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Kenneth’s journey with The Jags

(A young Kenneth complete with Jags scarf and tammy bottom row right)

As we continue our series of chats it is becoming clear that following a team is very often a family affair with the loyalties passing down the generations. This is certainly the case with volunteer Kenneth McGlashan who we caught up with recently. 

Kenneth volunteers at our Motherwell 100 club and in fact, has just received his five-year pin for services to Sporting Memories. Kenneth is renowned for being a Partick Thistle fan with dates, scores, names and memories at his fingertips. If the Thistle is going to feature in your quiz, you ‘Call Kenneth’. 

Never Partick, always The Thistle 

Before we go any further, we need to explain that one should never ever abbreviate Partick Thistle FC to anything else except “The Thistle” or “The Jags”. Recently, an announcer at an away match to Morton FC committed the heinous sin of referring to the team as Partick. She was not let off lightly in the chat groups afterwards. 

Memories of Cup success and Europe 

Kenneth’s Thistle journey (we got that right!) started back in the mid 60’s when he was just a nipper. His family and extended family lived in or around the areas of Glasgow known as Partick and Maryhill. He went with his older brother to games as his Dad worked most Saturdays. When the family relocated to Easterhouse fortunately there was a supporters bus which the brothers were able to take to games and keep up their allegiance. 

Kenneth’s best match ever was in 1971 when Thistle beat Celtic 4-1 in the Scottish League Cup Final at Hampden. Even though he was only 11 at the time, it remains one of his fondest memories. 

We did find this snippet about that game: 

“Before the match, former?BBC?sport broadcaster?Sam Leitch?stated that “In Scotland, it’s League Cup final day at Hampden Park, where Celtic meet Partick Thistle, who have no chance.” 

But Kenneth shared another less well known snippet about that day – apparently when the two jubilant team buses arrived back at Firhill stadium, no doubt bent on celebrations, no-one had a key to let them in. We don’t know what happened after though. 

Kenneth holding The Scottish League Cup at a Partick Thistle event

Following this success, the team went on to play in the UEFA cup. The team faced Budapest Honvéd of Hungary in the first round. In the first leg of the tie Thistle lost 1–0 at Bozsik József Stadion in Budapest. In the return leg at Firhill they were also beaten, this time 3–0 to exit the tournament 4–0 on aggregate. Kenneth was at that return game – enough said! 

We didn’t have time to delve into all the matches but suffice to say that anytime Partick Thistle beating Rangers or Celtic at Firhill was a day of celebration. The 1971 game against Motherwell which ended in an amazing 8-3 win for the Jags was another one never to forget. This was actually quite a remarkable game and if you are interested you can read more here 

Remembering the greats 

We mentioned earlier that Kenneth was a fountain of Thistle history and when we asked who his standout favourite player was he said “Alan Rough” but also wanted Dennis McQuade, Alex Rae, Jimmy Bone, Mo Johnston and Alan Hansen mentioned. Wait a minute, these are some of the most highly respected players to come out of Scotland. Kenneth confirmed this is quite correct – Partick Thistle has been the birthplace of many a talented player who went onto higher things. 

Kenneth (l) with Alex Rae (r), former Thistle Captain at a Sporting Memories event

We posed the same question but about Managers. His reply was an unequivocal Davie McParland. Davie played his whole senior career at Firhill and took over as manager in 1970 taking the club to its greatest modern day triumphs. Again though, Kenneth reeled off a list of managers over the years with Bertie Auld and John Lambie getting a mention. He does reckon that the current chap (at the time of writing), Mark Wilson, is doing a “No bad job” High praise indeed from someone who knows his team inside out. 

A Family Affair 

Remember at the start of this tale of devotion, we mentioned that Kenneth started going to the matches with his older brother. They still are both going despite his brother now living with limited mobility. Despite this his brother David is still watching games alongside his wife from the disabled viewing platform. His nephew often joins him and his niece who lives in Inverness manages to support the Thistle every time they are playing up north. Partick Thistle are in the McGlashan blood and it is truly a family affair of many years standing. 

Thank you Kenneth for sharing your memories with us.