Friday 5th October, 2018 at 11:30am
Scottish Second Division
22nd January 2000
Partick Thistle 4 Ross County 2
At the time of this match Ross County were relative newcomers to this level of Scottish football. This was their second visit to Firhill. Since then, by my reckoning, they have appeared in Maryhill on a further 23 occasions. How the years roll by!
Thistle won the match fairly comfortably, but didn’t make absolutely sure of the points until the very last minute with a goal from Peter Lindau. What an acquisition he was! Who will ever forget his hat-trick at Stirling the following season which clinched the title and promotion back to the First Division. In our featured match after, of all people, George Shaw had scored in 9 minutes it was the Swede who levelled the scoring four minutes later. Ace goalscorer Albert Craig did what he so often did, popped up with a goal two minutes before half-time. There was a shock for Thistle almost immediately after the interval when Derek Holmes equalised, but we steadied up and Quinton Jacobs fired us into the lead on 53 minutes. The icing on the cake was supplied in the last minute by the aforementioned Peter Lindau.
Thistle had made full use of the undersoil heating to make sure the match would go ahead. We fielded the following team:- Kevin Budinauckas, Stephen Docherty, Des McKeown, Danny Lennon, Ray Montgomerie, Alan Archibald, Eric Paton, Albert Craig, Scott McLean, Peter Lindau, Quinton Jacobs.
Playing for Ross County was none other than Ian Maxwell, such a prominent figure until recently at Firhill.
The captain of the Thistle team was Ray Montgomerie who gave his all for the Club during his year at Firhill. When I meet him at Kilmarnock, where he is a matchday host, he always expressed how much he enjoyed his participation with Thistle, and we fully appreciated his enthusiastic efforts each week.
Thistle finished 5th in the league, but made no mistake the following year by winning the title in grand style, a massive 17 points ahead of their nearest rivals. We then won the First Division the following season, 10 points clear of Airdrieonians in 2nd place, so that was us back in the Premier League, with a flourish.
We have done it before, so same again please.
Robert R
