It was an idea that Colin Kilgour came up with some time ago - to one day sample the corporate hospitality that Partick Thistle could provide at a home match. We finally got round to doing it last weekend when the Jags hosted Dundee.
We booked a table for 6 of us - 3 Stewarts (me and my sons Gary and Ross), 2 Williamsons (Dave and son Alex) and a lone Kilgour. Thistle need all the help they can get just now, having just lost their main sponsor last week when Sangs (MacB) went in to administration, this following on from the recent announcement that their tenants for the last few years, Glasgow Warriors, are leaving at the end of the season.
The oldies got the train down, using the Club 55 + to get cheap seats, and two of us getting even more discount by using our Senior Railcards. The young Stewarts weren't as lucky - they had to catch the train at 5:30 am in order to try and match the price their Dad got! We all met up for a swift pint at the Counting House in George Square before jumping in a 6 seater taxi to Firhill for the noon start of the hospitality package. Here's the two halves of the taxi on the way there:
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| Ross, Dave & Alex |
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| Colin, Ian & Gary |
The old main stand at Firhill has been crumbling for a few years now and is only used for a few offices and the occasional Glasgow Warriors match. Mind you, it's not the only thing that's old and crumbling in this photo:
The club shop was closed at this early hour and so we walked round the east end of the ground and up towards the more modern Jackie Husband stand, spotting some classic graffiti on the way:
We necked the free "champagne" in hospitality and moved on to bottles of Arran Blonde. We were amongst the first to arrive and so we asked when the shop was due to open? The answer was a bit like the old joke - "what time's the kick-off?" - "what time can you make it, sir?". They said they would arrange to open the shop specially for us and, what's more, they would take us there via a shortcut round the pitch and through the main stand. Of course, this meant we had to pass the dugouts, so further posing was required:
Souvenirs were duly acquired, even including Alex, seen here displaying his new-found love:
We dined in the Alan Rough Lounge, outside which there was a large, fairly crude, 3-part mural:
For those of you not quite as anal as me on the history of PTFC, the first part shows Thistle playing in their old dark blue strip (that went on to be used by Scotland) at their first home at the West of Scotland Cricket ground, before moving to Maryhill in the 1920's. (Thistle started in 1876, a full 12 years before Celtic were formed.)
We had our meal and were then shown through to the Davie McParland lounge where the Honorary Vice President of the club, Robert Reid, gave a wonderful and amusing talk on the history of the club. We were surrounded by photographs and posters of legends (to me, anyway) of former days, amongst the more recent of which were:
We were in the lounge named after my own personal boyhood idol and so I just had to pose in front of some of his posters:
The team line-up was:
We had a comedian entertain us and then to the match itself. Dundee edged the first half and then we had a break for the obligatory pies:
The second half was better - at least from a Thistle supporter's viewpoint - and Rab Douglas proved he hadn't completely lost the ability that earned him Scotland caps earlier in his career, as he made a couple of great late saves to earn an away point for his team in what turned out to be a fairly entertaining scoreless draw. Here's a shot of the action later on:
There's a Celebrity Sponsors board next to our lounge and I noted Jag 20:
After a quick drink, we taxi'd back to the Counting House for another beer before catching our trains home. None of us were previously aware of the existence of the "Glasgow Eye" right outside the pub on George Square:
Grand day out!
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