The Thistle Archive

Ooft, Roy of the Rovers stuff...

Click on his name, and all will be magically revealed...

Sandy Clark started 4 unbeaten, keep that to yourself. 🤫

All the post-match updates in place via the home page → ROVERS RUN ENDED AT FIRHILL ● Kyle Turner's excellent assist is his 19th in competitive action in less than 2 seasons. ● Brian Graham is on the ascent in all goals charts, and today moves outright into our All Time Top 40 League scorers chart with 37 goals to his name. ● Kris Doolan's Jags retire at half-time with a one nil lead for the third time in his four games. They've yet to concede a first half goal. ● Harry Milne registers his 5th assist of the season to go with his 5 goals, giving him a fine double figures return in competitive action. ● Scott Tiffoney nets his second brace as a Jag, following on from his League double away to Airdrie in March 2021. ● Aidan Fitzpatrick hits a new personal best of 13 consecutive appearances in competitive action. ● Referee Greg Aitken awards what can only be described as an embarrassing penalty award to Raith Rovers, mis-reading a situation directly in front of him. In his last 13 Thistle games he's awarded six penalties against Thistle and only one in favour. ● David Mitchell faces a Raith Rovers penalty for the second time this season, the first being the final nail in a 3-0 League defeat at Stark's Park in October. ● David Mitchell is the first Thistle goalie to save a penalty which preserved a winning clean-sheet in the League since Kenny Arthur did so at Pittodrie in February 2003. ● Stuart Bannigan, Jagzone man of the match, has yet to be booked in his testimonial year! ● Raith Rovers 14 game unbeaten run (reportedly their best in 30 years) comes to an end at Firhill. ● Kris Doolan, confirmed as permanent new manager the day before, is the 4th Partick Thistle gaffer to remain unbeaten in his first 4 competitive matches. Only Murdo MacLeod (5) and Alan Archibald (10) have been on longer runs. ongoing sequences: ● 37 consecutive competitive appearances for Jack McMillan, 9th Jul 2022 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Jamie Sneddon - 41 games, 28th Aug 2021 to 9th Jul 2022. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

On this day 1963... over 120 SFL fixtures were now backlogged due to the 'Big Freeze'. Thistle were back in League action for the first time since New Years Day. Amazingly, goalie George Niven broke his wrist on the 1st January, but recovered in time for this next League game! 17,238 were at Love Street to see if the Jags could go top of the League in March. So close, but not quite... St Mirren vs Partick Thistle, 2nd March 1963 →

Not at all, a fair shout, and always happy to be queried, 8 eyes are better than 4 as we always say. Oh, absolutely this. 2 or 3 mind-boggingly ridiculous assists month-in-month-out from the OPTA network which even the SPFL uses! The level of care for the Scottish Championship is shameful.

We'd love that to be true, but it's just not the case; the opener was a clear own goal by Wallace Duffy. We feel a strong sense of duty in recording Partick Thistle's history accurately in every era - it's the reason for the existence of our Archive!

Great night for the Jags at Dens, especially for BRIAN GRAHAM who leapfrogged Gerry Britton and shot into our All-Time Competitive Top 50 goals chart, now in joint 48th position with 44 goals. We can't wait to chart his ascent from now. Our illustrated list has every goal from our elitists... Illustrated Top 50 competitive scorers →

Post-match updates in place Dundee 1 Partick Thistle 3 → BRIAN GRAHAM INTO THE ALL-TIME TOP 50 ● Thistle have led Dundee at half-time in all 3 League games this season. ● With his latest brace, Brian Graham (now on 44) moves into the all-time Top 50 competitive goals chart, overtaking Gerry Britton who was previously 50th with 43 goals. ● Harry Milne notches his 5th goal of the season, good going from the left-back position. 3 of these have came against Dundee. He scored his first Thistle goal at home to the Dark Blues and his latest away to them. ● Kris Doolan is the 7th Partick Thistle manager to remain unbeaten in his first 3 competitive matches, and is the first to do so since Alan Archibald in 2013. ● Kris Doolan has won 7 away points in 3 games. This compares favourably to Ian McCall's 10 away points all season! ● Thistle have won 5 of their last 7 games at Dens Park. The overall H2H is currently running 15 games without a draw. ongoing sequences: ● 36 consecutive competitive appearances for Jack McMillan, 9th Jul 2022 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Jamie Sneddon - 41 games, 28th Aug 2021 to 9th Jul 2022. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Most of the post-match updates are in place, all news via the home page as usual... HISTORIC FIRST FOR DOOLAN ● Darren Brownlie makes his 50th competitive appearance. ● Jamie Sneddon makes his 100th competitive appearance and registers his 41st clean-sheet in those games. Of all the 'keepers who've played 20 or more games, his 41% clean-sheet ratio currently places him second only to Jim Ferguson (42.6%). ● Thistle register a 5th consecutive clean-sheet versus Arbroath, a new H2H record. ● For the 8th time in history, Thistle register 4 same-season clean-sheets against the same team in competitive action. It was first achieved vs. Hearts (1921) then Kilmarnock (1968), Clydebank (1978), Kilmarnock (1980), St Mirren (1981), Montrose (1992) and Dunfermline Athletic (2022). ● Kris Doolan becomes the first Thistle manager in history to come through his first two games without conceding a goal. ● Back-to-back League wins at Gayfield have eluded Partick Thistle FC for all of recorded time. ongoing sequences: ● 35 consecutive competitive appearances for Jack McMillan, 9th Jul 2022 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Jamie Sneddon - 41 games, 28th Aug 2021 to 9th Jul 2022. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Only two other games close to that. Rangers Archives have a clip of a League Cup game from the early 60s, but haven't shared it despite a couple of requests. We always live in hope of finding more. You can find snips of some of our boys on international duty. Sat-24-Oct-1953 [n] L2-3 East Fife (League Cup Final) Wed-31-Oct-1956 [n] L0-3 Celtic (League Cup Final replay) @robphil It seems we have, erm, borrowed your Johnny MacKenzie article from the Telegraph (see 'Scrapbook' tab) A small world - and thank you! Johnny MacKenzie

Johnny was born in Dennistoun though? So here's a Dennistoun-born Thistle 5-a-side team... and what a forward line it is! GK: Davey Haxton DF: William Flannelly FW: Frank Branscombe FW: Johnny MacKenzie FW: Willie Sharp Not sure where you'd draw the line on Islands, but some island-born Jags... Rothesay - Hunter Lyle Rothesay - James Pinkerton Rothesay - Peter Thompson Rothesay - Daniel McLean Jersey - Jack Boyle Trinidad - Kevaughn Connell Trinidad - Josh Johnson

Erm, we posted this on our thread here last year? 😉 On 10/7/2022 at 11:50 AM, Jaggernaut said: Amazingly good views of Firhill in that 1956 film of the match vs. Brechin. And it looks like a boy in the crowd might be wearing a R&Y bar scarf. And we put a full match hub together to celebrate the find... Partick Thistle 3 Brechin City 1 →

Our managerial pages were updated this weekend, with Doolan taking his place in the A-Z, sandwiched between Cormack and Easton. History in the making, it's quite the thought... Managers → We have a 'Partickle' which covers every move from the very beginning and has been updated this weekend... The Managerial Comings and Goings →

Most of the post-match updates are in place on the Archive, including match highlights, check the news via the home page → GET INTERIM ● Interim manager Kris Doolan takes charge of Partick Thistle for the first time, nearly 4 years on from his final appearance as a player - both times versus Ayr United. ● Kris Doolan becomes the 33rd individual to manage a Partick Thistle first team match. ● Former Jag Sean McGinty captains Ayr United whilst former United man Ross Docherty captains Thistle. ● Kyle Turner hits a new personal best by appearing 17-not-out in competitive action. ● Thistle have won all three matches in which Danny Mullen has scored. ● Thistle win their first away game in more than 4 months, the 2-1 win at New Douglas Park in October being the last away day success. ● Thistle keep their first clean-sheet in 3 months. Ayr United are only the second team not to have scored against Thistle in the League this season, following on from Arbroath. ● Congratulations (and celebrations) to Kris Doolan, who becomes the first Thistle manager since Murdo MacLeod in 1995 to begin his tenure with a victory in competitive action. ongoing sequences: ● 34 consecutive competitive appearances for Jack McMillan, 9th Jul 2022 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since: Jamie Sneddon - 41 games, 28th Aug 2021 to 9th Jul 2022. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Stats can be malleable little blighters, but this table gives a solid no-nonsense comparison of Thistle and their 2nd / 3rd tier managers. Ian McCall's results are below our historical average for the level, and it's been going backwards this season...

Certainly never came across such an exact scenario, so every chance it's a unique occurrence. That said, there used to be all sorts of wild disputes in the 19th century game, when teams would threaten to walk-off in a huff and the opposition would back down and goals would be disallowed by agreement of the captains and referee, that sort of chaos! This week's Stats Watch has an interesting entry in this area: ● With Malik Tillman failing to realise that Thistle were about to return the ball back to them, he unwittingly took advantage of a relaxed situation to put Rangers 2-1 up, which would have been extremely distasteful had it been allowed to stand. The actions of the Rangers management and players in allowing Thistle's Scott Tiffoney to run up the pitch unopposed to score and balance out the matter was a very refreshing sporting gesture. Looking back at the records, the incident is not entirely without precedent… on Sat-21-Dec-1895, with Thistle trailing by 1 goal to 2 at Inchview, Celtic threatened to walk off when Thistle were awarded a late pen. To settle, R. Lamont “shot for the corner flag”! http://www.thethistlearchive.net/

Shocking news indeed, R. I. P. Billy. Lovely photo of the Thistle and Scotland goalies at Firhill in 1978... Billy Thomson →

We have 1,989 first-team players in the Thistle Archive, all of whom have a standardized introduction bio. 875 of them now have a 'Bio Extra' tab whereby we delve a little deeper and chat a little more freely about their story. Today, Alex Wright is the latest Jag to get the 'extra' treatment. More than 1,000 still to go on that score if anyone fancies writing some paragraphs on George Smith, Dougie Somner, Chris Erskine etc. Alex Wright →

Finalizing life particulars can be rewarding, but sometimes a bit upsetting too. Alas, our JERRY SUTER lies in Blackburn Cemetery, his presence ignored on the headstone. We see you Jerry. Jerry Suter, 3 June 1863 to 7 October 1901, R.I.P. Jerry Suter →

Thanks for the fuel Jagger, much appreciated, vroom vroom. The main stand used to be really busy in the 70s for reserve games.

Reserves database launched! It's another big day in our quest to better understand the history of our beloved Partick Thistle Football Club. The full Partick Thistle reserves database will be spread over all 143 of the active seasons from 1877 to date, and will include almost 4,000 matches. We won't go so deep as to have complex match hubs for each game, but we'll fill the season-by-season pages with lots of good basic information wherever possible, including players and scorers if we can. A results summary table will be included at the footer of every season for your 'at-a-glance' analysis benefit. For your peace of mind, we've added sources on each match throughout and this should also be helpful for anyone following in our footsteps. We remain wary of missing Saturdays in the first 100 years, and we'd encourage anyone with knowledge of any missing games to please get in touch → Today, we're publishing up to 1890-91, with the rest of the seasons to follow in due course as time allows. Stand by for hundreds of games you never knew existed against loads of teams you've never heard of! Match Lists (Reserves) →

^ A stats nightmare scenario, just NO! We're pleased to report that the issues which were affecting hundreds of photos and style sheet script now seem to have been resolved by Wikidot and our site is back in a stable condition. Thank you for your patience. http://www.thethistlearchive.net/ Some big Thistle history news... The full Partick Thistle reserves database is spread over 143 active seasons from 1877 to date, with almost 4,000 matches. It's coming soon to an Archive near you...

One of these fine gents will surely become the 50th Jag to score 50 goals in 'All Games' (i.e. inc. friendlies). Lawless absolutely on the brink, but can the big #9 pip him to the post? All eyes on Dens Park... All-time goalscorers charts →

Are you keeping an eye on our News page? We continue to sniff, dig and find... and a new goal for WILLIE PAUL is worth shouting about! Now just 4 off the summit! See news... http://thethistlearchive.net/