Saturday 4th April, 2020 at 1:59pm
The latest message from the manager arrives for you today, on the date of another scheduled home game, against Arbroath, which is now postponed. Enjoy!
Saturday afternoon at 3 o’clock; so why is the red and yellow so dear to me?
Firstly, let’s get an undeniable fact out of the way. Perhaps a little bit different to my first stint in charge of this awesome club, I need to win games to remain here. By that I mean that I completely realise that being a Jags man does not make me exempt from the laws of being a football manager. I freely admit that the job is a bit more difficult than I realised (more on that another time!) but these laws are kind of set in stone and apply to every full-time gaffer.
Back to why Thistle … and there are two strange coincidences that happened before I fell in love with our club.
It may have been around 1987/88 that I attended a reserve game at Firhill; the opposition was either Dunfermline or Hamilton. I was there to watch a pal of mine (Stevie ‘Snowy’ Morrison). I sat in the main stand and got chatting to an older gentleman who was there to watch his son play for Thistle. He was called John Elliot and his son was called Thomas. I met Tommy about a month later, we became great pals and, many years later, he was the best man at my wedding. Already Thistle was starting to seep into me!
Secondly, and at another reserve game at Firhill, I saw a striker play, a striker that I would sign a few years later; his name was Stephen Dobbie. He scored five, six, maybe seven goals that night and I went away with his name written in my wee book in capitals! I’ve managed a few international players but in terms of natural talent, most were a good bit behind him. Incidentally he still tells me he owes me a season!
Why the Jags? Having lived locally for many (many!) years, my base of friends were, almost to a man, Thistle fans. None were working in the football industry … which in some ways explains my mediocre playing career! But they all loved going to Firhill and when I could I would join them. We always stood in the old terracing behind the goal. It was kind of beginning to start then.
I started to realise that the team in Glasgow that most suited my personality was Thistle and I think that’s important. I couldn’t get my head round wanting to watch any team that was going to win almost every week; how can the taste of victory be so incredibly sweet when it is almost guaranteed? Another reason why I evolved to the red and yellow.
There are other reasons but I will leave you with one that rightly or wrongly, I believe. There are maybe another 10-12 clubs of our size in Scotland but we are the only club of our size that can claim to be iconic.
Please be safe and please be healthy.
IMc
PS. I have also managed a player with the same levels of natural ability as Dobbie at Thistle!
