Picture credit – Rab Lawrence
With Stephen Robinson leaving St Mirren for Aberdeen after a successful 4 years in charge, including recently securing the Scottish League Cup for only the second time in the club’s history, the question is, will he find further success up north? To answer that, lets take a look back at the managers who have made the same journey.
Sir Alex Ferguson
Arguably the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson is the first on our list, and to no one’s surprise, the most successful.
After taking charge of the Paisley club in October 1974, on the advice of fellow Scottish great Jock Stein, he went on to transform the club. Taking them from languishing in the bottom half of the old Second Division, with crowds barely reaching 1,000 – something he notoriously tackled by driving around Paisley with a speaker urging people to head down to Love Street – to First Division (second tier) by 1977.
He did so by discovering young talent like Billy Stark, Frank McGarvey, and most notably Saints legend Tony Fitzpatrick, who became captain at the young age of 20 (though he pass on a young Ally McCoist following a spell as a youth player.) It is here that the foundations of Ferguson’s success can be found, as before the class of 92, there was his Saints league winning team, whose average age was only 19.
Despite all his success Ferguson was dismissed by the club following a ‘breach of contract’, something he took the club to tribunal for wrongful dismissal, although he did lose the case. After this, he joined Aberdeen in June 1978.
At the time Aberdeen had only won the league once, back in 1955. They came close prior to Ferguson’s arrival, with the late great Billy McNeil narrowly missing out on the league by 2 points to Rangers, who also beat them in the Scottish Cup Final that season.
Sir Alex’s reign didn’t get off to the best of starts, finishing fourth in the league and losing in the Scottish League Cup to Rangers. He went on to lose the same cup final the following year to Jim McLean’s Dundee United.
By the time Ferguson left the North Sea for Manchester, he had successfully broken the Old Firm dominance, being one half of the ‘New Firm’ along with Dundee United, he is still the last manager to win the Scottish League title who wasn’t in charge of Rangers or Celtic. Most impressively, he won the European Cup Winner’s Cup, defeating Real Madrid in the final. To this day, Aberdeen remain the last time to beat the Los Blancos in a European Cup final.
Sir Alex Ferguson Win Rate
St Mirren - 43.79%
Aberdeen - 59.26%
Honours
St Mirren - Scottish First Division (1976/77)
Aberdeen - Scottish Premier Division (1979/80,1983/84 and 1984/85)
Scottish Cup (1981/82, 1982/83, 1983/84 and 1985/86)
Scottish League Cup (1985/86)
Alex Smith
After successful spells at Stenhousemuir and Stirling Albion, Alex Smith was appointed manager of St Mirren in December 1986, where he spent just over two years with the club. He inherited a St Mirren who, the season prior. had knocked Slavia Prague out of the Uefa Cup following a famous 3-0 victory at Love Street.
By the end of his first season in charge, Smith won the Scottish Cup, defeating Uefa Cup finalists of the same year, Dundee United, 1-0 at Hampden Park. He did so with an all Scottish team, the last time this has ever been achieved. This was also the last time St Mirren won the Scottish Cup.
Following this, Smith managed St Mirren in the European Cup Winner’s Cup, losing 2-0 to eventual winners KV Mechelen. It wasn’t long before Aberdeen came along and snapped Smith up.
It had been two years since Sir Alex had left and while his replacement Ian Porterfield reached a Scottish League Cup final, he failed to win any silverware for the club. Smith was appointed along with co-manager, Jockey Scott in 1988. For the next three seasons, as much as they tried, Smith and Scott couldn’t win that elusive league title, finishing runners up each of the seasons to Rangers.
In the 1989/90 season though, Aberdeen did the Cup double, beating Rangers in the League Cup final and then Celtic in the Scottish Cup final on penalties. These were the last pieces of silverware Smith would touch while in charge of the Dons. He took over as full time manager in September 1991, with Scott leaving to take charge of Dunfermline, but did not last long as he was dismissed in February 1992.
Smith win rate
St Mirren - 27.78%
Aberdeen - 51.12%
Honours
St Mirren - Scottish Cup 1986/87
Aberdeen - Scottish League Cup 1989/90, Scottish Cup 1989/90,
Jim Goodwin
Having made over 150 caps and captaining the club to their first ever Scottish League Cup in March 2013, Jim Goodwin was appointed St Mirren manager in June 2019 as a result of a successful spell at semi-professional club Alloa, who he avoided relegation from the Scottish Championship with despite having part-time players and staff.
The season prior, St Mirren had narrowly avoided relegation from the top flight, beating Dundee United on penalties in the play-offs. In Goodwin’s first season the club finished ninth, due to Covid Pandemic, the season finished early.
Goodwin guided the Saints to a seventh place finish the next season as well as losing out in the semi finals of both the League Cup and the Scottish Cup.
In February 2022, with St Mirren sitting sixth in the table, following the dismissal of Stephen Glass, Aberdeen appointed Goodwin as their manager. Aberdeen were at the time, one place below St Mirren.
Goodwin was only in charge of Aberdeen for 43 games, less than one year. In that time he oversaw Aberdeen get knocked out of the Scottish Cup by sixth tier team Darvel, 1-0 on January 23rd 2023. This result was described by some fans as Aberdeen’s worst result in the 120 year history.
Goodwin lasted less than a week after this result and was dismissed, 19 minutes after the full time whistle, following a humiliating 6-0 defeat to Hibernian, their biggest defeat ever to the Leith side.
Goodwin win rate
St Mirren - 32.5%
Aberdeen - 39.53%
Honours
None
Stephen Robinson
The man who replaced Jim Goodwin, on 22nd February 2022, was St Mirren’s most recent manager, Stephen Robinson. The Northern Irishman took charge of the Saints following a brief spell in charge of English side Morecambe. Robinson previously managed fellow Scottish Premiership side Motherwell, a side he took to both domestic cup finals in 2017/18, losing both to Celtic.
Robinson guided St Mirren to a sixth place finish thanks to the split, despite only winning 2 of his 12 games in charge. The 2023/24 season however showed what Robinson could do with the Buddies, finishing 5th, the club’s first top 6 finish in the league’s current format, something he would achieve in each of his 3 full seasons in charge.
During this time as a result of these top six finishes, Robinson returned St Mirren to the European stage for the first time in 37 years. St Mirren made it to the fourth round of qualifying, they had a historic victory in the previous round, knocking out Icelandic side Valur, 4-1 on aggregate, before being knocked out by Norwegian side SK Brann, 4-2 on aggregate.
Robinson’s biggest achievement came in December 2025, as for only the second time in the club’s history, St Mirren won the League Cup, defeating Celtic 3-1, cementing Robinson as a Saints legend.
With his impressive spell in Paisley it was no surprise, although the timing may rise eyebrows, that a club the size of Aberdeen came calling for Robinson. The question is, will he be following in the footsteps of Ferguson, Smith or Goodwin. The Dons will certainly hope this appointment can return them to the 80s.
Robinson win rate
St Mirren - 33.5%
Aberdeen - n/a
Honours
St Mirren - Scottish League Cup - 2025/26
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