The Thistle Archive

@dpj Thank you and you're not going mad, the Daily Record reported 30 August 1995 as being at Livingston, but it was definitely played at Meadowbank, our match hub is now expanded with reports and whatnot. Footnotes also added to re-assure any doubters. With the 2-1 win that night, Jags qualified for the League Cup Quarter Finals, so let's hope it's an omen! Livingston 1 Partick Thistle 2 (Meadowbank Stadium, 30 August 1995) → For folks asking, the last time we scored 6 in a competitive half was indeed against Albion Rovers 31 years ago when the club-record (9) was set. Amazingly, we also scored 6 second half goals exactly 52 years ago today in the 11-1 win away to Västerhaninge in the July Cup! It's actually only the 5th time in history Thistle have scored 6 second half goals in a competitive away match.

Hi EJ, if you click the link below you can read the full story... A Parting Gift For Willie Freebairn →

In June 2024, we were delighted to receive an e-mail from Nancy Hooman, the great-granddaughter of David Freebairn. With no previous photographs of our 19th century Jag, it was a real privilege to meet him at long last (click Partickle link for photo). David was one of three Freebairn brothers to play for Partick Thistle, the others being Archie and Willie. In Nancy's possession was an item to cherish - a Glasgow Cup medal from season 1900-01, inscribed in the name of WILLIAM FREEBAIRN (pictured below) of Partick Thistle FC, her great-granduncle. It's not something we'd ever have expected to see, given that Willie, who was in a critical condition and hospitalized at the time, didn't play in the cup final in question. In fact, it was his 80th and final goal for the Jags which took Thistle to just their second-ever Glasgow Cup final, but Willie died from his injuries sustained in the pursuit of glory for Partick Thistle. What a delight it's been to learn that Willie received a medal despite not appearing in the final, and that it exists to this day. Our latest Partickle shares the bittersweet tale of a parting gift… A Parting Gift For Willie Freebairn →

The Jags will embark on their 79th League Cup campaign this Saturday, but it's almost 50 years since we so much as made the semi finals in 1975, groan. The 1950s was a remarkable decade for Partick Thistle as the club competed consistently at the highest level of the Scottish game. Our latest Partickle explores the remarkable story of three league cup finals in five years... 3 League Cup Finals In 5 Years →

The best page in the history of the internet just got even better with 10 Daily Record entries from the 4th to the 19th of April added to the 'Scrapbook' tab! Read about the boycott scandal! Flags and bugles banned! What colour was Kenny Campbell's top? Who sent telegram's after the match? 16th April 1921 Partick Thistle 1 Rangers 0 (Scottish Cup Final) →

Double good news... nowhere near the lowest Scottish Cup final lowest... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scottish_Cup_finals And also the Summer Cup finals of 1964 and 1965 had lower attendances. Hot potato passed to Dundee United & Motherwell forever!

Originally published in the forum 10 years ago and now, on the anniversary of the win, re-published as our latest 'Partickle' with new photies and whatnot... On the 30th June 1945, Partick Thistle won the second of the three major trophies to land in the cabinet at Firhill Road - The Summer Cup. It’s the one that’s virtually forgotten about – mainly due to the fact that it was a short-lived wartime competition which, unlike the Scottish Cup and the League Cup, is now firmly out of sight and out of mind. However, it was regarded nationally as a significant achievement for the Jags at the time, and it should naturally follow that it remains so in the 21st Century. This is the story of six consecutive Saturdays in the summer of 1945. The war in Europe was over and – for the faithful in red ‘n’ yellow – Thistle did their very best to paint over the grey… The Road To Hampden 1945 →

Answer's in the bio... clickbait... 😉

"Aber's gonnae get ye" is a strong legacy quote from his best days as a St Mirren legend, love that. In late '88, became the first Jag in history to be sent off on his debut... oh Billy! Helped us on our way to the Glasgow Cup win '89... his fully developed page at the Archive is now in place... Billy Abercromby →

Indeed, these two could easily conjoin historically/spiritually like Clyde, Airdrie, Rangers and others who went bust, but Stirling Albion don't seem to have claimed the history. Like KP, the Forthbank Park ground, bombed in 1940, never survived the war...

Finding a new match is always big news for us - but to find one under the "competitive" banner is super-rare. A very good report of the match from the Bridge of Allan Gazette is included in our match hub. As can be seen from the excerpt below, it was very much a different era! Everything updated everywhere... 14-Jun-2024 06-May-1925 King's Park 4 Partick Thistle 1 (Stirling Charity Cup Final) (Well well well, another new competitive match which previously fell through the cracks for we historians, sorry about that, but better late than never. So, as it transpires, we played this fixture in 4 successive years, 1924 to 1927. Alas, it's a new record defeat in the H2H, just 4 days after beating Celtic with almost the same team too, you just can't predict them! Great match report in the Bridge of Allan Gazette…) 14-Jun-2024 versus King's Park (H2H update - previously unrecorded game means a new H2H record defeat) 14-Jun-2024 Jimmy Kinloch ('Every Goal' tab updated - up to 75) 14-Jun-2024 All-time goalscorers charts (Jimmy Kinloch +1) 14-Jun-2024 Illustrated Top 50 competitive scorers (73-goal Jimmy Kinloch now outright 24th) 14-Jun-2024 Results Summaries (7 tables updated as a result of the King's Park discovery above) 14-Jun-2024 Partick Thistle FC honours list (list updated as a result of the King's Park discovery above)

Fair point Lenzie, although will shy away today on account of workload. One of the complications of this query is the need to track which 'keepers were on duty goal-by-goal, as there have been several tens of goalie subs across the decades.

At one point JAMIE SNEDDON was all-time #1 in clean-sheet ratio terms (20+ apps) but ultimately fell back to 6th as the magic dried up. Annual update applied for all keepers in history in our fully sortable table... The goalies' appearances & clean-sheets →

Well, it's no Stenny! Entertaining draw, with the Stephen Craigan Ian McCall derbies, and a new opponent. Edinburgh City will become the 147th club to meet Partick Thistle in competitive action. One for one, this will match Partick Thistle's history of 147 competition seasons.

Thank you AJ, and what an amazing stat! Even worse - since the 90s we need to get relegated twice before climbing back, groan...

Of course, the wording is all-important here, so duly edited, thank you. Hopefully it stands to reason that leagues are never subject to penalty shoot-out tie-breakers.

I get what your saying, but the "ultimate conclusion" rule applies to the second leg match only, and only in circumstances where a penalty shoot-out is required. We didn't conclude this easily and it took a lot of thinking, but it's now future-proof for our needs as Archivists, the two most important being that no claim can ever be made for remaining unbeaten when a knockout-tie exit has occurred in a tournament, and also that the same consistent rule is applied across all eras at all times.

A lot of end-of-season business conducted in the last couple of days... can BBG do the 5-in-a-row in 2024-25? 28-May-2024 2023-24 (season page finalized) 28-May-2024 Squad Stats 2023-24 (all basic & full squad stats tables finalized) 28-May-2024 SPFL Championship 2023-24 (league table finalized) 27-May-2024 Kris Doolan (manager) (updated to the end of 2023-24, with every game listed, totals summarized and managerial comparison tables updated…) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: All Games (updated to the end of 2023-24. Now up to 6780 games played. We've won more than we've lost, but there's not much in it…) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: All Games (home) (updated to the end of 2023-24) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: All Games (away) (updated to the end of 2023-24) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: Competitive (updated to the end of 2023-24. 89 first-time yellows, the highest figure on record.) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: Competitive (home) (updated to the end of 2023-24) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: Competitive (away) (updated to the end of 2023-24) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: League Max (updated to the end of 2023-24) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: League Max (home) (updated to the end of 2023-24) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: League Max (away) (updated to the end of 2023-24) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: League (updated to the end of 2023-24. 3.25 goals-per-game is the highest figure since the relegation season of 1969-70 which delivered 3.618 goals-per-game…) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: League (home) (updated to the end of 2023-24. There were plenty for the opposition but, for the first time in 50 years, there were no league pens awarded to Thistle at Firhill this season…) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: League (away) (updated to the end of 2023-24) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: H2H Competitive (updated to the end of 2023-24. Pleasingly, Airdrie are moving ever-closer to becoming our most-battered opponent in history…) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: Tournaments (updated to the end of 2023-24) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: Manager's Competitive (updated to the end of 2023-24. He's only a 2nd tier boss but, all the same, KRIS DOOLAN remains PTFC's All-Time #1 in terms of points-per-game, 68 games in…) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: by Venue, Competitive (updated to the end of 2023-24) 27-May-2024 Results Summary: League finish averages (updated to the end of 2023-24. It'll be a 7th consecutive season outwith the top-flight again… Thistle's place in the Scottish game continues to slowly decline as it has done for several decades… very much now a firmly established second tier club in terms of results…) 27-May-2024 Top scorers per season (2023-24 added - Only 4 Jags in history have finished top of all 3 goals categories ('All Games', 'Competitive' & 'League') in 4 successive seasons: Sam Kennedy (1902-1906), Dougie Somner (1975-1979), Kris Doolan (2013-2017) and now Brian Graham (2020-24). To date, no one has done 5-in-a-row in this manner…) 27-May-2024 The scoring finale club (Tomi Adeloye - who scored 8 goals in his 684 minutes - becomes the 142nd member of the club!)

All stats reports are valid, as long as it's clearly stated what you're doing. If you want to run queries to just 90 minutes or whatever that's fine, as long as you state it upfront. A lot of people need it that way for various reasons, mainly bookmakers. However, for the purposes of streaks, tallies & milestones we need to follow the match to the ultimate conclusion per the tournament rules. The excellent Soccerway also lists the ultimate Thistle defeat: https://ie.soccerway.com/teams/scotland/partick-thistle-fc/1909/matches/

It was splendid that Gerry received recognition in his final year, for his big contribution to the Thistle cause 80s-00s, via both the Thistle Pin and the 4th minute reception during the recent Ayr United game. His manager's page at the Archive is now deepened with photos and scrapbook entries... Gerry Collins (manager) → Late-career Gerry Collins had his on-field Thistle moments too, SCORING (blimey!) once in a relegation battle and getting his hands on the Glasgow Cup in '89. Today, his player's page (expanded to 7 tabs) gets the full-monty treatment at the Archive... Gerry Collins (player) →

On this day (24th May) 2003, the longest league season in Thistle history concludes with a 3-2 win at Hibs. While Lambie swans around Easter Road posing for photies, shaking hands and receiving presentations, it's the late GERRY COLLINS who masterminds the victory! ❤️💛 Read all about it in our now fully developed match hub... Hibs 2 Thistle 3 →

Dundee in March 1898!

Beat me to it by 1 minute, duly corrected! Thank you.

All post-Rovers updates now in place at your Archive and the Jags continue to set new Scottish play-off records... Rovers 1 Thistle 2 → IT'S A HEARTACHE… ● The closing game of the 149th season of Partick Thistle F.C. ● Somewhat shockingly, at 30y, 1m, 6d, the starting eleven was the 6th oldest-known Partick Thistle team ever to take the field, and the oldest since Dick Campbell fielded a 30y, 1m, 12d old side in a 6-1 defeat away to Gretna in January 2006. ● With his brace on the night, it's 4-in-a-row for Blair Alston in terms of scoring Thistle's goals vs. Raith Rovers, matching the feats of Alex Stott (1952) and Harry Gibson (1928). It's 4 times the amount managed by Zak Rudden! ● In an unprecedented statistical quirk in the club's history, Thistle lead at the final whistle, only to lose the match on penalty kicks, a conundrum which left us scratching our heads over what to do for the best in terms of recording the outcome for the purposes of streaks, tallies and milestones. Statisically, we've concluded that the match can only be considered a loss, and our thought process is laid out in a newly created section on our About page. ● For the 33rd time, a Partick Thistle match goes to a penalty shoot-out, with the record now reading 14 wins and 19 losses. ● Partick Thistle become the first club in Scotland to lose play-off ties on penalties in 2 successive seasons. ● Partick Thistle lose a top-flight play-off tie in 3 successive seasons, matching the record of Hibernian (2016) and Dundee United (2019). ● Partick Thistle have lost twice as many top-flight play-off ties (6) than any other club in Scotland. ● 21-year-old Kieran Ngwenya plays his last game for the club. ● 21-year-old Lewis Neilson plays his last game for the club. ongoing sequences: ● 39 consecutive competitive appearances for Lewis Neilson, 15th Sep 2023 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Steven Lawless - 60 games, 18th Feb 2023 to 6th Apr 2024. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)