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Off-Beat Low Points As A Jags Fan


thebiglemon
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I remember the night my wife stopped coming to games.

 

We used to go to a game every Saturday when we worked in England and when we came back to Scotland and got married we went with a group to Firhill and other games- actually our 2nd date was the under 16 world cup game at Fir Park, Scotland v. Brazil.

 

Anyway we were at a midweek game Premier League game in the 90's, Thistle were getting pumped 3-0 at half time by Falkirk on a miserable evening and she just decided there and then that was it for her.

 

Personally I'd endured a lot worse following Thistle- same score but shittier opposition many times (Meadowbank 0-3 at home comes to mind)- but somehow this night represented a passing to a less together stage in our relationship.

 

We are still together but now I'm at the stage where my daughter may have been to her last game (2-0 v. Livi before Xmas) and showed no interest since.

 

Thought I'd share these sentimental ramblings and see what other off-beat low points folk come up with.

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Drawing 2-2 with Stirling Albion when Kevin Drinkell was boss. Archie got sent off, and Zahani-Ony accused the Jags fans of racist abuse. We only scraped the draw with a Jimmy Boyle penalty that he hit so badly that it deceived their keeper and it rebounded off his shin and into the net. I was so ecstatic about getting the draw that I attempted a grass slide ( as done properly by the Thistle players after Elliot's goal on Saturday) outside Forthbank but forgot the sliding part. Came down on my house key and fractured my ribs. Woeful.

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Even though we sunk lower, i think some of the days in division 1 in the 1980s were pretty low - i remember lots of games at Firhill where we were terrible, crowds were low, and the team / manager were getting pelters for most of the game. A 0-3 v Forfar wasn't good but there were many.

 

Possibly the worst was a 5-1 defeat at Broomfield - Billy Lamint brought the players back put onto the park afterwards to shout at them in front of an enraged Thistle support. A very cowardly act, and i think he was sacked soon after.

 

The 7-3 home defeat by Saints was so bizarre as to be less bad somehow. Plus Donnolly scored a 25 yard back heel volley.

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Even though we sunk lower, i think some of the days in division 1 in the 1980s were pretty low - i remember lots of games at Firhill where we were terrible, crowds were low, and the team / manager were getting pelters for most of the game. A 0-3 v Forfar wasn't good but there were many.

 

Possibly the worst was a 5-1 defeat at Broomfield - Billy Lamint brought the players back put onto the park afterwards to shout at them in front of an enraged Thistle support. A very cowardly act, and i think he was sacked soon after.

 

The 7-3 home defeat by Saints was so bizarre as to be less bad somehow. Plus Donnolly scored a 25 yard back heel volley.

 

 

I remember the Airdrie and Forfar games well. At Airdrie John Mitchell scored then Calum Campbell and John Flood ripped us to shreds. To be honest things were so bad then that I just laughed through most of those games- either that or go mental and blow a brain artery.

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The failure to get the Jags Trust to engage with Thistle fans, create a mandate for change, work with an effective Board and move forward together as One Thistle.

 

What good things we see today give a glimpse of what could have been achieved years ago.

 

Thank heavens there are those dedicated Thistle fans (in the widest sense) willing to do more than their bit today.

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Drawing 2-2 with Stirling Albion when Kevin Drinkell was boss. Archie got sent off, and Zahani-Ony accused the Jags fans of racist abuse. We only scraped the draw with a Jimmy Boyle penalty that he hit so badly that it deceived their keeper and it rebounded off his shin and into the net. I was so ecstatic about getting the draw that I attempted a grass slide ( as done properly by the Thistle players after Elliot's goal on Saturday) outside Forthbank but forgot the sliding part. Came down on my house key and fractured my ribs. Woeful.

It was Calum Milne and Billy MacDonald that were sent off that day and Boyle had to knock in the rebound after the keeper's save deep into injury time. The sense of relief at that moment will probably never be matched. Probably the most emotional I've ever been at a game in all honesty. It was also Kenny Arthur's full debut.

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It was Calum Milne and Billy MacDonald that were sent off that day and Boyle had to knock in the rebound after the keeper's save deep into injury time. The sense of relief at that moment will probably never be matched. Probably the most emotional I've ever been at a game in all honesty. It was also Kenny Arthur's full debut.

 

And Jered Stirling scored the first with a right-foot volley. Probably the only time he ever used that foot to kick a football.

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The consecutive 6-1 and 5-0 home defeats against Gretna and St Johntone under the Uncle Fester regime come to mind. The 2-1 loss against Alloa on that freezing night also still makes me shudder, and the 3-1 against Ayr (thanks Billy McDonald). We should enjoy the wins even more.

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Plenty of lows....too many to mention. One in particular comes under the 'raging' heading.....but I also remember laughing at the same time. Easter Road...possibly early 90's....wet....uncovered end...was there maself....crap game and they got a sh&tty penalty in the last ten minutes to win. Trudging out as they played out the last few seconds there were a group of schoolboys let in for free at the bottom left hand corner of the stand. They started chanting 'cheerio. cheer-io' as we I was leaving.....this guy behind me shouted....well I better not type it here but it was somethin to do with he was going to get Michael Jackson after them.

 

I was really raging and wet...I looked up at the wee boys and one of the dad's beside them was smiling down at me......I looked up at him, totally p&ssed off.....and I just smiled at him...what else could I do...

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4-0 down to Clyde at half time at Firhill - that for me was the lowest point ever as a jags fans. I also firmly believe that there were many fans lost for life that day. Remember when the 4th goal went in the amount of people standing up to hurl abuse at the directors box. Which ironically had just moved from the main stand to the JH.

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The Tommy Bryce era was horrible...the players we were watching at this point were were quite simply Shit.

 

Months leading up to the save the jags were horrendous also.

 

Vividly remember as a youngster Sandy Clark and Derek Johnstone getting severe abuse at the end of some matches to the point I did think they were going to be physically attacked

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Drawing 2-2 with Stirling Albion when Kevin Drinkell was boss. Archie got sent off, and Zahani-Ony accused the Jags fans of racist abuse.

 

Was at that game. Did hear one Jags fan call Zahani-Oni a "black b***ard". When some other guys behind him told him to cut it out, he looked at them with a bewildered expression and asked, "Whit, can ye no see the difference?".

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Why would people be lost to the club forever? Time passes and boards, players and managers change.

 

This is true, but once people break the habit of attending matches it's very hard to get them back. What may have begun as them staying away because of the manager/board/players may turn into simple apathy, and the realisation that they can get better value for money elsewhere on a saturday.

 

I know several people who used to go religiously home and away, but stopped going during DC's tenure, and now make 3 games a season at best.

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My father had taken me to Firhill a few times but the first season I started going on my own, trekking across from the Southside on the 18 bus, was in 1969/70...the first ever season the club were relegated. The second game I saw was a League Cup tie against St Johnstone - we were hammered 8-1. Saints were a really good side then - I had seen them several times as my grandparents lived in Perth but had an irrational dislike for them which made the defeat even harder to bear.

 

Maybe that dislike explains why I was never a great fan of John Lambie - he was the Saints right back. Which leads me to a midweek match at Firhill in 1993 against a very ordinary Hibs team who won 3-0 - I think that midget Mickey Weir might have scored with a header. I wanted to see a Thistle side with promising youngsters not a team of journeymen professionals who would never achieve anything more than a relegation escape. I went to very few games over the next 6 or 7 years.

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Maybe that dislike explains why I was never a great fan of John Lambie - he was the Saints right back. Which leads me to a midweek match at Firhill in 1993 against a very ordinary Hibs team who won 3-0 - I think that midget Mickey Weir might have scored with a header. I wanted to see a Thistle side with promising youngsters not a team of journeymen professionals who would never achieve anything more than a relegation escape. I went to very few games over the next 6 or 7 years.

 

Post of the year.

 

I don't buy into the 'reverence' Lambie at all. He used us when it suited him.

 

What Jackie McNamara has done for this club over the last two years and what we all hope will be cemented by Archie and Shaggie by the end of the season puts Lambie and Collins' short termism into perspective.

 

Lambie got found out bigstyle at Fulston's Falkirk. His only genuine achievement in the top league was keeping us up in 94-95 when we were further out of it than skylab at Christmas (which had shown him up for what he was anyway). And that probably more to do with Nicky Walker than Lambie anyway.

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Thankfully I forget a lot of Thistle games, which maybe is a good thing. But one that sticks in my mind was a wet and windy night at Crappielow.

Nelson Still came out for a high through ball and realising he was out his box headered the ball. Up in the air it went and caught in the wind it blew back towards the goal. The Morton forward ran through and tapped in from 3 inches to avoid the own goal. Think we lost 2.1.

The minute it happened I remember questioning why I bothered.

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Home to Aberdeen, 0-1 at half time, the snow, the broom, the second goal, the delight at abandonment. The game was replayed on the Tuesday and we were hammered 7-0.

 

We were at Ipox the following Saturday singing "We'll support you, We'll support you, We'll support you up to four". Lost 4-1

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29th September 1990.

 

Jags lost 4-0 at Cappielow (Jim Duffy was sent off for us IIRC). At the time my old man was in hospital in Edinburgh recieving treatment for cancer. When I got home from the game, I phoned the hospital to get an update (he knew I was at the game and wasn't expecting to see me until the morning) and was told to get my ass through there as soon as possible. I got there just before he slipped into a coma and the last thing I ever told him was the score. To this day, I wish I had lied and told him that we won 4-0.

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The consecutive 6-1 and 5-0 home defeats against Gretna and St Johntone under the Uncle Fester regime come to mind. The 2-1 loss against Alloa on that freezing night also still makes me shudder, and the 3-1 against Ayr (thanks Billy McDonald). We should enjoy the wins even more.

I had almost forgotten the incredible 1 -6 and 0 -5 defeats , but I do remember vowing not to renew my ST ! That ws a truly disgraceful period in Jags history. I did renew of course. The success of the current team has obliterated the memory.

How many of the older posters remember the 10-2 defeat at home to Hibs? Before the aforementioned, that stood out as my lowest point.

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Too young to have been at a certain end of season game V Dunfermline but I'd suggest that was arguably the Club's most embarrassing result.

In recent years the signing of Darren Brady from Raith and not playing him against his former club as per transfer agreement takes some beating. Factor in Raith had been forced thru financial troubles to part with DB and I thought we must've done a great piece of business. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe this was our best ever signing. :)

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