trophy. The successful partnership with Cooper
continued into the following two years and his displays earned him several
inclusions in the Scottish U-21 squads. When Cooper departed in 1989, Winnie was
appointed club captain and continued to perform consistently in defence. At the end of 1989-90 Aberdeen stepped
in and took Winnie to Pittodrie. He returned to Love Street for season
1997-98 and gave much needed experience to the young team of the time. In his two spells at Love Street David
played in over 200 matches, scoring six goals. After leaving in 1998, he played in
Iceland with KR Reykjavik and became the first foreigner to win the Icelandic
player of the year title. | ||||||||||||
