The Thistle Archive

Most of the post-Arbroath updates are now in place at your Archive... Arbroath 0 Thistle 1 → WE DO LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE SEASIDE ● For the third game in a row, the full matchday squad is Scottish-born. ● 17-year-old Thomas Horn becomes the 2,025th Jag in our A-Z of first team players. ● In all competitions, we've now seen a first half goal in 25 consecutive Partick Thistle matches, the longest such run since 1959 (25). ● Aidan Fitzpatrick hits double figures in our competitive goals chart for 2023-24. ● 4 of Aidan Fitzpatrick's 10 goals this season have been scored against Arbroath. His 5-goal total against the Red Lichties is bettered only by Denis McQuade (7). ● For the first time in history, Partick Thistle register back-to-back league wins at Gayfield! It's one of 5 club-records on the go versus Arbroath, 3 league wins on the trot also being an historical first. ongoing sequences: ● 24 games in 3rd place, an extension of the club-record for a position outwith outright top or bottom. ● 58 consecutive competitive appearances for Steven Lawless, 18th Feb 2023 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Chris Erskine - 70 games, 27th Aug 2011 to 2nd Mar 2013. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Although not an "official" source The Thistle Archive is the best place in the world for Thistle attendances, since we put so much effort into getting it right, way beyond what anyone else does. As with many aspects of our data collection, we've got a published policy in place for it, and we dig and dig and dig, season in, season out, across every single era, aligning with experts wherever we can. Many of our attendance figures post-war come from the official Scottish League submission, which was a mandatory requirement for clubs to make. If we can't get an exact figure, we go with the contemporary average, often from several papers. Re the latest debacle, it's often the case that one representative from OPTA supplies data which feeds multiple stats sites (including the SPFL) and if they get it wrong, multiple sites accept the feed and also get it wrong. We see this on assists every other week. And don't get us started on Brian Graham's imaginary "hat-trick"! Anyway, according to our policy, we accept the figure given by the home club as being definitive, and Arbroath say 2,048, so we go with that.

The 5 M's is a strange co-incidence. In all of history, based on a 1-5 query, it was only seen for the first time on 4 March 2023, the 3-0 home win vs. Raith Rovers: David Mitchell, Jack McMillan, Harry Milne, Connor McAvoy, Aaron Muirhead Most common surname letter in a starting eleven is 7 (M's again), seen only in 1988, 3 times in close proximity, firstly in the 1-1 midweek Scottish Cup draw at Station Park on 3 February 1988: Archie MacLean, Alan Dinnie, John Workman, Bryan Purdie, Budgie McGhie, John McCormack, Pat Kelly, Willie McGuire, John McNaught, John Mitchell, Ian McDonald Re the close proximity thing, will skip that on the grounds of time constraints, if you don't mind. Most common surname in the first-team A-Z: 25 - Smith 24 - Robertson 22 - Wilson 19 - Brown 19 - Campbell 17 - Stewart 16 - Murray 14 - Ferguson 14 - Gray 13 - Gibson 13 - McDonald 13 - Thomson Actually, we recently passed a club-record in that regard. 24 games in 3rd place is the longest run in the same position when considering mid-table positions only. The previous joint-record (20) was set in 6th place (1915) and 9th place (2015).

Haha, nah Jagger, forever and ever. Our latest full match hub going all-in today celebrates Meiklejohn's immense Jags of 1954 vintage, behold McGowan aloft with the club's 20th trophy won. “Rangers fans may desert to Firhill” said the Times! Full match hub now packed with all sorts of goodies... Thistle 2 Rangers 0 →

Hero Jagger, thank you! Er, could you add the linesmen for us as well, thank you please!?

Big thanks to Kenny Pieper for digging into his old programmes and knocking off around 40 of our missing refs, we're over the moon! The mega-quest continues... now 88% coverage all-time, just 16 to find in competitive games since the war. Can you help? Get in touch here! Who was the referee? →

Just the 43 competitive wins for Partick Thistle vs. the tainted Govan pound - it's never enough! Today we fast-forward a packed match hub looking back to the classic 4-3 in March '77, one of the all-time greatest nights at Firhill... Roughie's prayers worked! Thistle 4 Rangers 3 →

With an eye on Sunday's cup final we're inspired to fast-forward the match hub for this famous win at Ibrox. Andy Anderson had Colin McAdam in his back pocket and the Jags were a joy to behold. Thanks to the amazing efforts of collector Miles McClagan you can get a flick through the full match programme via the 'Scrapbook' tab... Rangers 0 Thistle 2 →

A cracker of GEORGE MACKIE in the summer of '76... and look who's best man! George returned the favour for Gordon a year later; the two were happy hooligans on the pitch at Wembley in '77! Page more fully developed today... George Mackie →

Inspired by the Draw, Lose or Draw podcast's excellent production (embedded - check it out), we've fast-forwarded the full match hub for the classic match on 4th May 1993... Thistle 3 Rangers 0 →

Is Brian Graham eyeing-up a post-war league record with the Jags? Check this week's 'Stats Watch' and more... Thistle 2 Morton 1 →

What a photo by Donald Wilson! 3 video options for all of us to agonize over / enjoy this week, and most of the post-QP updates are now in place at the Archive → THE RETURN OF THE 20 GOALS-A-SEASON STRIKER! ● Tomi Adeloye is the first Jag to score in two games at Hampden in the same season since super Maurice Johnston did so in 1982-83. ● Brian Graham converts his 4th successive penalty, bringing his ratio (70%) back onto historical par (70.2%). His last 3 have levelled the match at 2-2. See our list of Every penalty taken. ● Brian Graham scores in a 5th consecutive competitive game for Thistle, and is the first to do so since Kris Doolan (6) in 2016. The club-record (8) lies with Scott McLean, set in 2000. ● Brian Graham becomes the first Jag since George Smith (1958-1960) to hit the 20 competitive goals mark in back-to-back seasons, an excellent achievement. See our Top Scorers per season page for a flavour. ● Kris Doolan's Thistle are 7 competitive games without a win, the longest run since October 2020 (11), under Ian McCall. ongoing sequences: ● 55 consecutive competitive appearances for Steven Lawless, 18th Feb 2023 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Blair Spittal - 57 games, 31st Mar 2018 to 4th May 2019. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Most of post-United match updates now in place at the Archive, including the first 'Scrapbook' tab on a match hub for a number of years. Like Lawless and Graham we're on a bit of a run in terms of Video Highlights, now 101-in-a-row, almost 2 years-not-out! There are three video productions to savour (so far) this week. Don't miss 'The Story of the Match' video from DUTV, it's absolutely stunning... Thistle 1 United 1 → CONSISTENT LAWLESS & GRAHAM ● Referee Matthew MacDermid (who refused to send off either of Docherty or Moult for dirty play) takes charge of just his 4th Thistle match, yet 3 of them have been versus Dundee United this season. ● Steven Lawless reaches 54-not-out in competitive action, a new personal best, and the longest run of any Thistle player in the last 5 years. ● Brian Graham scores after 115 secs, but it's only his second-quickest goal as a Jag, having netted in 73 secs against Ayr United in September 2023. ● Brian Graham's goal means that he has now scored in a 14th consecutive month for Thistle in competitive action, extending his unique club-record. ● For the first time, Brian Graham scores in a 4th consecutive game for Thistle, albeit he matched this on a personal level in July 2021 (having missed a game in-between). The club-record (8) lies with Scott McLean, set in November 2000. ● 51-goal Partick Thistle remain top scorers in the League and 15-goal Brian Graham once again moves to outright top scorer in the Championship. ● Thistle go 6 competitive games without a win, the longest winless run under Kris Doolan. ongoing sequences: ● 54 consecutive competitive appearances for Steven Lawless, 18th Feb 2023 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Blair Spittal - 57 games, 31st Mar 2018 to 4th May 2019. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Hi Robert, William here. As my colleague Jack will testify, we're never done going up and down the newspaper archives for all 6,000+ matches. Then, just to torture ourselves, we'll think of something else and go and do it all again!!! The latest quest is to find all the kick-off times, which is why we landed on that. Normally moving so fast that we don't stop to capture reports but that caught the eye and it just had to be grabbed!

Sure, you can always refer to the individual manager's pages where we break down the game list one-by-one and you can also see more appropriate comparison tables in regards to levels (albeit the current manager is only updated annually)... Davie McParland →

anyone we know?

Exactly one year on, and KRIS DOOLAN is shoulder to shoulder with Davie McParland in terms of the first 50 competitive games...

As always, we live in hope!

Ahead of their big Scottish Cup Quarter Final tie on Friday, we're delighted to present our latest permanent pages to the Thistle Archive, profiling the main Partick Thistle youth team, per below. We'd like to do more for all of the teams who represent Partick Thistle, but time and data constraints dictate that it's not possible to compile all of the historical season-by-season lists. As far as our youth teams go, we've at least made the effort to list full results for our top level youth team for the latest two seasons, as well as their full results history for the Scottish Youth Cup (1985 to date) and the short-lived SFL Youth Cup (2006 to 2010). With special thanks to the players, coaches and parents who got in touch to help complete the goals data! 2023-24 (Youth - Under 18s) → - The eleventh season of the Thistle Weir Youth Academy with results, line-ups and scorers. The page includes a 'Goalscorers' tab… 2022-23 (Youth - Under 18s) → - The tenth season of the Thistle Weir Youth Academy with results, some line-ups and all scorers. The page includes tabs for 'Goalscorers' and 'CAS Performance U-18s League Table'… Partick Thistle in the Scottish Youth Cup → - The Scottish Youth Cup is run by the SFA and usually played by the U-18 age groups. Thistle have entered in 36 out of 40 seasons since inception in 1983-84, and the complete results history is listed here… Partick Thistle in the SFL Youth Cup → - The SFL Youth Cup was ran by the Scottish Football League for a dozen or so seasons, from the early 2000s, and there were competitions for a few different age groups. As far as the top level (U-19) goes, we know of Thistle's participation in at least three different seasons, as profiled here… Match Lists (Youth) → - a brand new sub-menu page focused on the 4 new youth pages at-a-glance… p.s. if anyone can source a better league table for 2022-23 please do get in touch →

^ Thanks PTD, always good to find an angle like that, and a good reminder that TTA is open for anyone to get involved, as the website says... If you've written an original article on Partick Thistle and you'd like to give it a permanent home on the internet, then this is the place for you. Re-publishing of old works or first-time presentations are equally welcome. Simply send us in your copy via our contact page on Word or a PDF, and we'll take care of the online formatting. Meantime, folks can enjoy two Partickles featuring John Blair's goal... The Class Of '21 - John Blair Who put the ball in the Rangers net? #2 - John Blair And a brand new 'Partickle' is out today... League Cup Glory 2010

With 3 huge cup-ties ahead in the next 9 days for the men, the women and the top youth team (all second favourites) we look back to a glory run in 2010... a poignant tale which puts football into perspective whilst reminding us that favourites don't always win... ... this is the bittersweet story of heartbreak and glory for Kieran Burns and Thistle, and the camaraderie of a fitba' team... League Cup Glory 2010 →

Most of the post-United updates now in place... experimental new match hub (slight) re-design → A DOUBLE MILESTONE ● 22-year-old Aidan Fitzpatrick becomes the 200th Partick Thistle player to hit the 100 competitive appearances mark. He's the youngest to do so since 21-year-old James Penrice hit the mark in November, 2020. ● Kevin Holt and Tony Watt of Dundee United make it back-to-back hat-tricks for Dundee United versus Partick Thistle. In competitive action, such an occurrence has only been seen twice against Thistle in the last 50 years; in the springtime of 1982 Davie Dodds scored back to back hat-tricks for Dundee United and early in 1974 Donald Ford and Drew Busby did likewise for Hearts. Historically, there's now been ten streaks of two in total, and two streaks of three (Rangers 1898-1899 and Celtic 1898-99). ● Dundee United's last 3 hat-tricks have all been registered against Partick Thistle (Watt 2023, Holt 2023 & Shankland 2020). Bizzarely, this applies to 5 out of their last 8, a run which started back in 2013. ● Partick Thistle have never registered a 2nd tier win at Tannadice, now with 5 attempts since 2018. ● At the halfway point in the league, Thistle have conceded 30 goals in 18 games (relegation form) yet remain clear in 3rd place. This is due to the extra-ordinary number of high scoring games, with the combined ratio totalling 3.556 goals-per-game. You need to rewind back to 1900-01 (3.682 gpg) to see such a high total in a second tier season. ongoing sequences: ● 44 consecutive competitive appearances for Steven Lawless, 18th Feb 2023 to date. (Longest run since: Jack McMillan - 52 games, 9th Jul 2022 to 4th Jun 2023. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Glad you enjoyed it folks and thanks for the interesting footnotes Norge. Looking closely at the opposition line-ups (we now have 5 of them) we can see several Norwegian internationalists of the day. We could do a whole new Partickle... Best of the season to all Thistle fans... skål! 🥃

A tour of Norway was reward for getting to the Scottish Cup final in 1930. It “set the Norwegians agog” and the Jags were described as “elegant” and “dazzling”. From Firhill to the Fjords, our brand new 'Partickle' tells the story of Thistle's first-ever encounters with continental opposition, and how they flew the flag for Scotland and wowed the locals… Welcome To Norway Mr. Lambie, Jackson & Co! →