The Thistle Archive

Are you keeping an eye on our News page? We continue to sniff, dig and find... and a new goal for WILLIE PAUL is worth shouting about! Now just 4 off the summit! See news... http://thethistlearchive.net/

Great news for Thistle history enthusiasts, we've hit another big milestone... ... 1,300 dates of birth established for Partick Thistle first-team players! Willie Gowans played in Alec Raisbeck's benefit in early 1914, the team line for which is now looking good - and fully pictured!

A very Merry Christmas to all Jagskind, with much red and yellow love from The Thistle Archive; Donnie, Jack, Joe, Michael, Niall, Stuart & William That said, the Partickle being published today - an 8 minute read - is not so cheery. The piece was first published on the WeAreThistle forum 9 years ago to the day and it now comes with a number of extra photies. Thistle finally won a League game at Firhill on Christmas Day 1909, but as events unfolded the result was of little consequence as an opponent lost his life. It was a great tragedy that will cloud the Partick Thistle history books forever. It's an honour to dedicate this piece to the memory of James Main. A Fatal Christmas: In Memory of James Main →

Congratulations... to STEVEN LAWLESS who has moved outright into our 'All Games' All-Time Top 50 scorers (with 48) to BRIAN GRAHAM who has moved outright into our 'League' All-Time Top 50 scorers (with 33) Forget the #10 in Qatar, it's all about the #11 versus the #9 in Maryhill. The race is on to reach the All=Time Top 50 Competitive chart. Who will be the 50th Jag to reach 50 goals? Our 3-way goals charts → are constantly updated and cover all 11,545 goals in PTFC history. Top 50 ascents beckon from all angles! Most of the post-Ayr updates are now in place keep the home page → bookmarked for all the latest news and updates...

It's all very manual and very time consuming, but we're halfway through re-uploading the match hubs 1876 to 1924 with all sorts of improved data, mainly with regards to personnel data, birth dates found, images found etc etc. As early as this 9th February 1889 → encounter, TEN of our 11 players are now aged. Before TTA started, precisely NONE of these players were aged on the internet, and the progress being made is very pleasing. Keep the home page → bookmarked to see all the latest updates going in. With this in mind, we could still do with some page upload volunteers to help us grow the Archive. If you've got Excel and can spare some hours now and again (for basically a "copy and paste" exercise) then please get in touch → In total, we now have a phenomenal 86.5% of known individual starting appearances aged, which is great news for all sorts of stats reports. PTFC's earliest 100% fully aged eleven has now been pushed back from 1920 all the way to 1900, as per the screenshot below. It's cost a lot of time and money and is one of our finest in-depth achievements to date. We'll continue to push on... PTFC's earliest fully-aged eleven → Could you help any? Where or when was he born? →

Most of the post-Kelty updates are in place check the home page for the latest news. Stats Watch is especially busy this week, some entries below ● Kelty Hearts become the 145th club to meet Partick Thistle in competitive action, one for one matching Partick Thistle's history of 145 competiton seasons. ● Joe Cardle is the first 'former Jag' to be sent-off against Thistle since Eddie Forrest (Forfar Athletic) saw red exactly 17 years to the day. ● After going almost 2 years without a red card in the League, Thistle have suffered four in six weeks. It's only the second time in history we've had Jagsmen ordered off in 3 separate games in the same month. November 2022 (Muirhead, Akinola & Docherty) now sits alongside October 1994 (Craig, Charnley & Grant). ● Referee Craig Napier has sent off a Jagsman in each of his last two Thistle games; Muirhead (5th November 2022) & Docherty (26th November 2022). ● 5 former Jags play against Thistle for the first time since February 2019, when a similar number did so as Dunfermline Athletic players. ● Brian Graham's 40th competitive goal moves him one place above Steven Lawless in that chart. The 'Top 50' target is Gerry Britton who registered 43. ● Jack McMillan registers his 8th assist of the season. In the latest 10 seasons of competitive action, only Kyle Turner (10, 2021-22) and Kallum Higginbotham (11, 2013-14) have set up more goals for Thistle in any given season. ● Tony Weston becomes the 16th Thistle scorer in 2022-23 competitive action, a tally which is now two beyond last season's spread of 14. ● A little bit of history is made as Thistle make 6 substitutions for the first time ever in a 'Major Competitive' match. It matches the 'Competitive' record (6) which was set on 21st July 2012 when a Celtic XI was defeated by 2 goals to nil in the ARR Craib Cup Semi Final. ● It's very unusual to see a player come on, score, and then be subbed off, but that's what happened to Anton Dowds. Surprisingly, he's the third Jag to experience this sequence in competitive action, following on from Scott Houston (2-2 vs. East Fife in April 1999) and David McCallum (5-3 vs. Raith Rovers, August 2001). ● For the second consecutive competitive game, Thistle register a 3-goal winning margin, a stat last seen in March 2013 when a 6-1 win over Livingston was followed by a 3-0 at Cowdenbeath. The club-record (5-in-a-row) was set in December 1899. ● With many fans boycotting in protest at the way fan ownership has been handled by the club, the attendance of 1,484 was an all-time low for a Partick Thistle Scottish Cup tie at Firhill. The previous record-low (1,818) was set in November 2005, a 1-1 draw at home to Albion Rovers.

"Hi there, me and my mate are trying to come up with a list of players who played for thistle and played in the world cup. A quick Google search wasn't any help. Any ideas of where we could find this info?" This 'customer request' was received the other day and it's our great pleasure to answer with another fine reference page for everyone to enjoy... 'Jags at the World Cup' is mapped in our lists section under 'Achievements'. We've created three 'tabs' for the page; one for the 10 players, one for the 19 matches and one for the 28 appearances. Pictured at Zürich, 16th June 1954. is Scotland's first-ever World Cup finals match versus Austria. Johnny MacKenzie (5th in line) & Jimmy Davidson (8th in line) became the first of the 10 Jagsmen who would play in a World Cup. Jags at the World Cup →

On The Thistle Archive you can now view a slideshow of Donald Wilson's photo albums from around 100 matches 2011-2014 as well as this season, with many more to come. See today's 'Archive News' entries on the home page → for the building list. Within each match hub click on the 'Gallery' tab to view. Each time you can click directly through to Donald's highest resolution flickr option. If each photie had a name this, from the latest Arbroath entry, would be "Gallus"

Arbroath video highlights are in place, keeping up our 100% match coverage record for the season for those on council telly... Season 2022-23 →

ON THIS DAY: Monday the 18th November 1963, marks the date when Partick Thistle played hosts to a continental club for the first time. And what an occasion! How we ended up winning by only one goal beggars belief, especially having went 3 up. It could easily have been five or six – oh how different it might have been! Chance after chance was squandered and the Czechs scored from their only two attacking excursions of the second half. We had now been sentenced to ninety minutes of hard-labour in Brno. “It was little wonder that Partick’s supporters left the ground boiling with exasperation.” Spartak’s season had just finished and, according to the Evening Times report, Thistle were the first side to knock three past them during their campaign. To mark the occasion, the full match hub is now in place, complete with 'Scrapbook' and 'Gallery' tabs... Partick Thistle 3 Spartak ZJŠ Brno 2 (Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 2nd Round, 1st leg) → Photo at 12 mins; it's going to be a goal as Ernie Yard rises magnificently to fully respect (the silhouetted) Davie McParland's excellent cross.

In 1914 and 1939, Partick Thistle FC was one of the many clubs whose players and former players became soldiers, sailors and airmen, and not all of them came home. Since 'The Partick Thistle Fallen' was published one year ago, it's been discovered that three fringe/reserve Jagsmen - Alec Logan, Thomas Shemwell & James Maxwell - were all servicemen who died during the First World War. On remembrance day, the article is duly updated, now featuring the seventeen men who sacrificed their lives. The Partick Thistle Fallen →

Exactly one year on from 'The Fallen', this sister-piece takes on the tough challenge of identifying and writing about all the Partick Thistle players or managers who served and survived in either of the two World Wars. This is easier said than done. There are memorials and Rolls of Honour to the Fallen, but the vast majority of those who returned went back to their families and got on with their lives. There is not so much information available on them, and it has seemed like an open-ended and nebulous task. With this in mind this record of those who served will undoubtedly change in time, as family members get in touch, or other information becomes available. If we're missing anyone please do let us know! Not all of these men won the Scottish Cup with Partick Thistle (some did), and not all were decorated with military medals (some were) but, on the eve of remembrance day 2022, it's our great honour to pay tribute to 69 of our brave men... The Partick Thistle Returned →

In our quest, we've chased librarians and historians all over the world for knowledge and will continue to do so! Vaalerengens were the first continentals to defeat Partick Thistle way back in May, 1930. We got in touch in them to chance our arm, and got a great result with missing scorers, the name of the venue and more. 31-May-1930 Vaalerengens 4 Partick Thistle 3 → With the 'Bislett Grusbane' now confirmed for Vaalerengens in May 1930, we are now down to just 9 missing venues out of 6,723 first-team games. For anyone able to assist, or for general interest, these are:

We discovered two new games vs. Partick in May 1882. Our rivals had a head start on us by almost 2 years, but it was Thistle who comprehensively came out on top, taking over Inchview in 1885. Ruthless perhaps, but it's PTFC live to tell the tale of how the burgh was won. Access the new match hubs via season 1881-82 →

CONFIRMED: 148 unbroken seasons of Partick Thistle FC! Our young club fell off the radar in 1876-77 but - at long, long last - we've found not one, but TWO first-team matches, both in the dying embers of that second season. The two games - away to Partick Ramblers & Smithfield - are now databased and the match hubs accessible via the 1876-77 page → Since the 'Official History' book in excess of 200 games have been found (many in competitions) but our latest two finds are the most precious of all. Not only do they give us an unbroken history, our first-known players & scorers are now assigned as: John Inglis → Jack Beattie → T. Brown → Enjoy your history Jags fans, and spread the word!

HISTORY REPEATING ● For only the 4th time in history, Thistle repeat an away League fixture, exactly one year on. The only previous occurrences were at Rangers (2-Jan-1909), Rangers (2-Jan-1930) and Celtic (20-Dec-2017). All repeats have ended with the same outcome as the year before! What's more, in the latest case, goals from Brian Graham & Scott Tiffoney ensured the win on both occasions, making for a very unique stat in Thistle history. ● With Kyle Turner being suspended, Jack McMillan and Steven Lawless become the last two standing in terms of a 100% competitive appearance record this season. ● Brian Graham scores his 38th competitive goal for Partick Thistle, and this matches his previous best at any other club, set with Raith Rovers 2011-2013. ● Scott Tiffoney has scored for Thistle in 3 consecutive away games at New Douglas Park. ● Aaron Muirhead and Ross Docherty get on the assists chart for the season, bringing the player spread to 14. The greatest spread since records began (19) was set in 2019-20. ● Thistle go 4 without defeat at New Douglas Park, 20th July 2019 to date. ongoing sequences: ● 8 competitive home games without defeat; 19th Jul 2022 to date. (Longest run since: 8 games; 3rd Mar 2020 to 5th Dec 2020. Club-record: 24 games; 5th May 2001 to 17th Aug 2002.) ● 16 consecutive competitive appearances for Jack McMillan (a new personal best) & Steven Lawless, 9th Jul 2022 to date. (Longest run since: Kyle Turner - 16 games, 6th May 2022 to 7th Oct 2022. Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.) Keep up with Stats Watch and all the rest of it via our home page news → Still trying to add 'Bio Extras' for those born on a daily basis. If anyone fancies writing for any favourite player not yet covered then please get in touch. Born OTD 1875 was WILLIAM WALLACE and his entry is a cracker! William Wallace →

Just looked up Jazz Juttla, no recollection at all. It was disappointing to lose wee Jimmy at the time as he was a ray of hope, that day just summed up our woes at the time.

Back in '85, Indian-born JOEY PATHAK, made his debut in Scottish senior football for Partick Thistle at Bayview. On that anniversary, our latest Partickle looks back at his story, and wonders about that great sleeping giant... From Madras To Maryhill →

Painstakingly compiled after more than a decade of poring over countless thousands of newspaper pages, our two brand new 'list' pages detail every sending off in PTFC history. The first covers all the way from Thomas Campbell in 1891 to Kyle Turner in 2022. The adjacent page details the same for every opponent, from Cosgrove in 1891 to Scott Allan in 2022. 239 to Thistle, only 174 to the opposition, but don't worry these things balance themselves out over a season!?! Thistle's sendings-off → Opposition's sendings-off →

Hundreds of interesting new Thistle history snips (like the above) have been flowing into the Archive lately, please bookmark the site → and keep an eye on the News! After some considerable time hunting him down, our Joe finally cracked it with fallen hero Tom Callaghan. A late baptism, census mis-truths and a multitude of document spelling variations was challenging, but we identified Tom Callaghan's family unit and forced the issue with great results. A pleasure to get to know him. Begone the asterisk of doubt! Tom Callaghan → ************************************************************************* 1971 legend FRANK COULSTON, has just turned 80 and, to celebrate him, we've added a tribute video and a wee photo gallery as well as writing up a decent bio for him. The hitman outscored even Jimmy Bone in the title-winning season 1970-71, with 28 competitive goals! He also notched 6 goals in the winning Cup run, including a brace in the crucial 5-1 QF 2nd leg comeback vs. St Johnstone. Frank Coulston → ************************************************************************* We're very excited to be seeing the earliest video of Partick Thistle in action at Firhill being introduced to the Archive today. Featuring the game from 18th February 1956, it's endlessly fascinating to see. The relevant match hub data has been 'fast-forwarded' to back up the find so you can identify the players from the numbers on their shirts. Click on the hub below to explore this great find! 18-Feb-1956 Thistle 3 Brechin City 1 → ************************************************************************* The latest 600 news items have just been filed as 'Archive News 30' a good way to get a handle on what we've been up to in recent weeks... Archive News 30 → ************************************************************************* Our match hubs from 1876 to 1924 are now hopelessly out-of-sync in relation to all of the great work with births, new photos, renames and such-like, not to mention the usual never-ending improvements with small extra details. Worse still, there are also some broken links in various places as a result of some of these changes. Hopefully we can get back on top of it in the coming month(s). The Thistle Archive is in need of volunteers to help with uploading these pages - an easy but repetitive copy and paste exercise. If you can spare a few hours now and then, please get in touch. Page upload volunteers required →

All the post-match update routine is complete. Don't miss the weekly Stats Watch tab in the match hub; this weekend it's all about 'the goals in this team'... Season 2022-23 →

Our Archive News section leads the website action daily and is worth bookmarking for those of you interested in Thistle history, always with the emphasis on breaking new ground. A trip to Falkirk library has paid dividends and today, better late than never, amazing goalie TAM GOURLAY joins our A-Z, with a first-team appearance found in Aug 73! • Penalty debut for Thistle • Alex Ferguson's first-ever signing • Clean-sheet record • Double amputee • The letter from Fergie Tam Gourlay → Amazing how one little match can have so much impact. We'll have another THREE one-offs going into the A-Z later today, so keep it bookmarked!

Great weekend for Steven Lawless, rising in both our goals & assists chart for the season. With his beauty from yesterday, Steven breaks into the All-Time Top 50 goals chart ('All Games' category). All the latest post-match updates now applied... Season 2022/23 →

Last month we were so intrigued by the images sent to us by Andrew Johnston's great grandson, Douglas Fyfe, that, today, we've started a virtual museum to show them off! To be fair, many such opportunities have passed us by previously, but now at least there is somewhere for such things to be housed. Site map wise, we can't seem to find a place for the museum, so we've set up the permanent access point on the foot of the home page, as you will see as you scroll down. The museum will be a place for Partick Thistle items of exceptional historical interest... or those which are just plain curious! A virtual collection of art, memorabilia, artifacts & curiosities. Any submissions for display consideration are welcome, so get in touch →. We hope you enjoy your visits to our virtual museum; who knows what will end up in there?!? Archive Museum →