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Midweek Games: A Question


Jaggernaut
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My memory of "the old days" includes the idea that whenever there was a reason for a midweek game (e.g., playing a postponed fixture, or a replay), the game would always get played on Wednesday evening. But at some point and for some reason, the preference or the stipulation changed to make it Tuesday. Is that right, and if so when did it happen (and why)?

Of course this doesn't concern the crazy Friday night scheduling of some matches for tv "entertainment."

PS: I think I remember a Firhill replay of a Cup match against Hearts on a Tuesday afternoon (which meant another afternoon doggin' off school). The result? Well...... you can guess, given our woeful record against them in Cups.

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I seem to remember that back in the 70’s and before that, Tuesday and Thursday used to be working late nights when we had a much larger manufacturing and industrial base. 

My memory could be playing tricks but I think it changed around the time that Souness arrived at Sevco or Rangers as they were then. He thought that nobody did overtime on Tuesday night any more and it was a better night for a game to help with player recovery. 

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1 hour ago, JeanieD said:

The Hearts cup defeat was on a Tuesday afternoon due to the power situation and the miner’s strike and needless to say we got a doing (1-4) at home after a creditable draw (1-1) at Tynecastle

Brilliant, JD. I'd suppressed the details from my memory.

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5 hours ago, Earnock Jag said:

I seem to remember that back in the 70’s and before that, Tuesday and Thursday used to be working late nights when we had a much larger manufacturing and industrial base. 

My memory could be playing tricks but I think it changed around the time that Souness arrived at Sevco or Rangers as they were then. He thought that nobody did overtime on Tuesday night any more and it was a better night for a game to help with player recovery. 

Even in 90’s your 2 nights overtime (2 hours per night) was a Tuesday and Thursday. Any other nights were classed as “fish teas” or job and finishes where you did 4 hours and got a fish tea (plus way more money).

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1 hour ago, partickthedog said:

Tuesday evening is nearer to the midpoint between 2 Saturday afternoon fixtures. Very roughly the interval at both ends is 3 and a half days. A Wednesday evening fixture means an approx 4 and a half days lead in, but only a rather tight 2 and a half days at the other end.

Are you really trying to suggest that anybody in Scottish football applied that kind of thinking ? It was more likely to be that a particular Wednesday didn’t suit a club Director and the game was moved.

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I think there is a case for the overtime issue. That's what I recall as the received wisdom when I was a nipper. Why Wednesdays fell out of fashion may, indeed, be something to do with the decline of heavy industry.

Since 1970-71 Thistle have played 49 Mondays, 260 Tuesdays, 222 Wednesdays, 14 Thursdays and 63 Fridays. Live TV will account for many Fridays. Wednesdays have certainly become the exception with only 89 since January 1989. All values exclude Friendlies.

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2 hours ago, JeanieD said:

Pre Friday TV games Fridays were a relative rarity - although I recall a Friday night friendly against Dundee United back about Feb or March 1971 after we had been cheated out of the cup at Dundee - I think

I went to a Friday night friendly at Ayr in the early 90’s. It was barely announced and I noticed it in the morning paper on the day of the game. There was a very sparse crowd and we won 2-0 I think. It was possibly a Cup weekend as it was a really cold night and our team was mainly made up of squad players 

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6 hours ago, lady-isobel-barnett said:

The switch of midweek fixtures from Wednesdays to Tuesdays gathered momentum around the same time as the introduction of different coloured wheelie bins. I'd be amazed if this didn't play a major part behind the reasoning.  

The purple wheelie bins in Liverpool eventually brought the title for LFC. It wasn’t really the Klopp effect at all.

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