this period must go to Tom "Brandon" Ross, who doubled as trainer & groundsman, and was the winner of the annual Powderhall New Year Sprint at the remarkable age of 46. But there also came unexpected help from Heart of Midlothian, who allowed St Bernard's to play at Tynecastle during this time. In 1931, a former Hearts player even donated maroon socks for the club's kit! During the Depression, St Bernard's showed remarkable innovation in providing unemployed players with jobs whether in the Royal Gymnasium or with firms owned by the company's directors: resulting in them gaining talent that otherwise may have gone elsewhere or left football altogether. In 1928, they gained the remarkable goalkeeping talent of Edinburgh University Divinity student Leonard Small. Nicknamed "The Holy Goalie", he was later forced to give up the game by Church authorities: in later years he was appointed an OBE and became Moderator of the Church of Scotland in 1966. The final years Just as St Bernard's shared a similar genesis to that of Third Lanark, there were a number of similarities in the years leading up to the clubs' demise. In 1934–35, although still in the Second Division, St Bernard's had become a force to be reckoned with by bucking against the trend in football and concentrating on attacking football. Although this came at the expense of losing goals, it provided an exciting (and thus crowd drawing) spectacle — an idea later used successfully by George "Corky" Young at Third Lanark in the 1960s. St Bernard's missed promotion by only three points, but scored 100 goals in the process — a feat they were to repeat the next two seasons as well. In 1938 they reached the Scottish Cup semi finals, losing to eventual winners East Fife after a second replay. There was a crowd of 35,264 at Tynecastle Park — the largest ever attendance to watch a St Bernard's match. When the Second World War began, the Scottish League was reorganised into regional leagues. At first this suited St Bernard's as they were able to enjoy matches with local rivals Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian. However, the league was shut down at the behest of Aberdeen when it was decided to put Hearts and Hibs into the same region as Celtic and Rangers. When the Eastern league was resurrected in 1942, both St Bernard's and Leith Athletic were barred from 1943