What Matters To Us?

[douglas clark]

Do you wan't to go to heaven when you die?

 

You must wear a thistle scarf a thistle tie,

 

You must wear a Thistle bonnet,

 

With **** the Old Firm on it,

 

If you want to go to heaven if you die.

 

Does that matter to you?

 

I can see why it might not.

 

You might be incredibly young and see it as the nonsense.

 

It is.

 

It is the conceit of North West Glasgow and environs.

 

If you are a few years older you probably went away and supported the Rugger.

 

Nowadays you might be middle aged and a bit thick.

[Vom Itorium]

Bit heavy for a Monday morning that is it not?

 

FTOF

[Chicofan]

Do you wan't to go to heaven when you die?

 

You must wear a thistle scarf a thistle tie,

 

You must wear a Thistle bonnet,

 

With **** the Old Firm on it,

 

If you want to go to heaven if you die.

 

Does that matter to you?

 

I can see why it might not.

 

You might be incredibly young and see it as the nonsense.

 

It is.

 

It is the conceit of North West Glasgow and environs.

 

If you are a few years older you probably went away and supported the Rugger.

 

Nowadays you might be middle aged and a bit thick.

 

Its a way of life

[crazy davie]

What are you on about ?

[kni]

There is much more to supporting the Jags than just hating the Old Firm. I have read of young people being given fixed penalty fines for wearing t-shirts with offensive slogans that included the F word. Older fans should be setting a good example to the young people who are the future of our beloved club.

[Allan Heron]

There is much more to supporting the Jags than just hating the Old Firm. I have read of young people being given fixed penalty fines for wearing t-shirts with offensive slogans that included the F word. Older fans should be setting a good example to the young people who are the future of our beloved club.

 

Indeed - if that is the sole reason for supporting Thistle then I'd rather people didn't bother.

 

We're not unique in hating the Old Firm - the fans of most other clubs do. Our USP is that we've got to share a city with them but that's no reason to base your entire reason for supporting someone else.

[chunky jag]

I can't even say I hate the old firm, I just ignore them as I ignore every other team. Worry about your own team.

[kni]

Indeed - if that is the sole reason for supporting Thistle then I'd rather people didn't bother.

 

We're not unique in hating the Old Firm - the fans of most other clubs do. Our USP is that we've got to share a city with them but that's no reason to base your entire reason for supporting someone else.

 

 

I would hate to support a big team that spends a fortune on recruiting expensive foreigners. The players should genuinely love and respect their clubs and supporters. There are too many mediocre mercenaries making millions out of the game. There are, of course, exceptions such Thierry Henri.

 

It's sad the Old Firm's vast supporter base extends to Edinburgh, Ayrshire, Fife and beyond. Scottish football would be much healthier if the legions of armchair OF fans actively supported their local teams. The same applies, albeit to a lesser extent, in England, e.g. Manchester United who have fans all over the country.

[kni]

I can't even say I hate the old firm, I just ignore them as I ignore every other team. Worry about your own team.

 

Edited September 12, 2011 by kni

[Vladimir Putin]

I do hate the Old Firm. I think it's difficult to grow up as a non-OF supporter in Glasgow and its surrounding areas and not be deeply influenced by the Old Firm and their supporters. And as a team who shares a city with them, I have always, rightly or wrongly, felt that the rejection of the Old Firm was greater among Thistle fans than that of any other team. In that sense I have always felt that there was and is mileage in the 'Great Glasgow Alternative' message - supporting Thistle for me is about something more fundamental than just supporting a lower-league football team.

 

Of course I support Thistle in a positive sense, but as the alternative Glasgow team (along with Queens Park) it is also a rejection of everything the Old Firm stand for. So I would say that it is about more than just football for me, my approach to Thistle is closely linked to how I view Glasgow overall. I'm not saying it's compulsory to hate the Old Firm if you support Thistle, of course it's not, and everyone will have a different take on the situation, as the question of why you support any team is a personal one. But I don't or can't view Thistle in isolation from the Old Firm, so they are, perhaps unfortunately, still a part of how I see Thistle.

[AlgarveJag]

"Nowadays you might be middle aged and a bit thick."

 

Excuse ME!

 

I resemble that remark!

 

...what do you mean "nowadays"?

[Steven H]

I do hate the Old Firm. I think it's difficult to grow up as a non-OF supporter in Glasgow and its surrounding areas and not be deeply influenced by the Old Firm and their supporters. And as a team who shares a city with them, I have always, rightly or wrongly, felt that the rejection of the Old Firm was greater among Thistle fans than that of any other team. In that sense I have always felt that there was and is mileage in the 'Great Glasgow Alternative' message - supporting Thistle for me is about something more fundamental than just supporting a lower-league football team.

 

Of course I support Thistle in a positive sense, but as the alternative Glasgow team (along with Queens Park) it is also a rejection of everything the Old Firm stand for. So I would say that it is about more than just football for me, my approach to Thistle is closely linked to how I view Glasgow overall. I'm not saying it's compulsory to hate the Old Firm if you support Thistle, of course it's not, and everyone will have a different take on the situation, as the question of why you support any team is a personal one. But I don't or can't view Thistle in isolation from the Old Firm, so they are, perhaps unfortunately, still a part of how I see Thistle.

 

Agreed, part of it is a rejection of the OF, part of it is heritage passed down the generations but most of it is about sticking with it because of the love for the club. If the OF suddenly became squeaky clean and rid themselves of the 'Scotland's Shame' tag, Id STILL want my boy to support Thistle...although I think we also need to return to the 'eternal optimist' bunch of fans we used to be.

[Blackpool Jags]

As someone who's both middle-aged and a bit thick, but who grew up being mocked and derided by 'fans' of both tentacles of the axis of evil - in Maryhill!!! - for supporting MY team positively in every way ie going to games home and away and wearing my Thistle scarves and tammies with great pride, and always talking about my love for PTFC no matter how bad things were, I feel my life's experience and the shit that's come my way for supporting my LOCAL team, fully entitles me to hate the OF. I therefore say with justifiable contempt that both these poisonous sets of arseh*les can go fcuk themselves any time soon for me.

 

We Are Thistle. FTOF.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

I can still mind when I was middle aged and just a bit thick.

[ChewinGumMacaroonBaaaz]

Do you wan't to go to heaven when you die?

 

It is the conceit of North West Glasgow and environs.

 

 

First line of that little ditty has always been "If you want to go to heaven..."

 

Where is the conceit? Are you suggesting Thistle fans should know their place and not mock the vacuos vanity in supporting the old firm by preaching of an alternate route to deliverance?

 

Exodus : Chapter 20 verse 1

 

"And God spake all these words saying.

 

I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the lands of Govan and Barrowfield,

out of those houses of bondage.

 

Thou shalt have no other gods before The Jags"

 

For it is written. Amen.

 

F.T.O.F!

 

[Norman]

I thought it was just a song we sung to cheer on the team.

 

It's a bit like the "they're by far the greatest team, the world has ever seen" line. I know deep down it's not strictly true, but I'm not going to condemn myself or any other supporter for singing it.

 

Has someone had a Monday morning visit from their black-eyed dog?

[Jagsfan58]

I'm officially middle aged and a bit thick - though thankfully Douglas did not mention "I know a lassie, a bonnie..."

 

Does that matter to you?

 

I can see why it might not.

 

You might be incredibly young and see it as the nonsense.

 

It is.

 

 

I'm not answering!

[Gordie]

Do you wan't to go to heaven when you die?

 

You must wear a thistle scarf a thistle tie,

 

You must wear a Thistle bonnet,

 

With **** the Old Firm on it,

 

If you want to go to heaven if you die.

 

Does that matter to you?

 

I can see why it might not.

 

You might be incredibly young and see it as the nonsense.

 

It is.

 

It is the conceit of North West Glasgow and environs.

 

If you are a few years older you probably went away and supported the Rugger.

 

Nowadays you might be middle aged and a bit thick.

 

 

 

 

This guy is a wind up merchant

Edited September 12, 2011 by Gordie

[beep0608]

Do you wan't to go to heaven when you die?

 

You must wear a thistle scarf a thistle tie,

 

You must wear a Thistle bonnet,

 

With **** the Old Firm on it,

 

If you want to go to heaven if you die.

 

Does that matter to you?

 

I can see why it might not.

 

You might be incredibly young and see it as the nonsense.

 

It is.

 

It is the conceit of North West Glasgow and environs.

 

If you are a few years older you probably went away and supported the Rugger.

 

Nowadays you might be middle aged and a bit thick.

 

Right with you. Much more than a football club to me.

[douglas clark]

Gordie,

This guy is a wind up merchant 

 

And you know that, how? I have been a person with rights to comment on here for an awful long time.

 

As far as I recall, I haven't felt the need to stand up for the jags in almost all that time. When I do, the likes of you try to do me down.

 

Well, Gordie, I think you do us down, so I do.

 

I think you are a bit of a pretendy jag.

Edited September 12, 2011 by douglas clark

[Firhillista]

I feel I'm maybe in a good position to comment on this. Fifty years ago I was a Rangers fan. Not surprising really, as a wee boy in a Rangers supporting family I'd discovered the joys of football - largely through the excitement of the annual Scotland v. England games and the rare live match on black-and-white tv - and the obvious next step was to go to Ibrox. Somewhat ironically my first professional game was a Rangers v. Celtic match to which I was taken by my uncle, my mother's brother, who was a Celtic fan. We stood at the Celtic end at Ibrox. (I come from what in the west of Scotland is called 'a mixed family'.) So, for a season, I was a H*n. What turned me away from Rangers was the sectarian bile - the Catholic side of my family are lovely people and I couldn't square the anti-popery drivel with these people I knew and liked - and the fact that I became aware that Rangers won games all too often simply because they were Rangers - teams came to Ibrox and froze in the face of a reputation that wasn't deserved by the current team in blue. The game that finally did it for me was a match against Motherwell where the Motherwell team of the time had some really good, talented players and Rangers won because of a disputed penalty and the fact that the Motherwell team gave up towards the end of the game rather than going for the win that was there for the taking. (A familiar scenario, I think you'll agree.)

 

So to Thistle. A friend took me to see Thistle play Raith Rovers. Firhill just seemed a magical place. I felt connected to players and supporters going back to the beginning of the century. (Possibly because the terracing, enclosures, stands and buildings DID go back to the beginning of the century, and looked it.) I was told if the lum reeked, Thistle would win. It did, and we only managed a draw. (1-1 and Jimmy Bone scored the equaliser.) Thistle's reputation was as the Great Unpredictables - beat the Old Firm, but loose to the Glenbuck Cherrypickers. And this shaped the supporters - they were romantics, stoics, philosophers, able to look on life with a wisdom denied the supporters of other teams, able to laugh at the failings of the team they loved and come back the next week for more.

 

I became a Thistle fan not because I 'hated' Rangers or Celtic, but because of what Thistle represented - an attitude that was expansive, inclusive and transcended the narrow focus of the Old Firm and, indeed, all other Scottish football teams. Thistle fans have been slagged off for years for being 'luvvies' - what the insult hints at is what I always felt to be a truth - supporting Thistle was about an attitude of mind which was in itself a romantic philosophy, a belief in the underdog taken to a point where the 'success' or 'failure' of said underdog was redefined so that winning football games was only required occasionally to remind the more ignorant of our superior position, morally on top of the world, ma, now and forever.

 

In recent years I've felt that idea of Thistle has been eroded, threatened by financial meltdown and the fear of going out of existence. I know why winning games matters more now than it did fifty years ago - the continuing existence of the club depends on it. But we are Thistle. The poets and philosophers of the beautiful game. We laugh at failure and roar with pleasure at success. The Jags, now and forever!

[erzamacaroonbars]

I will readily admit to being middle aged and not I think I must be more than a bit thick, I didn't understand any of the above!

[Ruchillnomore]

I think the real answer to the old firm thing has a lot to do with what era you watched the Jags. In the last few years we have had little contact with the ugly sisters so those fans who have been brought up in those times in my opinion have not developed the same hatred as maybe some of us who wacthed the Jags in the 70,s and 80,s.

 

As someone has already stated being a Jags fan in those times did mean the ridicule that came with wearing your colours from the inbred cousins of the ugly sisters. It did mean a time when the whole of Firhill(apart from a small part under the shed) was taken over by the smelly and was not the best place to be at times when we actually had the audacity to beat them. You never knew how lucky you might be, maybe a grog running down the side of your face or a punch from some bigoted tube who obviously knew how hard he was. Do I hate the old firm of course I do. They stand for everything thats bad about Scottish football and that is not just about their supporters but about those bigots that have ran or continue to run their clubs. When its all going bad there is always a conspiracy theory or a bank that is trying to bring them down. Do I hate them.... yes.... why... because of all of the above your honour.

[Jaggernaut]

I feel I'm maybe in a good position to comment on this. Fifty years ago I was a Rangers fan. Not surprising really, as a wee boy in a Rangers supporting family I'd discovered the joys of football - largely through the excitement of the annual Scotland v. England games and the rare live match on black-and-white tv - and the obvious next step was to go to Ibrox. Somewhat ironically my first professional game was a Rangers v. Celtic match to which I was taken by my uncle, my mother's brother, who was a Celtic fan. We stood at the Celtic end at Ibrox. (I come from what in the west of Scotland is called 'a mixed family'.) So, for a season, I was a H*n. What turned me away from Rangers was the sectarian bile - the Catholic side of my family are lovely people and I couldn't square the anti-popery drivel with these people I knew and liked - and the fact that I became aware that Rangers won games all too often simply because they were Rangers - teams came to Ibrox and froze in the face of a reputation that wasn't deserved by the current team in blue. The game that finally did it for me was a match against Motherwell where the Motherwell team of the time had some really good, talented players and Rangers won because of a disputed penalty and the fact that the Motherwell team gave up towards the end of the game rather than going for the win that was there for the taking. (A familiar scenario, I think you'll agree.)

 

So to Thistle. A friend took me to see Thistle play Raith Rovers. Firhill just seemed a magical place. I felt connected to players and supporters going back to the beginning of the century. (Possibly because the terracing, enclosures, stands and buildings DID go back to the beginning of the century, and looked it.) I was told if the lum reeked, Thistle would win. It did, and we only managed a draw. (1-1 and Jimmy Bone scored the equaliser.) Thistle's reputation was as the Great Unpredictables - beat the Old Firm, but loose to the Glenbuck Cherrypickers. And this shaped the supporters - they were romantics, stoics, philosophers, able to look on life with a wisdom denied the supporters of other teams, able to laugh at the failings of the team they loved and come back the next week for more.

 

I became a Thistle fan not because I 'hated' Rangers or Celtic, but because of what Thistle represented - an attitude that was expansive, inclusive and transcended the narrow focus of the Old Firm and, indeed, all other Scottish football teams. Thistle fans have been slagged off for years for being 'luvvies' - what the insult hints at is what I always felt to be a truth - supporting Thistle was about an attitude of mind which was in itself a romantic philosophy, a belief in the underdog taken to a point where the 'success' or 'failure' of said underdog was redefined so that winning football games was only required occasionally to remind the more ignorant of our superior position, morally on top of the world, ma, now and forever.

 

In recent years I've felt that idea of Thistle has been eroded, threatened by financial meltdown and the fear of going out of existence. I know why winning games matters more now than it did fifty years ago - the continuing existence of the club depends on it. But we are Thistle. The poets and philosophers of the beautiful game. We laugh at failure and roar with pleasure at success. The Jags, now and forever!

Great post.

[Jaggernaut]

My take on this is that I don't think that too many Thistle supporters are Thistle supporters because they hate the OF. But many Thistle supporters hate the OF because they are Thistle supporters.