Season 1953-54

There was hope that 1953-54 was going to offer more when the first two matches were won. The third match however ended this hope when Queen of the South won 4-0 and the rest of the season was full of inconsistency, not helped by another run of bad injuries.

To add to the worries, manager Bobby Rankine was seriously ill in hospital for a long period.

Willie Telfer was making headlines for various reasons throughout the year. In October he was chosen to represent Scotland against Wales at the beginning of November. As a result, Saints rested him for a match against East Fife just prior to this. The Scottish league saw this as Saints having fielded a ‘weakened’ team and fined them £20!

Telfer returned to the St. Mirren lineup having played for Scotland in an exciting 3-3 draw with Wales and was his usual consistent self in the centre of defence. On New Year's Day, He got the chance to show his versatility when He was asked to lead the forward line against Queen of the South. He may have been out of position, but Willie acquitted himself well and led the attack in style, netting a hat-trick to earn a 5-3 victory!

After this, it was back to centre-half and his solid defending helped secure an eleventh-place finish.

One of the most notable things about the early part of the 1950s was the performance of centre-forward George Stewart.

Stewart signed for Saints in 1950 from Dundee and was top scorer for four consecutive seasons with a total of 38 goals from 69 league matches. He also netted 17 cup goals to make a total of 55 goals and place him on the thirteenth rung of the top post-war scorers.