Former Scotland captain Roy Aitken signed for Saints in August 1991 for a fee of £150,000 from Newcastle United and would play just one season in Paisley, easily identifiable as arguably the poorest in the entire history of the club. However the 32 year old was a rare bright spot in the darkest of seasons, winning multiple player of the year awards as well as his final Scotland cap whilst attempting to keep the club in the top flight.

Aitken made his debut on the 21^st August 1991 against newly promoted Falkirk at Love Street, and his first involvement in a Saints shirt was a thunderous tackle on Bairns midfielder Neil Duffy, showing he’d lost none of his legendary will to win so evident in his 15 years at Celtic which had ended the previous year.

The 0-0 draw that day stopped an incredibly poor start to the season where Saints had already lost three times, conceding 10 goals in the process to Hibs, Dundee Utd and another newly promoted side in Airdrie, as well as scrape through against Brechin on penalties in the League Cup after a 3-3 draw.

The side did improve with Aitken in it, but it was still nowhere near enough and Saints rather pathetically dropped out the top flight at the end of the season after 15 years in the Premier Division that had delivered everything apart from the league title.

To his utmost credit, Aitken stated he was willing to stay at the club to help the promotion effort, however the financial madness that had followed winning the cup in 1987 was about to seriously catch up with the club, and Aitken was sold to Aberdeen for £100k in the pre-season, who he would later go onto manage.