Friday 30th December, 2016 at 8:00am
Unlike in a previous Thistle/Kilmarnock encounter pictured on the cover of the programme, which looks like an advert for summer football, the conditions when the featured match was played were in fact pretty good for the end of January. The game ended inconclusively, but could be viewed as a narrow escape for Thistle. The visitors had taken the lead after 75 minutes, but Thistle forced a draw with four minutes to go. The saviour on the day was the prolific Maurice Johnston, and so the game would go to a replay at Rugby Park, where there would be a definitive result, or at least that’s what we thought.
What we got was three replays, before Thistle eased their way in to the next round. It was a long running saga, as follows: –
2nd February – Kilmarnock 0 Partick Thistle 0(after extra-time)
7th February – Partick Thistle 2 Kilmarnock 2(after extra-time, score at 90 minutes 1-1). Thistle were dicing with death again here because Kilmarnock scored first in extra-time.
Finally – 9th February Kilmarnock 0 Partick Thistle 1, and the scorer was, yes you guess it, Maurice Johnston after 86 minutes. Scottish Cup-ties would not, of course, go to 4 matches nowadays. Some soccer genius has invented the penalty shoot-out. Is this a better way of deciding the outcome or is it a bit of a lottery? It’s certainly a great invention for the neutrals and armchair viewers, but what about the rest of us? – a nerve-shredding experience, I would say.
Reverting back to the original match at Firhill, the Thistle team was as follows: – Dougie McNab(Alan Rough having played his last game for Thistle on 20th November 1982), Gerry Doyle, Brian Whittaker, John Murray, Andy Dunlop, Kenny Watson, Donald Park, Ian McDonald, Maurice Johnston, Jamie Doyle, Alex O’Hara.
The picture on the front of the programme is from an earlier Thistle/Kilmarnock match from 21st February 1981, which also finished 1-1. Part of the match was played in a blizzard, but you could maybe still identify the four Thistle players. What about the two wee ball-boys? They must have been frozen. Can anyone recognise himself? If so, please be in touch, even if, at a guess, you must be in your mid-40s by now.
Robert R
P.S. Thistle played, therefore, on 29th January, 2nd February, 7th February and 9th February. It should be noted that we also had to squeeze in a league match versus Dumbarton on the 5th.
