

Season 1954-55


1954-55 began in a sombre mood with the sad death of manager Bobby Rankin. Bobby had served the Saints for over seventeen seasons as player, director and manager. As a player, he had scored 90 goals in 250 competitive games. He then became director when the war interrupted his playing career before taking over the manager’s post in 1945. A great loss to St. Mirren. His replacement was Willie Reid who had covered for him during his long illness.
The season started with the expected early exit from the League Cup, but the league campaign began well with a 7-2 win over Queen of the South at Palmerston. This was after the team had to change on the train on the way down due to delays! Goals on the day came from Tommy Gemmell, Billy McMaster and John McGrory with two apiece and Brian Callan with the other.
This form continued in the next game with a 2-0 win over Kilmarnock followed by a 4-4 draw with Clyde.
Two back-to-back 4-0 defeats were followed by five wins and a draw including a 7-1 win over Stirling Albion with Tommy Gemmell netting a hat-trick. Tommy was a regular scorer during the fifties and is the club’s 6th top scorer with 94 goals.
A 2-1 defeat by Hibs was followed by three wins and a couple of draws took Saints to third in the league at the New Year. The challenge for the title faded during February/March with a run of five games without a win finishing with a 6-1 defeat by East Fife.
A final event of note during the season was the debut of John ‘Cockles’ Wilson, against Reading on the 21st of March. Unfortunately, this lasted only three minutes as he broke his collarbone!

