How Did You Get Into Thistle

[Ruchillnomore]

I got into Thistle because my Dad and his Brothers were Thisle supporters. I was born in in Partick but moved to Ruchill. My abinding memories are walking through Ruchill park on a Saturday to either the first team or reserve games and just as you get to the top of Ruchill park the glorious sight of Firhill comes into view with the canal winding round it. Them to me are without doubt the best and defining days as a Thistle supporter and I was only 10 at the time. When you were a Thistle supporter at that time in the early 70,s you had bragging rights and you gave as good as you got at School. Later on around 1976 we moved to Erskine and there seemed to be lots of Jags fans there. We even had a Partick Thistle supporters bus that ran for quite a few years picking up from Bargarran shopping centre....oh the banter with the Celtic supporters bus was good at times.

 

Slowly but surely I have passed this on to my own son who I have to say is probably worse than me however one story that sticks out is when the Jags got relegated on the last day of the season against Ayr United and what made matters worse is that it was his Birthday as well. Anyway we went home and we all went out for dinner to celebrate however as expected at 10 years of age he was a little flat and I was getting a hard time off the wife with the usual comment "for gods sake its only a game" mmmmmmmm. Anyway when we went home we went out the back door to kick the ball about and I explained that I was a Jags supporter because my Dad was a jags supporter and that I lived close to the park when I was young. I then said to him if he wanted to support someone else then that was fine. Whoever he wanted to support I would try and get him along as long as it wasnt the old firm. There was a slight pause by him and he looked at me and said " Dont be daft dad I want to be a jags supporter " so after a couple of minutes telling him that something must have flown in my eye I realised I was the happiest man alive and that the female in there that I called my wife didnt know a thing about football and more importantly the religion that is Partick Thistle.

 

Mon ra Jags

[Duncan]

Donnie himself isn't in the photo, but the ball hitting the roof of the net certainly is.

 

It`s so like Donnie not to be in the photo - he never did seek the limelight for himself!

[Duncan]

I remember that goal so well; it was on my 11th birthday and made my day a special one.

 

SO you must have been born on 28th September 1957 then!

[thechangingman]

Both my parents were born raised and still live in Maryhill, my dad had a season ticket since before i was born and still does ,we lived in Kirkland St and my first game was Dundee Utd at home , not sure but think we won 1-0 although remember the atmosphere more than the game itself was around 72/73 i think ,went with my dad as a kid then with my mates as a teenager , got a boy myself (21 now , some boy)and took him when he was 4 got hooked right away and is hardcore thistle , him , me, my dad and my younger brother used to go regularly though havent all been together for a while (need to sort that), proudest moment is easy , Hampden Park Scottish Cup semi 5 minutes before Kick off when Thistle end was bouncing red n yella everywhere , and the 3 generations of my family were all there , got loads of stories but some are to personnel , funny one i remember was a real dour and dross 0-0 , cant mind opposition but they were playing for time some guy shouts "hope your adding this on ref" to which someone else shouts "f**k that 90 minutes is enough of this p*sh"

[badgerbadgerbadger]

Like a few of our supporters I spent the the first 3 years of my life in Kirkland Street - I think we stayed in 121 opposite the bakery. I vaguely remember it being really busy with cars occasionally- it must of been the football as the crowds were big in those days. I do remember my dad not liking football though so I was never taken to Firhill at this early age(unlike my own kids!).

Anyway we emigrated to Canada and when I was 9 my dad died and we returned home to Springburn to stay with my Granny. All my uncles were Celtic fans and my pals were mostly Rangers supporters and when I expressed a desire to go to the football my wise Granny said that I was better off walking down over the canal to Firhill to see the game there.

 

It was the 22nd September 1962 -Thistle V Hearts....I remember it was exciting but we lost 4-3 (I think)...typical Thistle, but I would never and could never support any other team.

[Blackpool Jags]

SO you must have been born on 28th September 1957 then!

 

Indeed I was, sir.

[Exiled AusJag]

I grew up less than half a mile from Firhill, and like so many others here, my dad didn't want my brother and myself getting involved in the bigotry of the green and blue. My dad took me initially to reserve games where the main stand was the only place open, and I would get quite jealous of my older brother who could go to first team games on his own. (he still goes regularly and and his passion is so strong that when I was back in Scotland and went to Firhill with him, I got a dig in the ribs from him when I dared to agree with the ref who had given a decision against Thistle!)

Like so many others of my generation, the highlight was going to the '71 league cup final, but broke a lens of my glasses at half time, but still had one good lens to see the rest of the game and presentation. ( A few years later I discovered contact lenses which gave me perfect vision for refereeing

When I came To Australia in '83, the only way I could get results was in tiny print in the sports pages for overseas sports, but since the advent of the internet I don't have that problem any more.

I enjoyed going back to Firhill 6 years ago on my only visit to Scotland since leaving, espescially being allowed to referee a practice game.

CD generously photographed the session, but for some daft reason I didn't want them on the website. I now think I should have allowed it, especially since CD took time out to to assist me. I would like to publicly apologise to him for this, and if he still has the disc and still wants to put them on this site, then please feel free to do so.

He is a great servant to the club and I think I was out of order.

I hope I get to see Thistle play again at some point, because once a supporter, always a supporter.

Edited April 30, 2011 by Exiled AusJag

[Chicofan]

Got into football properly in 1986 watching the merseyside FA CUP final.since then i have always been a liverpool fan.then one Saturday afternoon in 1991 my dad[who was a Celic season ticket holder in the 70's and 80's]says to me "do u want to go and watch a football game"."sure" i reply ,guessing it would be a trip to parkhead,but to my surprise he tells me that partick at home,we will go up there and watch them.so off we set for firhill,train from scotstounhill to charing cross,then a walk from there.we soon realise that the underground is the way to go.anyway we gub clyde 4-2 and a new thistle fan is born.the following season we get promoted and a game versus celtic is on the horizons and i am curious to see how my dad reacts.Georgie Shaw scores twice and lets just say my dad wasn't celebrating as much as me.

My mum worked on the railways so the family received cheap train tickets so we followed thistle all over Scotland.We got to know regular faces on the train journeys which made me feel part of club.even the casuals took the train and they would always say hello to me and say things like awright wee man,nice top and all that.there were some great days on away trips,but i used to love going to firhill and standing in the shed next to the away fans.my dad preferred behind the goals said he was to old for that nonsense.i loved the songs we sung back then,my fav was "thank you very much for the four pound fifty,thank you very much,thank you very very very much"{the tune of the roses advert].Years later my dad tells me the reason for going to firhill that day.he tells me its because he could see all the trouble and nonsense coming regarding the old firm.to this day i am forever grateful to him.

PT,PTF,PTFC,OK.

 

those were the days some great although some rather silly songs back then

one which spring to mind at this early hour is "ooohhh aaaahhh ooooohhhh ahhhhhh ooooohhhhhh to be a Partick Fan

 

Edited to add and another...OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH EEEEEEEEEE KEVIN MAGEE

Edited May 4, 2011 by Chicofan

[danish jag]

There are some great stories there!

 

Originally from Denmark, my first encounter with Thistle came in a sports magazine called Tipsbladet, which I was subscribing to at that time. The magazine was running a series of articles on relatively unknown clubs doing something spectacular. In week 28 of 2002, it was Thistle's back-to-back promotions that were the focus of quite an otherwise superficial portrait of the club. The heading of "The Thistle in Glasgow's Nice Flower Bed" was somewhat misleading and the picture of Martin Cameron winning a header against Ross County's Ian Maxwell not that spectacular, but something in there triggered an interest that this club was a bit out of the ordinary and worthwhile having a closer look at.

 

Until then, my only glimpse of Scottish football had been when the odd Old Firm game was on telly or Aberdeen made an appearance due to having my favourite Danish team Brondby's former manager Ebbe Skovdahl in charge for a while, which the media took an interest in. All in all, not very exciting stuff. My main ways of getting into Thistle was therefore through Championship Manager and the old ptfc.net, where I gradually became part of the F5 brigade updating the page every few seconds to see if Thistle had scored. Sometimes on the odd chance, our game would be on Sportsound and I would be sitting there trying to make out what the commentators were saying, getting to grips with the Scottish language, which I struggled with even then. I got my first Thistle shirt and scarf for my birthday and the interest just grew bigger from that.

 

After I left college, I decided to take a year out to travel. The obvious first point was to go to Glasgow, where I had booked into the student accomodation in Murano Street in late August 2006. First thing next morning was of course to go down and see Firhill for the first time. I must admit that my first impression wasn't one of greatness, I was more taken aback at the amount of litter in the streets around the stadium.

 

My first game was against St. Johnstone and I finally saw Dick Campbell's team in action come crushing to a 5-1 defeat and a 6-0 defeat to Gretna two weeks later made me feel like a bit of a jinx to be honest, but luckily fortunes turned and one of the best experiences that season was undoubtedly the 5-2 win up at Victoria Park.

 

Through my new job, I met my girlfriend, whose family were all Thistle fans and we all started going to the games together. However, her mum and dad soon moved to Islay and I had decided to go back to Denmark to study so Thistle was put on the back burner and I joined the F5 brigade again that soon developed into the Nomads, which I took a keen interest in as it was fans in the same situation providing the entertainment just as much as Thistle.

 

My new course did not go as planned and the long distance relationship became a bit strained over the year so in the end, I decided to move to Glasgow again, where I then started going to the games again and doing some Nomad commentary once in a while. I also moved in with my girlfriend, who I am now engaged to with the wedding just about planned for October. We had hoped to have a Glasgow reception at Firhill, but sadly that never transpired, but even then, Thistle will definitely continue to have a place in my life. So I would like to thank (and blame at times) Soren Plovgaard for writing that article in 2002. He has no idea what he's started...

[1 John Lambie]

There are some great stories there!

 

Originally from Denmark, my first encounter with Thistle came in a sports magazine called Tipsbladet, which I was subscribing to at that time. The magazine was running a series of articles on relatively unknown clubs doing something spectacular. In week 28 of 2002, it was Thistle's back-to-back promotions that were the focus of quite an otherwise superficial portrait of the club. The heading of "The Thistle in Glasgow's Nice Flower Bed" was somewhat misleading and the picture of Martin Cameron winning a header against Ross County's Ian Maxwell not that spectacular, but something in there triggered an interest that this club was a bit out of the ordinary and worthwhile having a closer look at.

 

Until then, my only glimpse of Scottish football had been when the odd Old Firm game was on telly or Aberdeen made an appearance due to having my favourite Danish team Brondby's former manager Ebbe Skovdahl in charge for a while, which the media took an interest in. All in all, not very exciting stuff. My main ways of getting into Thistle was therefore through Championship Manager and the old ptfc.net, where I gradually became part of the F5 brigade updating the page every few seconds to see if Thistle had scored. Sometimes on the odd chance, our game would be on Sportsound and I would be sitting there trying to make out what the commentators were saying, getting to grips with the Scottish language, which I struggled with even then. I got my first Thistle shirt and scarf for my birthday and the interest just grew bigger from that.

 

After I left college, I decided to take a year out to travel. The obvious first point was to go to Glasgow, where I had booked into the student accomodation in Murano Street in late August 2006. First thing next morning was of course to go down and see Firhill for the first time. I must admit that my first impression wasn't one of greatness, I was more taken aback at the amount of litter in the streets around the stadium.

 

My first game was against St. Johnstone and I finally saw Dick Campbell's team in action come crushing to a 5-1 defeat and a 6-0 defeat to Gretna two weeks later made me feel like a bit of a jinx to be honest, but luckily fortunes turned and one of the best experiences that season was undoubtedly the 5-2 win up at Victoria Park.

 

Through my new job, I met my girlfriend, whose family were all Thistle fans and we all started going to the games together. However, her mum and dad soon moved to Islay and I had decided to go back to Denmark to study so Thistle was put on the back burner and I joined the F5 brigade again that soon developed into the Nomads, which I took a keen interest in as it was fans in the same situation providing the entertainment just as much as Thistle.

 

My new course did not go as planned and the long distance relationship became a bit strained over the year so in the end, I decided to move to Glasgow again, where I then started going to the games again and doing some Nomad commentary once in a while. I also moved in with my girlfriend, who I am now engaged to with the wedding just about planned for October. We had hoped to have a Glasgow reception at Firhill, but sadly that never transpired, but even then, Thistle will definitely continue to have a place in my life. So I would like to thank (and blame at times) Soren Plovgaard for writing that article in 2002. He has no idea what he's started...

 

The Great John Lambie must take some credit also, without him working his magic we wouldnt have got the promotions, we wouldn't have been in your magazine & you wouldn't have met you future wife (probably)!

[danish jag]

The Great John Lambie must take some credit also, without him working his magic we wouldnt have got the promotions, we wouldn't have been in your magazine & you wouldn't have met you future wife (probably)!

 

Another testament that Lambie is God! Haha!

[Norman]

Like many others on this thread, I spent my early, uninformed years supporting one half of the Old Firm on the basis that several of my friends did. My parents very wisely refused to buy me any football paraphenalia until one summer holiday in Spain, when I was about 10, I was bought a Barcelona strip. To this day, they remain my "wee" team.

 

On returning home from holiday I became aware of the sectarian aspect of the Old Firm and started to question my loyalties. I decided to support the first team to beat my "current" team. That turned out to be Aberdeen and I spent the rest of my schooldays getting no end of abuse for this bizarre choice.

 

On starting university, I started going to Firhill (5 minutes walk from my digs) each Saturday as there was always a game on - Thistle were ground-sharing with Clyde at the time. As the weeks passed, it became fairly obvious that I enjoyed the Thistle games more and I've stuck with them ever since.

 

The door to what was my bedroom at my parents' house, however, still has a door-plate with "Aberdeen Supporter's Room" on it.

[dougthejag]

I have enjoyed reading the stories here. My Dad was a Saints fan who took me to Muirton Park in the 1960s. One of the players there was a certain John Lambie who was well thought of. At the time we stayed in Greenock and like most in my primary school class I supported Morton. When we moved to Bearsden at the end of the 1960s I went along to Firhill with my next door neighbour. Thistle were seen as the local team by many in that area at the time. 1 of his pals from school started going as well and the 3 of us are still regular attenders.

[twinny]

That's a brilliant post from Danish Jag.

 

As for Norman's post, I remember my dad refusing for years to buy me and my brother the Rangers tops we wanted*. Once we [my brother and I] started going to Thistle games in 1997, I vaguely remember my mum bought us ancient (late 80's) Rangers tops for Christmas, and they remained at the bottom of our t-shirts drawer for years before getting chucked out.

 

* I asked my dad recently why he had never tried to brainwash us into becoming thistle fans. He claims he did. He never took us to a game (he hasn't been to one since the 70s actually**), and never got us any merchandise. All I remember is him watching teletext on Saturday afternoons and us constantly asking him if thistle were losing again. His brainwashing skills are rubbish, and I'm determined to do better, although I guess it all wound up ok in the end.

 

** excluding what I remember as a 0-0 game against Hamilton in div2 around 10 years ago that my sister got a free ticket to in school so he had to come along to look after her, explaining on the way out that he 'can remember why he stopped going'. Looking up results from 1999-00 suggests this was a Hamilton home game at Firhill.

[Winter of '63]

Some good stories on this thread.

 

Queens Park had been my family's team - my father supported them as did my uncle and grandfather. Queens' glory days were long gone and my older brother was a Rangers fan - by a great stroke of luck, he didn't like to share anything with me so I had to find another team. We lived on the South Side of Glasgow, my favourite colours as a nipper were red and yellow so the team I chose to support was...Motherwell

 

After a couple of weeks, 'Well lost to Partick Thistle and I changed allegiance to the Jags - appalling glory-hunting but I was only about 3 at the time, they were a local team and played in my favourite colours . My parents told me I couldn't change my team every time they lost so I have stuck with Thistle ever since.

 

My father liked Thistle fans sense of humour and was happy to take me to a few games - my first game at Firhill was in Season 62/63 during our best ever run of form which took us to the top of the League...it's been downhill ever since. He also took me and my brother to see Rangers at Ibrox as a youngster...I only went once, there was just something about the atmosphere there that I didn't like.

 

The last football I watched with my Dad was the Tennants Sixes on television. He was very ill then and died a few weeks later. Thistle won the trophy and he was cheering on the Jags' star man Paul McLaughlin who had started his career with Queens Park. It was a special moment to share.

[partickthedog]

My Thistle history comes in two distinct sections. My dad was a Yorkshireman who loved cricket (he used to watch such as Len Hutton) and had a low opinion of football, so there was no encouragement from that direction. At school I was a football follower and keen subbuteo player but without supporting a particular team, though in general always rooting for the underdog. I had a friend who was a Thistle diehard and a few of us got into the habit of joining him at Firhill on Saturdays more for the social occasion and company and getting awy from parents etc rather than from any commitment to Thistle. This must have been approx 1976 at the tail end of the last season of the 18 team league when we just missed out on the top ten. I can remember a wee man selling Lees Macaroon Bars and the halftime ritual of buying pie and bovril. The pie came on a piece of cardboard. I wondered what it was for until one week there was no cardboard and my hand got wet as some strange fluid leaked out of the pie! I recall a very foggy game (against Airdrie?) when all we could see was Alan Rough in the nearest goal and nobody had the faintest ides of what was goiing on over the rest of the park. East Fife were humped 5-0 and the name of their big centre half Mark Clougherty for some reason lodged in my memeory bank (did he score an own goal?). At Christmas the fans sang "Hark the herald angels sing, Joe Craig is the Firhill King". Rooney and Craig scored to beat nearest rivals Kilmarnock and we were promoted as champions. I was happier when Thistle won but had no great life and death commitment to the team. I was regular at the home games for the next season and a half. My final match was a 1-0 home win against a strong Aberdeen team which included Joe Harper and amazingly we were 2nd top of the Premier League.

 

Increasingly onerous university studies and meeting my future wife prised me away from Firhill and my absence lasted for nearly two decades during which time Thistle seemed to go into decline (I have no knowledge whatsoever of the Thistle players of the eighties). If asked what team I supported, I would have said Thistle and I did try to keep looking out for their results. The turning point came in 1996 when my son began collecting football stickers and expressing interest in the various teams. I determined that there was no way he was ever going to follow either Celtic or Rangers and the best way to ensure this seemed to be to take him along to a game myself. Our first appearance was a dismal wet spring day for a totally rubbish game against Kilmarnock. Tom Black scored a penalty for them in the 2nd minute. Thistle huffed and puffed but never looked like recovering the deficit. A miserable match yet for some reason we loved it and that peculiar internal process took place whereby we both became hooked as Thistle fans without hope of redemption. Occasional home games stepped up into the odd away game and then buying a season ticket and somehow we graduated into attending virtually every game home and away. Now Saturday is incomplete without a Thistle fixture and I have racked up around 5 seasons without missing a league game (the only competitive match missed during that time was an Alba Cup tie which clashed with a wedding-why on earth would anyone choose to get married on a Saturday?).

 

So that is it (with apologies for the rambling). I am "into Thistle" so deep that there is no possibility of escape and I have seen rather a lot of Scotland (plus some bits of England and Northern Ireland) in the process!

Edited May 5, 2011 by partickthedog

[northernsoul]

I remember as a 0-0 game against Hamilton in div2 around 10 years ago that my sister got a free ticket to in school so he had to come along to look after her, explaining on the way out that he 'can remember why he stopped going'. Looking up results from 1999-00 suggests this was a Hamilton home game at Firhill.

 

They groundshared with us in 94/95, 98/99 and 99/00.

[erzamacaroonbars]

My Dad wasn't much into football and if anything would say he supported Aberdeen! However, he had no wish to take me to the Ugly Sisiters matches and indeed only my second game was at Hampden in October 1971! I thought I was supporting a winning dynasty! My Dad also worked with Jackie Husband in the shipyards, so that's where we went every second week, my Dad to avoid any DIY jobs and me to watch my new hero Jackie Campbell!

As absolutely everybody on here will testify once a Thistle supporter, always a Thistle supporter, you migt not go to matches anymore but you can't stop supporting them. Even here in Australia folk look out for the Jags results, although my daughters get strange looks when turninig up to PE in Thistle tops, I think they tell their teachers the tops are the new Adelaide Crows jersey!!!

[twinny]

They groundshared with us in 94/95, 98/99 and 99/00.

 

I know, I just find it odd that Thistle gave out free tickets to schoolchildren for a Hamilton home game.

[policemans whistle]

name of their big centre half Mark Clougherty

I new Mark, and he started his career with the Jags and to be quite honest he was not very good, was released after one season.I lost touch with him, but he went on to have a good career with a number of teams, and when he came up against us he was always the star man.When he retired from the game I seen him many times at Firhill.