It is always sad to see a great club down on its knees, although this happens all the time in football. Traditions count for nothing in this game and when a big club strikes a bad patch then everything seems to go wrong.
An example of this is the club of St George's. Once the pride of Cospicua and Maltese football, the Saints started on a downward slide in the mid-1950s from which they found it difficult to recover and return to former glory.
The period 1958-1963 was characterised by inconsistency for St George's and, perhaps, lack of ambition to really make it to the top. I remember the team of that period quite well and would not hesitate to name it as the best St George's team of the post-war period.
In 1958-59 the Saints walked away with the Second Division championship, playing a kind of football rarely seen at the stadium at the time. A look at a typical line-up of that era showed a crop of players who were the envy of all the other clubs.
Players like Ellul, Frendo, J. Mizzi, J. Scerri, Schreiner, C. Mifsud, Ciantar, Scicluna, Lolly Cuschieri and Stivala were all first-class players but the stars of that fine team were the elegant Freddie Delia, the incomparable Eddie Mizzi and the one and only Peppi Delceppo. All these players would carry a hefty transfer fee on their heads nowadays.
Back in the top league in 1959-60, St George's went through a very good season finishing in a healthy fourth place in the final standings. The highlight of their season came in the Christmas Tourney when playing against crack Austrian club ASK Grazer.
Playing with their traditional zest and enthusiasm, and a certain amount of skill, they beat the Austrians 1-0. The vital goal came from a perfectly-taken penalty by Eddie Mizzi.
The next year the Saints kept up their good form, finishing fifth in a season in which they were never in serious relegation trouble. It seemed for a while that the good old days of the Cospicua club were back again.
They certainly had the credentials but the next season, the Saints failed once again to sustain their progress.
1961-62 was a disastrous year for the team from Cottonera. They only managed seven points from a possible 28 and only avoided the drop because that season only one team was relegated.
What can one say? The players were there and they certainly had the potential to go places. However, the old problems cropped up again. Freddie Delia was transferred to Hibernians with whom he won two championship medals and Mizzi migrated to Sliema Wanderers. One by one, the other players abandoned ship and at the end of the season the Saints were relegated.
The club entered a rut and the same old record would be replayed over and over again. The team would win promotion only to be relegated again after a short stay in the top division.
By the end of the 1960s all the players of that fine team of 1958-1963 were gone, except, of course, Delceppo.
He remained loyal to the club up to his death, filling any position in which he was needed.
Since that time, St George's have had a number of fine teams but none, in my opinion, as skilful and exciting as that of the 1958-63 period.