Maroon Memories: Hearts 1-1 St Mirren, October 7 1978

Willie Gibson's first league goal of the season for Hearts rescued a 1-1 draw from the difficult fixture with St Mirren at Tynecastle and highlighted his ability to take a chance when offered substantial assistance.

No striker can thrive on a self-service basis and Gibson's goal famine could be traced to a grave shortage of support. Given the ball on his right side near goal and he could be a lethal as anyone in hitting the target.

Hearts manager Willie Ormond voiced much the same opinion after stressing his relief at St Mirren's failure to grab a winner. He seemed rather pleased about the referee's late decision to ignore a penalty-box handling offence by Frank Liddell just after a Lex Richardson shot had rebounded from a post.

St Mirren started off to preserve a point and fell behind despite their effort to congest the midfield. Only when they opened out in the style that suits them best did Saints take command. They bombarded the home defence in the final 20 minutes but couldn't improve their score.

Tony Fitzpatrick followed his double against Rangers with an equaliser that carried a large slice of luck. He tried to connect with a hard-struck Billy Stark cross and was delighted to see the ball soar into the net off the outside of his left foot.

Saints' defence was not good enough to adopt negative tactics. It was the attacking flair of Fitzpatrick and Stark that made them attractive, although Frank McGarvey accomplished little.

While Hibs did them a turn by beating Motherwell, Hearts should have been looking for full points from home games against clubs like St Mirren, Morton and Motherwell. That would have kept them afloat but they fell short of that target.

Drew Busby worked busily and had a few fine headers and Bobby Prentice shaped well in the first half. The main disappointment was the form slump of Eamonn Bannon.