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Thomas Stickroth joined St.Mirren, on
loan from Bayer Uerdingen, in March 1990, making his debut as a second half sub
in a match against Rangers at Love Street. He
was listed as a trialist for this match and within five minutes of taking the
field Saints fans were shouting, ‘Sign him! Sign him!’ as he showed of his
electric pace and close ball control. He had started his playing career with
his home town team VFB Stuttgart before moving to 2nd Division Freiburg and then
onto Hamburg. At Love Street he quickly gained hero
status amongst the fans with his ball skills and anticipation grew each time he
collected the ball and went on a run at opposition defences. One
of these runs saw him cross from near the corner flag straight onto the head of
Gudmundur Torfason, who headed the opening goal of a glorious 3-0
victory over Celtic at Parkhead on the 7th April 1990. At
the end of this season Saints paid Bayer Uerdingen £400,000 to secure the
Stickroth signature and make him the biggest buy in the clubs history. Thomas scored his first goal for Saints
in a pre-season match against Queen of the South at Palmerston in a 4-2 victory.
His first competitive goal came when he netted the
winner in a 1-0 League Cup win over Arbroath at Love Street. He followed this up
with a goal against Motherwell in September 1990. Never a prolific scorer, Stickroth made
his name as more of a provider than a scorer and posed a threat when running at
defenders. An injury curtailed his involvement in
season 1991-92 and Saints missed his attacking threat as they slumped towards
relegation. He did make a comeback towards the end of the season but could not
prevent the drop to division one. His final match for St.Mirren was
against Dunfermline in the final game of the season and he scored the opening
goal of a 3-1 win. Following relegation, Thomas decided
that his future lay elsewhere and joined Bundesliga club Saarbruken. He had represented St.Mirren in 61
competitive matches and scored 3 goals. It is testament to his fitness levels
that he continued to play at a high level with VFL Bochum, albeit in a sweeper
role, until season 2001-02. | ||||||||||||
