Friday 27th December, 2019 at 8:00am
Scottish First Division
28th September 1983
Morton 1 Partick Thistle 2
Both teams in this fixture had come down recently from the Premier League and were fancied strongly to go back up again with minimum delay. As it happened, Morton won the league and Thistle finished in third place, and as we all know, promotion was no more than a dream for almost a decade. We did, however, win two of the three league fixtures against the Cappielow men in the season 1983/84.
Our team on the day was as follows:- Dougie McNab ( the man faced with the unenviable task of replacing Thistle’s best ever goalkeeper with 53 caps for Scotland, Alan Rough), Gerry Doyle (younger brother of Jamie), Kenny Watson, John Murray, Andy Dunlop, Alex O’Hara, Ian McDonald, Ian Jardine, Maurice Johnston, Kenny McDowall, John Buckley.
Thistle demonstrated how best to do things the hard way in this game. Ian Jardine, who had been booked after half an hour, was ordered off in the 53rd minute. Three minutes earlier, Ian McDonald had also been the recipient of a red card. Were 2-0 up at half-time thanks to a goal from Alex O’Hara after 9 minutes and a second by John Buckley two minutes before the interval, and here we were, trying to throw the game away!
Isn’t there a familiar ring to this? 2-0 up at Cappielow before losing 3-2. Thankfully, back in ’83 we got away with it, although it was a desperate final 12 minutes following Jim Rooney’s goal with 78 on the clock to half the deficit.
Thistle had made a blistering start to their league campaign and with a win in Greenock, we had won all of our opening six league fixtures to get the season started. Next up? Brechin City at Glebe Park. You’ll never guess – Brechin 2 Thistle 0! Typical? I suppose you could say that!
Looking for Morton/Thistle connections, it’s worth mentioning that in the featured game, the captain of the home side was Jim Duffy, and on the substitutes bench, coming on for the final 18 minutes, was Tony Higgins.
Within the match programme there is a picture of a fresh-faced youngster called Maurice Johnston – yes Maurice, not Boris, about whom we hear so much. I’ll quote the details about him:- “Firhill’s golden boy. Top scorer last season with 22 goals and has made his mark several times this season already (5 times to be precise in 6 matches). His skills have aroused interest with many connected with the game.” Yes, the vultures were hovering. How much longer could we hold on to him? The answer is seven more game after Cappielow. It’s a shame but that’s football. You may not like how it works but that’s it!
Robert R.
