ST JOHN'S TOUN

St Johnstone played at Muirton Park, Perth, since 1924, but the ground had fallen into disrepair by the 1980s. St Johnstone was then a Second Division club and did not have the funds to upgrade. In December 1986 the club received the news that Asda wanted to purchase Muirton Park and the adjoining ice rink, to build a supermarket on the site. In return, the club would be relocated, at no cost to them, to a brand-new stadium at the western edge of the city. A local farmer, Bruce McDiarmid, donated 16 acres of land at his Newton of Huntingtower Farm, on which the stadium, built in 1989, now stands. The going rate for the land at that time would have been approximately £400,000 but Bruce McDiarmid saw a donation of his "berry and barley fields" as a gift to the people of Perth. At the insistence of St Johnstone he accepted a 20 per cent shareholding and the title of honorary president of the football club. The Taylor Report noted that there had been a happy "confluence of factors" that allowed St Johnstone to make this development. McDiarmid died in 1999, aged 88, happy to see his club playing on "his" ground.  

The club is located at what was known as St John'sToun (in Scottish), Perthshire (above) and the club badge....... sports the Pascal Lamb, symbol of St John the Baptist. 

A Perthshire local and cricketer John Colborn, started kicking a ball around on the banks of the River Tay near the future club at Muirton Park in 1884. A year later the club was formed. Their first Scottish FA Cup appearance was in 1886-7 and they joined the Football League in 1911-12. Their first Cup win was in 2014 beating local rivals Dundee United. This season, they reached the Scottish FA Cup beating Rangers in the Q-F and St Mirren in the S-F. Then on May 22nd Hibernian 1-0 in the Final (Shaun Rooney. no relation, scoring after 32 minutes) and previously, the Scottish League Cup beating Livingstone 1-0 in February (Shaun Rooney scoring after 32 minutes AGAIN) becoming the 5th player in the 21st Century to score in both cup finals in the same season. This double was quoted at 10,000-1 by local bookies.

St Johnstone also qualified for Europe for the 6th time in ten seasons, having only qualified twice before in their history. In the club's longest ever run in the top flight, they have finished no lower than 8th, including a run of six straight seasons in the top 6 from 2012 to 2017.