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This thread seems to have gone off in another direction, but who cares! I started going as a nipper in the early to mid sixties, taken by any number of 5 uncles, all brothers and all Thistle stalwarts. Sadly only one is still with us. No idea of my first game; my indoctrination was gradual rather than a thunderbolt, but its effects were permanent!

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Not sure of my first game, but one of my earlier memories still haunts me. I was about 8 years old and I lived very close to Firhill and on this particular Saturday a pal and I went up the road with me carrying my newly purchased autograph book.  In those days the players tended to start arriving about 90 mins before kick-off and often stood around outside. On this day I saw 2 guys standing in a closemouth  in Springbank Street, one fair haired and the other darker with a thin face. Johnny McKenzie and Jimmy Davidson! Rushed over to get their  signatures. Looked at my book and  it turned out to be Jackie Oakes and Jimmy Binning of Queen of the South. 

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13 hours ago, Semi Nurainen said:

I think we must have started going to Firhill about the same time - 1962/1963 would be my first season. First game, I'm sure, was midweek reserve game Vs Celtic. Pumped of course. I'm sure Jimmy Johnstone was playing for them, but I cant find any record of the game.

Then you chose the right season to break yourself in SN.  Thistle reserves played Celtic 4 times at home in 1962/63, losing all 4 and scoring 1 goal.  It says much for your constitution that you ever went back!  With a sighting of Jinky Johnstone 29/10/1962 may be the date in question (but we weren't pumped).

17/9/1962   2nd XI Cup   0-2   Murdoch and Hughes.

 

8/10/1962  Reserve League Cup s-f 1st leg  1-3.

[On 16/10/1962 the 2nd leg at Celtic Park was a 4-2 win with goals from Cunningham, McBride, Thomson and an OG.  The aggregate (5-5) meant a further match.]

 

29/10/1962 Reserve League cup s-f "decider"  0-1 AET.

Ramsay, Muir, Thomson, Ferguson, McKinnon, Staite, Cowan, Closs, McBride, A Wright, D Wright.

Fallon, Young, Gemmell, Jackson, Cushley, Lawson, Johnstone, Lennox, Brogan, Murdoch, Jeffrey

There was nothing in it and it took a goal from Johnstone after 101 minutes when he ran from half-way and beat Gourlay from 12 yards to separate the sides.

 

9/4/1963  Reserve League  0-2  Gallagher, Brogan

 

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25 minutes ago, a f kincaid said:

Then you chose the right season to break yourself in SN.  Thistle reserves played Celtic 4 times at home in 1962/63, losing all 4 and scoring 1 goal.  It says much for your constitution that you ever went back!  With a sighting of Jinky Johnstone 29/10/1962 may be the date in question (but we weren't pumped).

17/9/1962   2nd XI Cup   0-2   Murdoch and Hughes.

 

8/10/1962  Reserve League Cup s-f 1st leg  1-3.

[On 16/10/1962 the 2nd leg at Celtic Park was a 4-2 win with goals from Cunningham, McBride, Thomson and an OG.  The aggregate (5-5) meant a further match.]

 

29/10/1962 Reserve League cup s-f "decider"  0-1 AET.

Ramsay, Muir, Thomson, Ferguson, McKinnon, Staite, Cowan, Closs, McBride, A Wright, D Wright.

Fallon, Young, Gemmell, Jackson, Cushley, Lawson, Johnstone, Lennox, Brogan, Murdoch, Jeffrey

There was nothing in it and it took a goal from Johnstone after 101 minutes when he ran from half-way and beat Gourlay from 12 yards to separate the sides.

 

9/4/1963  Reserve League  0-2  Gallagher, Brogan

 

That's a hell of a strong 'tic "reserve" team.

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10 hours ago, Semi Nurainen said:

Must still be  a fair few of us kicking around when your consider that a mid table game against the likes of Hearts or Aberdeen would have brought 15-20,000.

The biggest crowd I seen at firhill was v rangers around 1978 I think. 28,000 ish. Difficult to imagine now. Be interesting to know our biggest crowd without the old firm during 70s n 80s? I think maybe v Morton in 1975/76. 13000 maybe?

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31 minutes ago, dl1971 said:

The biggest crowd I seen at firhill was v rangers around 1978 I think. 28,000 ish. Difficult to imagine now. Be interesting to know our biggest crowd without the old firm during 70s n 80s? I think maybe v Morton in 1975/76. 13000 maybe?

Honved game would've been considerably more than 13000, but as for domestic games I haven't a clue.

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A quick scan of the Official History reveals that in the 21 seasons between 1970-71 and 1990-91 there were only 10 home non-Old Firm matches  with 5-figure crowds.  The health warning is that attendances are often estimates and subject to sizeable variances.  About half of those listed are cup matches.  It's probably true that Aberdeen are our biggest non-Old Firm away support over the years.

Aberdeen     4/3/1972    10,000

Ayr United   17/3/1973   10,939

Honved   27/9/1972    17,000

Hearts    19/2/1974    10,000

Motherwell    3/2/1975    10,270

Kilmarnock   3/1/1976   11,500

Aberdeen    26/11/77    11,844

St Mirren    18/11/1978    10,395

Aberdeen   12/3/1983   12,077

Aberdeen   20/1/1990    12,125

(The Morton game 1975/76 referred to above was only listed as 5,000.)

 

 

Edited by a f kincaid
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I'm sure that the crowd in the Cup Tie against Hibs at Firhill in 1972 was about 26,000 - by a distance the biggest attendance for any home game I have been to outwith the Old Firm - I remember the crush on Firhill Road to get into the game against Celtic in October 1971 - I think the crowd was 36,000.

My first ever game at Firhill was against Airdrie in December 1962...a 3-0 victory during our best ever run in the Top League...I was too young then to understand why the crowd went mad when the half time scores were put up...Rangers were losing and Thistle were top of the League!

It has been downhill since then....

 

 

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13 hours ago, Auld Jag said:

Cant remember my first game, but the first game I took young Robert to, was the promotion winning game v Forfar 1992. Got a good picture of him sitting on one of the old crush barriers at the city end.  The last game he attended was ICT 4-1 defeat at Firhill  30/4/16. I have got a lot of great memories and photos of sharing the ups and downs of being a Thistle fan with my boy.:fan:

Aaaaaaaaaargh. Ran out of likes. Me too with my dad and now me with my 16 year old. Worth every single penny, burst brain cell, popped lung and bumpy heart beat. 

I feel too young to be on here now. Born '66 & mum wouldn't let dad take me 'til '71.

Re big crowds, it didn't involve Thistle team but my dad used to talk to me about going to firhill for a scotland v northern ireland and the crowd was 40,000 +? Said it was so tight on the terrace he was a little scared at times!!

He aslo told me of a v cellik game when the crowd was so big they shut the gates so cellik fans climbed onto the roof at the canal end and it collapsed. I've never looked for details so it might be "bunkum"......i'm off to check....

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6 hours ago, a f kincaid said:

A quick scan of the Official History reveals that in the 21 seasons between 1970-71 and 1990-91 there were only 10 home non-Old Firm matches  with 5-figure crowds.  The health warning is that attendances are often estimates and subject to sizeable variances.  About half of those listed are cup matches.  It's probably true that Aberdeen are our biggest non-Old Firm away support over the years.

Aberdeen     4/3/1972    10,000

Ayr United   17/3/1973   10,939

Honved   27/9/1972    17,000

Hearts    19/2/1974    10,000

Motherwell    3/2/1975    10,270

Kilmarnock   3/1/1976   11,500

Aberdeen    26/11/77    11,844

St Mirren    18/11/1978    10,395

Aberdeen   12/3/1983   12,077

Aberdeen   20/1/1990    12,125

(The Morton game 1975/76 referred to above was only listed as 5,000.)

 

 

Many thanks for that. I'm amazed at that Morton crowd. I could have sworn it was much more. We were going for the old second division title and it was more or less the decider. Won 2 0 and Benny Rooney scored a rare goal. Nb was also at the honved game...17000 does seem high.

 

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Just now, dl1971 said:

Many thanks for that. I'm amazed at that Morton crowd. I could have sworn it was much more. We were going for the old second division title and it was more or less the decider. Won 2 0 and Benny Rooney scored a rare goal. Nb was also at the honved game...17000 does seem high.

 

Ah just realised must have been killie game. Doh. Explains the flying bottles at that game!

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5 hours ago, Thistleberight said:

Aaaaaaaaaargh. Ran out of likes. Me too with my dad and now me with my 16 year old. Worth every single penny, burst brain cell, popped lung and bumpy heart beat. 

I feel too young to be on here now. Born '66 & mum wouldn't let dad take me 'til '71.

Re big crowds, it didn't involve Thistle team but my dad used to talk to me about going to firhill for a scotland v northern ireland and the crowd was 40,000 +? Said it was so tight on the terrace he was a little scared at times!!

He aslo told me of a v cellik game when the crowd was so big they shut the gates so cellik fans climbed onto the roof at the canal end and it collapsed. I've never looked for details so it might be "bunkum"......i'm off to check....

You were born in 66, you are indeed a youngster.

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10 hours ago, a f kincaid said:

Then you chose the right season to break yourself in SN.  Thistle reserves played Celtic 4 times at home in 1962/63, losing all 4 and scoring 1 goal.  It says much for your constitution that you ever went back!  With a sighting of Jinky Johnstone 29/10/1962 may be the date in question (but we weren't pumped).

17/9/1962   2nd XI Cup   0-2   Murdoch and Hughes.

 

8/10/1962  Reserve League Cup s-f 1st leg  1-3.

[On 16/10/1962 the 2nd leg at Celtic Park was a 4-2 win with goals from Cunningham, McBride, Thomson and an OG.  The aggregate (5-5) meant a further match.]

 

29/10/1962 Reserve League cup s-f "decider"  0-1 AET.

Ramsay, Muir, Thomson, Ferguson, McKinnon, Staite, Cowan, Closs, McBride, A Wright, D Wright.

Fallon, Young, Gemmell, Jackson, Cushley, Lawson, Johnstone, Lennox, Brogan, Murdoch, Jeffrey

There was nothing in it and it took a goal from Johnstone after 101 minutes when he ran from half-way and beat Gourlay from 12 yards to separate the sides.

 

9/4/1963  Reserve League  0-2  Gallagher, Brogan

 

 

Absolutely brilliant AFK! Don't know how manged to get those statistics. However, I now realise it was a bit later than I thought, because Jimmy Johnstone and Ian Cowan were both (as they said in those days) 'ordered from the field' by Tiny Wharton for an incident right in front of the old stand. It turns out to have been 11th November 1963, and was a Glasgow Cup game – smaller crowd (a mere 15000), lesser tournament, so I thought it must have been a reserve game - Thistle 1-1 Celtic; beaten 2-1 in the replay. An eventful game: Hogan injured but didn’t leave the field; Haffey injured and did leave the field, Gemmell taking over in goal. We didn’t get pumped – it just felt like it! The result flattered us.

“Thistle scored first when a McParland cross was met by Hainey. His header hit the bar and Duffy got the rebound home before Haffey could get to it. On 15 minutes Joe Hogan pulled a muscle for Thistle and he went to outside right with McParland switching to right backwhere he did well to curb Hughes' runs. On 28 minutes Haffey advanced to clear a ball and in doing so twisted an ankle. It was clear that he could not continue but after attention he played gingerly in goal till half time.

The teams came out for the second half with Tommy Gemmell in goal and Jim Kennedy going to left back, Clark to left half and Murdoch to right half. With 20 minutes left Johnstone and Cowan got into a rammy on the touch line and both were ordered off putting Celtic down to 9 men. Both of them trooped off arm-in-arm! Divers chased a high ball which looked to be going out but he managed to head it back into the penalty area, chased it and fired in a shot which went in off of Harvey's legs. For the remainder of the game both teams went at it hammer and tongs. Niven made a superb save to deny Chalmers.”

Some game for your first ever, all downhill from there.

Partick Thistle:

Niven; Hogan, Tinney; Closs, Harvey, Cunningham; Cowan, Yard, Hainey, Duffy, McParland.

Scorers: Duffy (7)

Celtic:

Haffey; Young, Gemmell; Clark, Cushley, Kennedy; Johnstone, Murdoch, Chalmers, Divers, Hughes.

Scorers:Divers (74)

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8 minutes ago, Semi Nurainen said:

 

Absolutely brilliant AFK! Don't know how manged to get those statistics. However, I now realise it was a bit later than I thought, because Jimmy Johnstone and Ian Cowan were both (as they said in those days) 'ordered from the field' by Tiny Wharton for an incident right in front of the old stand. It turns out to have been 11th November 1963, and was a Glasgow Cup game – smaller crowd (a mere 15000), lesser tournament, so I thought it must have been a reserve game - Thistle 1-1 Celtic; beaten 2-1 in the replay. An eventful game: Hogan injured but didn’t leave the field; Haffey injured and did leave the field, Gemmell taking over in goal. We didn’t get pumped – it just felt like it! The result flattered us.

“Thistle scored first when a McParland cross was met by Hainey. His header hit the bar and Duffy got the rebound home before Haffey could get to it. On 15 minutes Joe Hogan pulled a muscle for Thistle and he went to outside right with McParland switching to right backwhere he did well to curb Hughes' runs. On 28 minutes Haffey advanced to clear a ball and in doing so twisted an ankle. It was clear that he could not continue but after attention he played gingerly in goal till half time.

The teams came out for the second half with Tommy Gemmell in goal and Jim Kennedy going to left back, Clark to left half and Murdoch to right half. With 20 minutes left Johnstone and Cowan got into a rammy on the touch line and both were ordered off putting Celtic down to 9 men. Both of them trooped off arm-in-arm! Divers chased a high ball which looked to be going out but he managed to head it back into the penalty area, chased it and fired in a shot which went in off of Harvey's legs. For the remainder of the game both teams went at it hammer and tongs. Niven made a superb save to deny Chalmers.”

Some game for your first ever, all downhill from there.

Partick Thistle:

Niven; Hogan, Tinney; Closs, Harvey, Cunningham; Cowan, Yard, Hainey, Duffy, McParland.

Scorers: Duffy (7)

Celtic:

Haffey; Young, Gemmell; Clark, Cushley, Kennedy; Johnstone, Murdoch, Chalmers, Divers, Hughes.

Scorers:Divers (74)

Not all downhill from there. A few highlights, which of course include the 71 league cup final.

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19 hours ago, Auld Jag said:

As I have said a lot of us on this forum seem to be of a similar age. May I suggest in our sixties or there about's. I hope there is more younger supporters  coming up to take our place, when we are no longer able to follow Thistle.

This ones younger, but not much 1985 was my first games, tail end of the 84-85 season, Benny Rooney the manager, don’t think there was a goal my 1st few games. Yellow Morton’s Rolls strip, Kenny Watson our stand out by a mile, with a young Paddy Kelly and John Workman breaking into team, John & Paul Donnelly also in a very poor team. 

No idea how I got hooked (maybe persistence from my Dad) as we were poor, crowds were low and the stadium was dilapidated.

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First game at Broomfield in a 3-0 reverse and we were awful. I was about 12 in 1958 and my next game was against Airdrie again, at Firhill and It was another 3-0 defeat on Grand National day. Pitch had no grass on it and ball would have bounced over a house and the Airdrie goalie - Beaton, I think, was able to kick colossal distances.

Why did I persist? Looking back, I don't know, but I'm glad I did despite some huge disappointments over 60 years.

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