Mathias Pogba fools a Queens Park defender in a pre-season friendly
All photos PTFC.co.uk
Partick Thistle play at Firhill Stadium in Maryhill, and are geographically the closest club to the centre of Glasgow. Despite the name Partick Thistle, Maryhill is the home of the club who moved away from Partick in 1909 but kept the title of their early years.
Maryhill itself is a slightly unusual place in some ways compared to other parts of Glasgow.
Directly to its south lies the Hillhead area, home to the University of Glasgow and its diverse and global population. Glasgow Hillhead was said to be the most highly educated parliamentary constituency in the UK before its name change. Many of those visiting students find apartments to rent in Maryhill and the addition of University owned student accommodation right by the stadium has altered the surrounding landscape.
To its west, you will find Springburn and some of the worst social deprivation in Glasgow’s western half. To the east, lies the City Centre and the tourist and business heart of the city.
For that reason, Maryhill has never been quite as insular as other working class areas of Glasgow and the sectarianism that fuels the passion for the Old Firm is not quite as deeply rooted. This makes the Thistle support a statistically interesting and unusually diverse group.
Glasgow’s great non-sectarian alternative survived the annual threat of relegation last year by a margin that surprised even their most passionate supporters. In fact, their slightly unrealistic hopes of finishing above the ‘split’ were only dashed in the last week of the regular season.
To explain, after 33 games the top six play each other in five additional games to decide titles and European slots, whereas the bottom six fight each other to avoid relegation. This would have been quite an achievement for the Jags as they are known. Thistle have not finished in the top six since 1977, spending their lives yoyoing between the top division and the tiers below.
Despite resources and attendances worse than almost every other club in the SPFL, they are now entering their fourth consecutive season at the top level, one away from their best since the Premier League was formed in 1975. These are decent times for the Firhill Faithful, better than many in recent memory.
Whisper it quietly, but if young head coach Alan Archibald successfully delivers a fifth successive top flight season, he will, or should, start to be talked about in the same worshipful tones as the greatest Thistle managers Bertie Auld and John Lambie although that may still seem like revolutionary heresy to many Jags fans.
Still, heresy is what Partick Thistle fans do best. Literally – in the bizarre world of Scottish football.
Although they gather their support from the locality around Maryhill in part, there are other Glaswegians who have made the deliberate choice to not support the Old Firm with their sectarian, religious and racially charged baggage. For not adopting divisive tribalism in a city where it has been a way of life, Thistle’s attendances, income and consequently trophy count have remained at, being kind, the lower level of Scottish football.
Still a cult status surrounds the club with nicknames such as the Maryhill Magyars lasting from the 1950s when Hungary were the best side in the world. Other less kind sobriquets exist though which sum up better the relationship between Thistle and the rest of Scotland.
For long treated as a joke club by the media, one pundit refers to them as the Cuddly Toy of Scottish Football. Billy Connolly once quipped that “40 million people in England think Scotland has a team called Partick Thistle Nil”.
Kingsley the mascot attracted worldwide media attention
Thistle are an odd club in more respects than just eschewing sectarianism and tribalism to gather support. They are able to have a laugh with and at themselves.
They made headlines last season by adopting the scariest mascot in the world – Kingsley, when Californian investment firm Kingsford Capital became their main sponsor. The mascot, described as across between Lisa Simpson and Dracula, attained international media coverage for the club reaching CNN among others.
Thistle nearly have one other global superstar on their books.
Paul Pogba may be currently attracting headlines for his move to Manchester United, but his brother Mathias pounds the forward line for Thistle. The two brothers are close and lived together when Mathias was playing for Wrexham and Paul was with Manchester the first time. Mathias has represented Guineau at international level although his brother opted for France.
Despite Pogba’s pedigree and world class DNA, there are other players who have played larger roles in the club’s current run in the top flight.
Kris Doolan has been living proof that spelling Chris wrongly does not necessarily make you a bad striker. He scored ten goals in the SPFL last year and in doing so, set a remarkable record. He became the first Thistle player in 66 years to reach double figures in five successive seasons.
The permanent return of Chris Erskine who had been loaned to the Glasgow club by Dundee United should bolster a midfield which also has the club captain Ghanaian Abdul Osman, Englishman David Amoo and Ziggy Gordon, newly arrived from Hamilton.
Surely the busiest man will be Czech goalkeeper Tomas Cerny who arrived in Glasgow via Sigma Olomouc, Hamilton, CSKA Sofia, Ergotelis and Hibernian (Edinburgh not Malta).
New arrival Ade Azeez from AFC Wimbledon has represented England at U-19 level and may add something new to the Jags as an attacking force.
Ade Azeez has joined from AFC Wimbledon
However, usually pre-season optimism dissolves into a realistic fatalism for the long suffering Thistle fans. Kilmarnock and Hamilton will probably be the clubs the Jags are looking to finish above, to provide relegation fodder, especially after Dundee and Ross County had very good seasons last year.
With one game under their belt, a 2-0 home win over Inverness, the Jags have a 100% record although a trip to Aberdeen next week should see that severely challenged.
Still, the aim for Alan Archibald must be the top six and the luxury of enjoying the last five games free of any relegation threat. If he succeeds, the club will have difficulty holding onto him as Hamilton did with Alex Neil.
Whatever the season brings, the Firhill Faithful will treat it with their usual mixture of good humor, fatalism and (with the younger fans) unrealistic optimism. The only thing you won’t find is sectarian bigotry. You’ll have to go elsewhere for that.
Website: Partick Thistle FC
Stadium: Firhill Stadium, 80 Firhill Road, Glasgow G20
Nicknames: The Jags, Harry Wraggs, Maryhill Magyars.
Mascot: Kingsley
Head Coach: Alan Archibald
Famous Fans: Mhairi Black (UK’s youngest MP), Actor Robert Carlyle (Full Monty, Hamish MacBeth), Craig Ferguson (Late Late Show), David Hasselhoff (Baywatch), Paul Pogba
