Flashback: Ruff times at St Mirren
New boss was in the doghouse
It’s fair to say Horace Millward’s time as manager of St Mirren was brief but eventful.
Millward, who preferred to be known as plain old Doug, replaced Jackie Cox in the hotseat in the summer of 1965.
Sadly, his first match in charge – a 2-0 loss to Northampton in the Paisley Charity Cup – was a sign of things to come.
That result was compounded by a last-minute injury to star player Archie Gemmill, who had burst onto the scene the previous season.
There was only a matter of seconds remaining when the talented youngster was stretchered off with a suspected broken ankle.
The term suspected would disappear the following day and the injury would keep Gemmill out of action for three months.
Millward, who was just 33, had been appointed manager of Saints six weeks prior to the charity game.
On arrival at Love Street, he said: “If I don’t do a good job, then I get the sack – it is as simple as that.
“But the fans don’t have to worry as I will be pulling out all the stops to take St Mirren to the top.”
Bold words but confidence grew as one of Millward’s first signings, Bobby Adamson, proved to be an early success after he was procured from local rivals Morton.
In fact, the talented winger would remain in Paisley for almost five years, scoring 43 goals in 150 matches during that time.
However, it was another of Millward’s signings that he would become synonymous with – and for all the wrong reasons.
Saints fans couldn’t believe their eyes when they read the back pages of the newspapers to discover a “top Brazilian” was on trial at the Paisley club.
In their search for success, St Mirren had turned to South America and a man named Fernando Azevedo, who was paraded at the interval during the match against Northampton.
Azevedo thrilled the punters with his keepy-uppy skills and, despite the loss, there was much talk of the ‘Maracana Magician’.
But, when he finally made his Saints debut four weeks later, he turned out to be a major disappointment and was soon on his way home.
In truth, Azevedo was way out of his depth and the fact he flopped against arch-rivals Morton only compounded the matter.
Overall, the campaign was a disaster, with Saints only just avoiding relegation.
Millward lasted another couple of months before he was relieved of his duties.
However, his career was to take an unexpected twist.
The Sheffield-born coach was offered the head coach’s job at Baltimore Bays and headed across the pond to take up his new position.
And who was one of his first signings? None other than Fernando Azevedo, whose only contribution in Paisley had been to impress the crowd with his halftime juggling act.