Nolly, Ken Bates took us over when no-one else was interested. He put his money in when the club was sinking closer to the edge. As an Esquire House regular at the time I was priviledged to have had many conversations with Miller Reid, the then owner, indeed on many an occassion we had after hours drinks and chats about the jags in the cocktail bar /diner upstairs. He made it clear to me that the club was teetering on the brink and that no-one was interested in taking him over. HE approached The Master and he put the money up to save the club from going out of business. NO other jags fans or investors were interested. Bates during his tenure, gave us players from Chelsea such as the wonderful Colin West and John Wurzel McNaught (RIP) and a young Billy Dodds. He never at any point tried to close us down, sell us to Tesco, turn the ground into a shopping mall or housing development. He sold out to a group of Jags supporters including Jim Donald and Kevin Moore without making a profit on the deal. IMO the only horrific side of The Masters reign at Firhill was giving the managers job to the phat phuck Delboy Johnstone. We lost our sponsorship with the Ashoka probably because he was taking a liberty with the free curries given the size he was when he managed to waddle on for a couple of sub appearances!!