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 Tony Fitzpatrick 
  
 

Think of an icon of Paisley. No, not the Eikon Club - an icon. How about Tony Fitzpatrick, a St Mirren player so distinguished he even sprouted a distinguished moustache? Yes, forget Paisley's dark, satanic mills - the Saints fans should demand a finely sculpted statue of "the Fitzpatrick moustache" to be erected in front of the town hall. Tourists could picnic in its shadow, marvelling at its craft. "But was he any good?" the sightseers might ask. "Of course!" his Buddies would cry, thereby sparking a rammie with the Morton fans.

Anthony Saint Mirrenicus Fitzpatrick quite simply IS St Mirrenexcept he moved to Bristol City for two years in a £250,000 deal. His Paisley connection began when he was 15, and in his 26 years at Love Street he did just about every job at the club. He played for Paisley's best team on 351 occasions and is their all-time longest-serving player. Of particular pride to Tony is his record against Morton. He claims that his only defeat to the Saints' rivals came in a reserve league match...but then he may just have wiped any others from his memory.

And so to the crucial football question. Was Tony the best player in his school? Well, that's for visitors to this site to decide, but Tony modestly mentioned that his school team line-up included Jim Duffy, Billy Abercromby and Charlie Nicholas. No' bad, eh? A more startling fact about Tony's schooldays is that even in primary school fuzzy matter had begun to form on his top lip! What's more, by the time he went to secondary school he had a full beard! The teachers must have been scared of him.


Looking back on his playing days, Tony recalls the unforgettable St Mirren v Hammarby game in 1985/86 UEFA Cup. Drawing 3-3 from the first leg in Sweden thanks to a hat-trick from Brian Gallagher, the Saints were surely in the ideal position to go through. A sizeable bonus lay in wait for the St Mirren players should they progress, so as you can imagine, one Frank McGarvey was in good form. Indeed, when he scored to put St Mirren 4-3 ahead on aggregate it looked like the Buddies were in the money.

With just a few minutes remaining, McGarvey was substituted and he headed straight off to the dressing room. In the ensuing drama, Hammarby equalised and then had a goal disallowed, so at 4-4 on aggregate Saint Mirren were still going through. However, the Swedes scored yet again and won the second leg 2-1, 5-4 on aggregate.

Imagine, if you will, the coupon on Frank McGarvey - by this time soaking in the team tub dreaming of how he would spend his Euro bonus - when the St Mirren players trudged in and told him that Hammarby had scored twice since he'd left the field and that no win bonus would be winging its way to his trooser pocket. Such is football.

Tony was St Mirren manager from 1988 and 1991, and put in another stint in the Saints hot seat five years later until he was given the boot by new chairman Stewart Gilmour in December 1998. One reason given by the St Mirren board for Fitz's departure was the team's poor disciplinary record - proof indeed that Tony IS St Mirren. But if the players did get stuck in to their First Division opponents, then maybe it was a tribute to Tony's man-management skills. If he wanted his Buddies fired up, then fired up they were! Some of Tony's other management skills were gleaned from the coaching staff at Bayer Leverkusen, with whom he struck up a friendship, but then Germans...men with black moustaches...Let's stop right there, shall we?

Thankfully, Tony, now 43, is still involved in football. Based in Ferguslie Park, Paisley, he runs Total Soccer Experience, a coaching school for boys in Renfrewshire, Ayrshire and Argyll. Tony Fitzpatrick - Love Street's living legend.

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