Billy Stark has four Scottish Cup medals from Aberdeen and Celtic to know how much this competition means – but only the pain of defeat, and a broken wrist, to remember St Mirren by.
The classy midfielder had eight unrewarded years in Paisley before his old Saints boss, Alex Ferguson, took him to Pittodrie in July 1983, and was an immediate hit, winning six trophies, including the Scottish Cup in 1984 and 1986. Billy McNeill remembered how Stark shone at St Mirren against his previous Celtic side before the manager had also moved in 1983, to Manchester City, and when McNeill returned to Parkhead in 1987, he got Stark from the Dons.
The impact was just as swift – a title and Scottish Cup in 1988 and another Scottish Cup in 1989. Celtic’s Scottish Cup triumph in 1980 was just the second honour on the young manager’s CV but McNeill didn’t forget how Saints took his team to the brink in an epic fourth-round collision watched by 60,000 over two games, and thousands of fans who didn’t get in for the Love Street lockout at the replay.
