Ending a shift on the Waverley Lodge, he would journey alongside Caledonian Highway, up the Dunkeld Highway and into Muirton Park to look at a workforce rapidly turning into his favourites.
Whether or not a brisk stroll, jog or dash, making the 2pm kick-off was at all times the mission. And the eager teenager was normally profitable.
Donnie McPhee’s early affiliation with St Johnstone had commenced and when 1952 got here across the time had arrived to proudly buy his first season ticket for the well-known enclosure.
The Perth membership was languishing down in the direction of the decrease area of Division B underneath supervisor Jimmy Crapnell however that didn't matter a jot for Truthful Metropolis born and bred Donnie.
Good days had been forward however maybe he himself couldn't have predicted the trail, journey and spectacular loyal longevity that might come of this new starting bristling with alternatives.
However final Saturday his smiling determine stood exterior the house of the Saints - now McDiarmid Park - after fortunately committing to a different yr of highs and lows, twists and turns and recollections to final a lifetime.
Donnie is now formally into his seventieth consecutive yr as a season ticket holder.
“Other than my household, St Johnstone is the one different factor I take into consideration,” laughed Donnie, who turns 91 on Friday.
“You possibly can ask my spouse and she or he’ll inform you... in the event that they get beat, she doesn’t suppose I ought to come residence!”
One among his earliest recollections was a house League Cup sport in opposition to Albion Rovers in season 1945/46.
“I keep in mind numerous video games and I used to be there when Willie McIntosh scored six objectives out of 9 in opposition to Albion Rovers within the cup,” reminisced Donnie. “That was earlier than I went to do my nationwide service.”
When Donnie had acquired his first season ticket seven a long time in the past he was working - after his stint on the Waverley after which nationwide service - at Royal Navy (RN) Shops in Almondbank. Not lengthy earlier than he had been within the Center East.
It was a job the place, throughout the years, he would work with a few of the part-time Perth gamers together with the likes of Jim Goldie and Matt McVittie.
“I began going to Muirton Park and we had been within the enclosure,” Donnie recalled.
“That's once we received our first season ticket for the bottom. It meant you didn’t have to queue up as a result of there was a particular turnstile for coming in. You used to should queue up Florence Place to get in.”
Donnie’s loyalty to Saints was standing as much as the early take a look at of time and away journeys had been recurrently being penned within the diary. One memorable journey was as much as Forfar in season 1955/56.
“After I got here again from the military I actually did assist them and went all over the place,” Donnie stated with a smile.
“We went to play Forfar and it was snowing closely, so we thought the sport can be off. Forfar had been nicely in entrance, 3-0 I believe it was. At half-time they needed to re-do the strains and clear the snow.
“With 10 minutes to go we had been nonetheless getting beat and the referee referred to as it off. He was essentially the most well-known referee to ever enter Muirton. We replayed the sport in April and Joe Carr scored the one purpose that gained us the sport.”
The Joe Carr-inspired facet of the late Nineteen Fifties early Sixties was a favorite of Donnie’s and he additionally would later get pleasure from watching Saints go toe-to-toe with the Lisbon Lions within the 1969 League Cup ultimate.
A Bertie Auld end after simply two minutes would show to be the one purpose of the sport however watching his workforce on such a grand stage was a very particular second.
That - and the European nights that might observe in opposition to Hamburg, Vasas Budapest and Željezničar Sarajevo - had been actually pinch your self sort of experiences. It was not all blue and white roses, although.
The membership would expertise spells of monetary uncertainty and Donnie chuckled: “I had joined a supporters’ committee and I recall, on one event, earlier than it went actually unhealthy, one of many administrators got here and requested us for 2 or 300 kilos to purchase a participant!”
On the finish of the 1985 season, the workforce was going nowhere and the corporate was in grave hazard of heading in the direction of oblivion. There have been no substantial property and no cash to usher in any respectable gamers.
The impressively written Saints historical past guide - Manifest Future - continues that the financial institution was largely in command of what the membership may do. However there was a saviour in Geoff Brown, who took maintain of the reins when all appeared misplaced.
“I’ll inform you one factor, if it hadn’t been for Geoff Brown and his household, there wouldn't have been a St Johnstone,” stated Donnie, who additionally hailed the late Bruce McDiarmid.
“I've the best religion in Geoff and nice admiration for him.”
By this level, Donnie had fortunately been attending the soccer together with his son, David, who rapidly had the Saints bug too.
“David is even keener than me now,” Donnie says. “I don’t go to too many away video games now. He goes all over the place.”
Donnie was more than pleased to quick ahead to 2014 which was, after all, the yr the Truthful Metropolis’s best lifted a primary piece of main silverware underneath supervisor Tommy Wright.
That 2-0 Scottish Cup ultimate win at Celtic Park is perpetually etched within the reminiscence and Donnie beamed: “I used to be ecstatic.
“I couldn’t get to the semi-final and I can’t fairly keep in mind the rationale. I believe it was a military reunion. However I needed to go to the ultimate. No matter I used to be speculated to do, I cancelled it and made positive I used to be on the ultimate.
“Truthfully, your coronary heart lifts. We had been actually the underdogs - everybody thought Dundee United would win. When Anderson and MacLean received the objectives, you simply couldn’t consider it.”
The grins and particular occasions of that Could 17 cup win proceed to linger in Perth at this time and a few counsel the blue and white confetti from the Sunday after-party can nonetheless be seen fluttering within the metropolis centre sky.
Profitable occasions would proceed with high six finishes, European soccer after which, in 2021, the unfathomable cup double success at Hampden. The League Cup and the Scottish Cup hoisted excessive in the identical season.
Actually, Donnie would have ventured by way of to the east finish of Glasgow to look at the unimaginable quest in particular person however coronavirus lockdown guidelines meant each finals needed to be taken in from again residence.
Donnie, who was grateful to obtain a crate of goodies from Saints within the Neighborhood throughout lockdown in addition to communicate to Tommy Wright and Henry Corridor over the telephone, stated: “I needed to watch the finals on the tv.
“My granddaughter Caitlin got here and sorted all of it for me so I may watch them – she’s a Saints season ticket holder now too.
“In a means it was disappointing that I wasn’t there. However, as regular, you had been simply over the moon. No person believed they might do the double.”
Ever since McDiarmid Park opened in 1989, Donnie has referred to as the Important Stand residence and he's a really acquainted face within the Campbell Suite the place he's by no means in need of assembly mates outdated and new.
“A private pal of mine when he was taking part in - and I at all times keep in mind him - was Kenny Aird,” Donnie defined.
“They've a reunion occasionally and he at all times makes some extent of chatting with me. On the final sport of the season, our former captain Jason Kerr and Ali McCann had been each in too.”
Like these former Perth stars, Donnie was relieved that Saints had been capable of escape falling by way of the Premiership entice door final season by defeating Inverness over the two-legged play-off.
And he was a giant fan of the environment created on what turned out to be an evening to recollect for all the correct causes.
“We appear to have fairly a great assist now, don’t we? That's wanted I believe,” Donnie informed the PA.
“Even on the pleasant (in opposition to Cove Rangers) they had been making themselves heard.”
After selecting up his seventieth consecutive season ticket earlier than the Cove Rangers pleasant, Donnie was introduced with a signed present from the membership and is as proud as ever to be supporting the Saints.
He concluded: “I’m simply St Johnstone mad. I may lay our a fortune elsewhere as a result of I've mates who're Celtic and Rangers supporters. However Saints is the one workforce.
“Lengthy could they proceed.”