The Thistle Archive

Back in February 2024, we introduced an early version of the 'Thistle Honours' tab to Peter Lindau's page and, since then, we've been teasing improved versions here and there. Today, as the new League Cup campaign gets underway, we're delighted to announce the full roll out of the newly completed feature for all players who qualify. Using our PTFC honours list as the qualifying base, honours are awarded to any player who has contributed an appearance in any given tournament in any given campaign. As you can see from the screenshot below, the honours list page is now split with two tab options, one for the club overview, and one for the player's overview. 70 club honours are shared between 598 players resulting in 1139 individual honours. Via our new fully sortable table, you can drill down to the honours breakdown per player by clicking their name and selecting the 'Thistle Honours' tab on their profile page. On a more general note, the full roll out of these new tabs gives a handy reference point for all the players, anytime you happen to casually land on their profile page. Check it out... Partick Thistle FC honours list →

It's a sad day for Jagskind, we are all Robert Reid. Red and yellow forever, rest in peace legend. Firhill fanatics →

A healthy Thistle contingent appeared on the international stage in the 1920s, with 12 new entries in our story. By now well settled and much loved in Maryhill, Partick Thistle were strong in this decade, registering several Top 6 finishes as well as bagging a couple of Glasgow cups for the first time. For the club, the defining moment of the decade was undoubtedly the Scottish Cup triumph of April 16, 1921, when they defeated Rangers 1-0 in the final at Celtic Park. In total, 18 squad members contributed to that herculean 11-game battle, with 5 of them being internationalists including Jimmy Kinloch, Joe Harris, Kenny Campbell, Jimmy McMullan & Jimmy McMenemy. The British Championship was back in business after the war, and 9 of our boys became British Champions. On 25th February 1928, the ground-record attendance of 54,723 was set when Firhill, for the one and only time, hosted the national team. Future Thistle managerial legend David Meiklejohn played for Scotland but, alas, the home side lost one nil to Ireland on the day, ending hopes of sharing that season's British Championship with Wales. Scotland would regain her pride the following month when the “Wembley Wizards” defeated the English by 5 goals to 1 in London. There were three Thistle Wizards; former Jags Jimmy Gibson (Aston Villa) and Jimmy McMullan (Manchester City) played left and right half respectively, whilst goalie Jack Harkness (Queen's Park) had guested for the Jags a couple of years earlier. In this decade, we also seen the first non-Scot Jag to win a full international cap (whilst a Thistle player) in the form of Harry Chatton (Northern Irishman) as well as the first Jag to win a full international cap outwith the British Isles in the form of Bill Carnihan who appeared for the U.S.A. in 1925. The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists, part 5: 1920s →

Did you know? Partick Thistle have a 100% win rate on the 19th June, which seems quite right to mark Robert Reid's big 90th today! In this great wee piece from 1978, James Dunbar reports on Robert and his Thistle daft family... Firhill fanatics →

99 and out, what a pity 😔

Programme collector Miles McClagan has very generously been scanning his vast collection and uploading it to flickr for everyone to view. 40 Partick Thistle matches are covered from 1971 to 2006. On our brand new list page, you can get a flick through any of the fully scanned programmes by clicking on any of the image links which will open up a new window on the flickr site. Enjoy! Fully scanned programmes →

Our recently launched 'Z-list' adds another layer to the PTFC story. Much scope for development, submissions welcome... Match Lists (Men's Z-List) A place for all of the excluded matches from the first or second team schedules, as well as the miscellaneous men's matches which don't fit either of the first/second team categories. Includes competitive matches which were voided for any reason, matches where the important data is unknown or too doubtful to be included in either of the main sections, legends-type matches which don't fit the contemporary teamline of the day, closed door matches which were deliberately scheduled to be private, non-public domain affairs, and matches which were scheduled but never played. 1875-76 1876-77 1877-78 1878-79 1879-80 1880-81 1881-82 1882-83 1883-84 1884-85 1885-86 1886-87 1887-88 1888-89 1889-90 1890-91 1891-92 1892-93 1893-94 1894-95 1895-96 1896-97 1897-98 1898-99 1899-00 1900-01 1901-02 1902-03 1903-04 1904-05 1905-06 1906-07 1907-08 1908-09 1909-10 1910-11 1911-12 1912-13 1913-14 1914-15 1915-16 1916-17 1917-18 1918-19 1919-20 1920-21 1921-22 1922-23 1923-24 1924-25 1925-26 1926-27 1927-28 1928-29 1929-30 1930-31 1931-32 1932-33 1933-34 1934-35 1935-36 1936-37 1937-38 1938-39 1939-40 1940-41 1941-42 1942-43 1943-44 1944-45 1945-46 1946-47 1947-48 1948-49 1949-50 1950-51 1951-52 1952-53 1953-54 1954-55 1955-56 1956-57 1957-58 1958-59 1959-60 1960-61 1961-62 1962-63 1963-64 1964-65 1965-66 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 1969-70 1970-71 1971-72 1972-73 1973-74 1974-75 1975-76 1976-77 1977-78 1978-79 1979-80 1980-81 1981-82 1982-83 1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25

The fascinating new discovery of Partick Thistle twin brothers from the 1870s; a chance letter, the birth of Association football in Brechin, and Partick Thistle's first-ever match north of the Tay... Partick Thistle's pioneering twins of Brechin! →

We're marking the day of Jimmy McGowan's birth with an excellent new entry to our virtual museum today... read all about it... 👀 TTAM-0039 Footballer of the year programme, 31 January 1955 →

@stuthejag spoke to him today researching Fred, Craig said it was "some two days" 😄

Haha, shout out for wee Johnny Flanagan !

This time last week, we couldn't even spell his name, never mind having a picture or a bio to speak of! Today, we're delighted to present 1930s winger FRED HINCHLIFFE whose grandson was Craig Hinchliffe, Thistle goalie from around 15 years ago... Fred Hinchliffe →

^ Thank you BB, appreciated, it can only be this way. As everyone knows, we've been great champions of BBG for 5 years - he's earned it. It'll be a great pity if it ends like this...

Turned down the GB Olympics team in 1960, was a mainstay of the Thistle team which finished 3rd in 1963, later scored at the Bernabeau in 1971! Gordon's page at the Archive is now developed more fully in tribute. Gordon Whitelaw →

^ Yes, apart from Gary Caldwell (was trying to forget about him), the first 5 will feature. Others in that category are Adam McLean, Jimmy Bone & Kenny Miller.

^ No, the parameters were laid out in the introduction. Good point though. The capped (non-playing) Thistle managers include Davie Meiklejohn, Scot Symon, Willie Thornton, Bertie Auld, Pat Quinn, Bobby Watson, Gary Caldwell and, now, Mark Wilson!

A sneaky wee Thursday night match newly discovered, and it's pretty big news on the Thistle history front with a first-team debut for WILLIE PAUL, 6 months earlier than previously thought. The ritual humiliation of Partick continues, it would soon be 11 wins on the bounce. Die! Thu-05-Jun-1884 Partick Thistle 5 Partick 1 (Friendly) →

"Do you want a flake in that love?"

A very interesting flavour of the BBC's Sportsreel, broadcast 7th September 1963. 20 secs of the Thirds v Thistle review at 1:08, added to the match hub today... 👀 Third Lanark 3 Partick Thistle 2 (SFL First Division - game 2) →

Season-end update now in place for our all-time goalies' table, totalling every appearance and every clean-sheet in the 'All Games' category... The goalies' appearances & clean-sheets →

In our story to date, the British Home Championship has been the staple diet for those winning international caps but that was greatly interrupted in the 1910s as the championship was suspended for five seasons between 1914 and 1919. It would be fair to say that Partick Thistle's history is highly entwined with the First World War; almost 80 of our boys served, 14 of them never came home. Despite all of this, we still have 8 new additions to our internationalists club in this decade, and Thistle, now fully re-settled in Maryhill, really dug in as one of Scotland's premier clubs, finishing in the Top 6 half of the time. Amazingly, the Jags were unbeaten at Firhill in the league for the whole of 1910-11, to this day a unique occurrence in the top-flight for Partick Thistle FC. On the international stage, the story of the decade belongs to future-Jag Johnny Houston, who was part of the first Irish side to defeat England (1913) and the first Irish side to be crowned British champions (1914). The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists, part 4: 1910s →

We'll never find them all, but it's amazing how many new first-team matches just keep turning up! Jags for good is a recurring theme, this was another discovery a couple of months back, full eleven too, ya bute... 👀 Wed-14-Nov-1923 Bute Select 0 Partick Thistle 2 (Donald McPhail Widow Benefit) →

McCrea's player of the month is an excellent club feature and today we've revamped and updated the page. Includes all winners and nominees from inception, 2012, to date. The late Alex Frew helped a lot on this, rest his soul. Who's top of the all-time table? Check it out... Player of the month awards →

We'd been chasing this match for years, but only recently found out the score and added it. Alas, no teamlines as yet. As part of the week-long BB Anniversary celebrations (100,000 were at Hampden on the 10th for a church service) many of the boys were treated to a sail doon the watter followed by this exhibition match. The boys thoroughly enjoyed their evening and many an autograph was snared! 11th September 1933 Partick Thistle 1 Rangers 3 (Boys Brigade 50th Anniversary Exhibition) →