Blast from the past – Ayr United

Friday 27th July, 2018 at 9:00am

Scottish League Division One

25th December 1971

Partick Thistle 0 Ayr United 1

Let’s be clear from the very outset. This game was played on Christmas Day and we did lose 0-1 at home to Ayr United, having taken no fewer than eight goals from Motherwell in the previous home match. You are seeing perfectly well, so there’s no need to rush off to Specsavers. It’s how you react to these circumstances, which will determine whether you remain a Jags fan throughout your life, or drift away from the game altogether, or worse still, yield to the temptation to pursue one of the two soft options on your doorsteps. Perish that thought!

Half of what happened that day will not be repeated. We haven’t had a game scheduled for Christmas Day ever since. There were too many objections – it should always remain a family day, mother-in-law irate having the turkey and all the trimmings ready and you haven’t returned from the match! There’s no public transport available.

Well, that’s that out of the way. However, I can’t guarantee that we won’t ever again lost at home, with our full team out, a match we would be expected to win.

Reverting to the programme itself and the fine photograph on the front cover, which Cup-winning hero is missing?

Now, let’s speak about the match itself. Must we?

Well, the entire League Cup winning team was on parade, with Tommy Rae occupying the substitutes’ bench in place of Johnny Gibson. Thistle dominated the match, did everything but score and then conceded in a rare breakaway with just nine minutes remaining. If, after that, you still passed the loyalty test and the following week went along to Ibrox, then you were right up against it. Leading 1-0 from the 44th minute we went down 2-1 to goals by John Greig in 86 minutes and another by Derek Johnstone which I recorded as 93 minutes and 22 seconds. It’s referred to as time added on. The cynics call it Old Firm time. That’s terrible isn’t it?