partickthedog

Which coloured house is he going to? Tell me what do you think? Hopefully the post office. If you look closely at a photograph of Tobermory, you will see that the post office has red and yellow hooped walls. By the way CONRAD BALATONI is an anagram of NOT A CRAB ON DIAL. Obviously he is not in the habit of phoning crustaceans.

Honk and me going by car

DEREK GASTON = STOKED ANGER

When is the court heron? Hopefully the birdict will prove that he did nothing ill eagle.

And we find the winning formula

The Scape of Good Hope might encourage some optimism about promotion. The Great Scape might be handy if we are fighting relegation.

You can go on the train You can go on the suporters bus Or you can go your own way.

Un bon capture

Probably a breakdown in the chain of communication. Hope we don't stop thinking about playing them.

At first I thought we were playing Fleetwood Mac but then realised it was only Rumours

Was he suffering from crampon Saturday?

I wouldn't get into a lava about it. Jackie deserves a fair Krakatoa of the whip.

My Thistle history comes in two distinct sections. My dad was a Yorkshireman who loved cricket (he used to watch such as Len Hutton) and had a low opinion of football, so there was no encouragement from that direction. At school I was a football follower and keen subbuteo player but without supporting a particular team, though in general always rooting for the underdog. I had a friend who was a Thistle diehard and a few of us got into the habit of joining him at Firhill on Saturdays more for the social occasion and company and getting awy from parents etc rather than from any commitment to Thistle. This must have been approx 1976 at the tail end of the last season of the 18 team league when we just missed out on the top ten. I can remember a wee man selling Lees Macaroon Bars and the halftime ritual of buying pie and bovril. The pie came on a piece of cardboard. I wondered what it was for until one week there was no cardboard and my hand got wet as some strange fluid leaked out of the pie! I recall a very foggy game (against Airdrie?) when all we could see was Alan Rough in the nearest goal and nobody had the faintest ides of what was goiing on over the rest of the park. East Fife were humped 5-0 and the name of their big centre half Mark Clougherty for some reason lodged in my memeory bank (did he score an own goal?). At Christmas the fans sang "Hark the herald angels sing, Joe Craig is the Firhill King". Rooney and Craig scored to beat nearest rivals Kilmarnock and we were promoted as champions. I was happier when Thistle won but had no great life and death commitment to the team. I was regular at the home games for the next season and a half. My final match was a 1-0 home win against a strong Aberdeen team which included Joe Harper and amazingly we were 2nd top of the Premier League. Increasingly onerous university studies and meeting my future wife prised me away from Firhill and my absence lasted for nearly two decades during which time Thistle seemed to go into decline (I have no knowledge whatsoever of the Thistle players of the eighties). If asked what team I supported, I would have said Thistle and I did try to keep looking out for their results. The turning point came in 1996 when my son began collecting football stickers and expressing interest in the various teams. I determined that there was no way he was ever going to follow either Celtic or Rangers and the best way to ensure this seemed to be to take him along to a game myself. Our first appearance was a dismal wet spring day for a totally rubbish game against Kilmarnock. Tom Black scored a penalty for them in the 2nd minute. Thistle huffed and puffed but never looked like recovering the deficit. A miserable match yet for some reason we loved it and that peculiar internal process took place whereby we both became hooked as Thistle fans without hope of redemption. Occasional home games stepped up into the odd away game and then buying a season ticket and somehow we graduated into attending virtually every game home and away. Now Saturday is incomplete without a Thistle fixture and I have racked up around 5 seasons without missing a league game (the only competitive match missed during that time was an Alba Cup tie which clashed with a wedding-why on earth would anyone choose to get married on a Saturday?). So that is it (with apologies for the rambling). I am "into Thistle" so deep that there is no possibility of escape and I have seen rather a lot of Scotland (plus some bits of England and Northern Ireland) in the process!

I was very impressed by the Dundee fans as Martin Grehan was being carried off. Although the game was back in progress and there was every excuse to ignore activity off the park, there was a healthy ripple of applause taken up by groups in different sections of the stadium as the stretcher party went past-rather like a Mexican Wave of sound as Dundee fans co-operated in maintaining the momentum until finally Martin was "passed over" to the Thistle section of the support. All in all a nice touch.

Players could sit on the hedge for a rest if they were feeling bushed

Will save money if a Steward can double as a player.

Looks like Elvis will be replaced by Dean Windlass

Is Hodge of Flannigan like Vennegoor of Hesselink?

Why should he barge in?

Maintaining the fishing theme it seems that the casting of the vote followed the party line. He who pays the piper calls the tuna

I am tempted to email everybody in Brazil. There must be at least one expatriate Fifer and/or stock car enthusiast out there who has heard of Cowdenbeath. I also suspect that if "Cowdenbeath" were whispered in Pele's ear, he would know who they were.

Why are Brazil not called "the Yellow Cowdenbeath"?

Holloway is brilliant. Agreed!!! partickthedog aka Alan Holloway

I remember the 1-0 win at Firhill against Aberdeen that put us 2nd top of the League. Joe Harper was playing for them. Just after that University study cranked up a notch and I also met my future wife, the result being that I disappeared from Firhill for 18 years. My absence seemed to coincide with a decline in Thistle's fortunes!

It would solve all the problems if we played in Midsomer