UEFA CUP 2nd Round, 2nd Leg
6th November 1985
St. Mirren Park, Paisley
St. Mirren 1-2 St. Mirren
MCGARVEY 20
Ivarsson 87
Lundin 89
ATT: 11,278
Referee: I B Neilsen (Denmark)
- Saints crash out of Europe in extraordinary circumstances at Love Street, despite requiring to lose 2 goals in the last 180 seconds to do so, yet somehow managed to capitulate and do exactly that, leaving the large crowd to disperse in complete silence into the damp Paisley night at full time.
- Perhaps even more incredible is the fact Saints actually lost three goals during this late period, with a goal disallowed between the two valid strikes, both notched by substitutes as Hammarby desperately tried anything to claw their way back into unlikely contention.
- Matters had looked fairly straight forward for Saints up until then, with Frank McGarvey giving Saints an early lead and this along with 3 away goals presented the home side with what was and should have been a comfortable and unassailable lead over the part time Swedes.
- However, some calamitous game management in the last 3 minutes by Saints gifts the Swedes a route back into match, with players opting to attack instead of running the clock down, leaving the home defence overloaded as Hammarby go for broke and succeed with ruthless finishing on two occasions.
- Frank McGarvey, who was subbed with 8 minutes to go and is the team bath alone, doesn’t believe his teammates when they enter the dressing room at full time and tell him what has happened on the pitch after the Saints man left the field. Only the entrance of a furious Alex Miller persuades McGarvey the team are knocked out. This is familiar story for fans that left early and were found in local pubs, so ridiculous did defeat seem with only a few minutes remaining.
- The defeat enters Scottish football folklore and the scars carried for decades by the thousands of Saints fans in attendance.
- The Swedes meet FC Koln in the last 16 and are narrowly knocked out, with the Germans reaching the final before losing to Real Madrid 5-3 over 2 legs.
TEAM LINEUPS
| ST. MIRREN | NO | HAMMARBY |
|---|---|---|
| MONEY Campbell | 1 | SKALLEBENG Roger |
| WILSON Tommy | 2 | VONDERBURG Jean-Paul  75 |
| HAMILTON Derek | 3 | HOLMBERG Per 70 |
| ROONEY Jim | 4 | VAATTOVAARA Sulo |
| GODFREY Peter | 5 | JOHANSSON Klas |
| CLARKE Steve | 6 | UHLBACK Peter |
| FITZPATRICK Tony | 7 | RAMBERG Sten-Ove |
| MACKIE Peter 80 | 8 | ANDERSSON Michael |
| McGARVEY Frank 82 | 9 | TURESSON Tomas |
| GALLAGHER Brian | 10 | OLHSSON Billy |
| SPEIRS Gardner | 11 | ERIKKSON Ulf |
ABERCROMBY Billy  80 | 12 | LUNDIN Thomas 70 |
| McDOWALL Kenny 82 | 13 | IVARSSON Hakan 75 |
| COOPER Neil | 14 | ERIKKSON Lasse |
| CAMERON Ian | 15 | – |
| STEWART Jim | 16 | – |
THE MATCH
