WE WERE colleagues together on the late-lamented Sunday Standard sports pages. It was always a joy to talk to him about football, and particularly about Willie Shankly, so I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing, aged 82 of Ian St John.
Saint and Greavsie was a great football show, it was funny, the two presenters realised football was a peripheral activity on life, but, they knew their stuff – having been two of the best strikers in a Golden Age for goal-scorers. In some ways, however, the success of that show rather over-shadowed what they had done on the park. Yes, Saint and Jimmy Greaves were terrific on-screen personalities, but, as TV performers, they were nowhere as good as they were on the football park.
He was a Motherwell boy, joining his home-town team straight from school, as a part-timer, while enduring an apprenticeship which he hated, at the Motherwell Bridge engineering company. The Steelmen sent him out to Douglas Water to be toughened-up in the juniors, before bringing him back once they realised – this young man was a natural goal-scorer.
He was one of the legendary “Ancell Babes” squad, nurtured by Motherwell manager – the former Scotland internationalist Bobby Ancell. Four of the Babes' forward line: Billy Hunter, St John, Pat Quinn and Andy Weir played for Scotland. The fifth forward, Sammy Reid, would later in his career score one of the most-celebrated goals in Scottish football history, for Berwick Rangers against Glasgow Rangers, to clinch one of the greatest cup upsets ever.
Half-backs John Martis and Bert McCann also became full internationalists, while
St John won the first of his eventual 21 full caps in a 3-2 Hampden win over West Germany, on 6 May, 1959. He was never an automatic choice for his country. For instance, he was one of the players dropped after the 3-9 humiliation of Wembley 1961, but, his part in the victories at Hampden in 1962 and back at Wembley in 1963 made up for that horror show.
“I was on the park that day, but, in truth I didn't play,” he told me when I once raised the thorny subject of that April afternoon with him.
It was suggested during his Scotland career, that he didn't score enough goals, he managed nine for Scotland, an average of 0.47 per game. However, he supplied plenty of “assists” and although he didn't score that day, I recall him giving Wolves' Bill Slater a torrid time in the drawn Hampden game with England in 1960. That day, he did everything but score, and that was typical of his performances in dark blue.
He also played for Motherwell, on the night of 1 March, 1961, when they thumped Rangers 5-2 in a Scottish Cup replay, at Ibrox. Needless to say, he scored one of the goals and that goal helped secure him a move south, when Liverpool boss Willie Shankly paid a then club-record fee of £37,500 to take him to Anfield. That equates to just under £872,000 today, which indicates what a bargain Shankly struck, given the impact St John would have on Merseyside.
He scored 105 goals in144 Motherwell appearances.
He impressed immediately, scoring a hat-trick in his debut against Everton in the Liverpool Senior Cup, before going on to help Liverpool return to the English top-flight.
His 21 goals helped the Reds win the English First Division (now the Premiership) in 1964, but, his superstar status on Merseyside was clinched the following season, with his extra-time diving header past Leeds' goalkeeper Gary Sprake, to clinch Liverpool's first FA Cup win.
He spent ten years at Anfield, playing 425 games, scoring 118 goals and becoming a cult hero to the Koppites. Along the way he inspired a famous piece of Liverpool grafitti, when a “Jesus Saves” poster was defaced with the line - “but St John nets the rebound.”
He had a short spell in South Africa, before running down his career with Coventry City and Tranmere Rovers. He hung up his boots in 1973 and returned to Motherwell as manager. He then had a spell as Portsmouth boss, before finishing his active career in the game as a coach at Coventry City and Sheffield Wednesday.
From 1979, when he left Wednesday, he concentrated on media work, and was a very-popular turn on the after-dinner speaking circuit, while also establishing the successful American-style Ian St John Summer Football Camps. His partnership with Greaves ran on TV from 1985 until 1992, while he also wrote for several newspapers.
He was perhaps always destined for a career on TV. The BBC ran a nationwide competition to find a new commentator to go to the 1970 World Cup Finals in Mexico. St John entered and reached the final (anonymously). His commentary in the final was outstanding, but, Sir Alf Ramsey, one of the judges, showing his legendary anti-Scottish bias, made it clear he would not countenance a Scot winning it; so Welshman Idwal Robling got the gig – and seldom got past BBC Wales on TV, while Saint was a national figure.
In 2008 he was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. Strangely, he is not in the Liverpool Hall of Fame, but, is listed on fan-generated sites, such as 100 Players Who Rocked The Kop.
Ian St John's final years were blighted by Cancer, but, he never lost his impish sense of humour and his passion for the game of football. He will be sorely missed, and mourned by all who saw him play.
My thoughts are with his widow, Betsy, daughter Elaine and son Ian Junior.
No comments:
Post a Comment