Fergie's Shire Milestones
By bobmcp
March 22 2016
27 June 1974: Alex Ferguson was appointed manager of cash-strapped East Stirlingshire - after twenty previous applicants were deemed not up to the task.
July 1974: Ferguson spent £800 of his £2,000 squad-building budget on Partick Thistle goalkeeper Tom Gourlay's signing-on fee. The reminder of his recruits cost £100 signing-on fees or were free.
10 August 1974: In Ferguson's first competitve match as a boss, a League Cup sectional tie at Forfar, his hastily-assembled team were 3-0 down at half time. A positive half-time team talk led to his reinvogorated team claiming a confidence-boosting 3-3 draw.
28 August 1974: A 2-0 away victory over near neighbours Stenhousemuir meant that Alex Ferguson’s new side finished second top of the six-team Section 9 in the opening stages of the League Cup, with three wins, a draw and one defeat. It was an encouraging start.
5 October 1974: As home crowds began to increase to the 1,000 mark, East Stirlingshire defeated local rivals Falkirk 2-0 at Firs Park, in front of 4,650 spectators. This was Shire's first victory over the Bairns for seventy years.
12 October1974: Hamilton Accies 3 East Stirlingshire 4. This result took Shire from seventh to fourth in the league table.
19 October 1974: A 4-0 home win over Alloa Athletic - a third consecutive victory and the team's best display in the manager's opinion - kept Shire at fourth place in the league, with Ferguson beginning to talk up Shire's chances of winning the Second Division championship.
21 October 1974: The Alloa fixture was Alex Ferguson's twelfth and final league match in charge of East Stirlingshire. His team had won 7, drawn 2 and lost 3, and were unbeaten in his last six matches. Shire's improvement had not gone unnoticed. Days of press speculation ended when Ferguson announced he was to leave East Stirlingshire and join St. Mirren.