|
Table of Contents
|
| Welcome to The Thistle Archive | |
 |
We dedicate our site to all of the researchers, writers, videographers, photographers, commentators, youth team volunteers, fundraisers, fan group organisers, bus conveners and match day helpers - past and present - who have freely and willingly volunteered their time and labour to help further the cause of Partick Thistle FC. #WeAreThistle |
Our aims
A collaborative project, the site is largely driven by a database researched and maintained by two lifelong Thistle supporters - William Sheridan and Jack Little. Between us, we've been building our database for 20 years, and reckon we've had our heads in some 20,000 newspaper and programme pages to make it happen, not to mention the hundreds of varying resources listed elsewhere on this page. Of particular note, Jack's potted reports on every known fixture in our club's history (over 98% of which stem from contemporary or personal accounts) feed into the home page daily, offering the unique opportunity to easily digest Thistle's entire match history in bite-size chunks.
Other helpful contributions have been made by experienced Thistle historian Stuart Deans, creator of the Thistle Archive's predecessor and curator of the highly popular 'Old Partick Thistle Pictures' page on Facebook. Stuart's incredible volume of photographs and original newspaper scrapbook cuttings give a great boost to many of our player A-Z profiles and match hubs. Adding his fan-view video edits of Thistle goals whenever he can, Niall MacTaggart gives our match hubs a cool visual boost, as does his large collection of old Thistle videos. Donnie MacIsaac enjoys researching in general and played a huge part in our latest genealogy push in the first half of 2021. His deep study of the club's war servicemen is a particular highlight.
Joe Kelly has a soft-spot for the Bankies actually, but you'd never know it such has been his passion for contributing to our players database since the middle of 2021, so much so that we had to insist he officially joined our team in the summer of 2022… “the thrill of the chase and some of your boys stories are just amazing. I never tire of looking and uncovering and there is so much to dig up, just wonderful.” Jags fans Michael Gleeson and Martin Gow joined in 2022-23, and very kindly got to helping out with the ever-challenging tasklist of page uploads. Latest recruits Kenny Pieper, Simon Reynolds and Graham McMillan did likewise in the first half of 2025. Simon is the creator of the amazing Arbroath Archive
and has set new speed records for page uploads; 7-per-minute is the (near-impossible) new peak!
We were delighted when expat John Sinclair got in touch in late October 2025. A coder with some 40 years experience, he took on the complex challenge of overcoming scripting issues which were way beyond our know-how, enabling our 'On This Day' feature to return to the home page after a 3+ years absence. John's going to keep an eye on us all the way from Hong Kong with any (cough cough) "5 minute" jobs that might crop up!
The online concept allows us all the simple joy of freely sharing in the sum of all Thistle knowledge, and we all look forward to continuing the Thistle Archive build, as and when time allows us to do so. Partick Thistle FC has a big anniversary season to enjoy in 2025-26 and we'll certainly be playing our part in celebrating and promoting this great Glasgow footballing institution that we all cherish so much.
The Thistle Archive says:
● NO to bigotry ● NO to sectarianism ● NO to homophobia ● NO to racism ● Keep Glasgow tidy!
Special thanks
to Robert Reid who, for several decades, was a permanently inspirational figurehead for the Thistle history community, recalling players, matches and stories with an inimitable wit and wisdom.to Billy Thomson and William Anderson who, away back in the 1980s, broke the ground for researching old Thistle match data. To this day, a great many of our 19th century teamlines are known only as a result of their digging into the deepest and darkest recesses of Scotland's libraries!
to Niall Kennedy for the illuminating PT Early Years
, a site which stirred up a great passion manifest today in the existence of The Thistle Archive, and for providing some editorial & early years information here on our site.to Stuart Deans for the first Partick Thistle History Archive, which was a veritable treasure-trove of original source material, invaluable to Thistle history buffs, covering everything from fanzine reports on obscure friendlies to long lost obituaries re-found. Here on The Thistle Archive for example, over 200 of our player images were only possible due to Stuart having painstakingly gathered them over the years.
to Tommy Dunnett, who, come rain, hail or sunshine, filmed Thistle matches from the early 1990s when he was co-founder of PTTV. The site features several hundred highlights clips from YouTube and such-like, a great many of which are solely due to Tommy's endeavours over 20 years.
to Donald Wilson, who, in all weathers, has been photographing Thistle matches since the early 2010s. Hundreds of our match hubs from 2011 to date have Donald's photo albums embedded via his flickr site, preserving the memories, good and bad.
to Alasdair McIntosh, Alan McMillan & Graham McRoberts for assistance with page uploads and research.
to Jim Anderson for his very generous donation of near-1,000 match programmes and other materials to aid with our research.
to Rob Elliott, Helmut Pdorf, Ed Johnson and all members of the Wikidot forum for lending their coding expertise and giving their time so generously in doing so.
Other contributors
We're indebted to all of those who have contributed articles or have been in touch with information or other helpful material. Namely: Douglas Gorman, Andy Mitchell, Tom Hosie, Will Jones, Stephen Graham, Stuart Frances, Marc Wallace, Hugh MacDonald, Melissa (HCL), Brian Massey, Bill McEntee, Jocelyn & Tommy Hough, Javier Terenti, Brian Dunleavy, Ian Clarke, Paul Treanor, Dawson Simpson, Ken Morton, Derek Crozier, Andy Boyd, Billy Johnston, Tom Turnbull, Lionel Campuzano, Kenneth Wester, Stephen Mill, Alan Fraser, Alex McNeill, Jim Thomson, Tim Bell, Sean Crowe, Robert Bradley, Tom McGouran, Craig Gallacher, Graeme Nicholson, Calum Nicol, Karen Turner, Alex Frew, Karl Edwards, Ian Gallacher, Gordon Reid, Kenneth MacRae, Victoria Harrison, Stuart Sharp, Jamie McDonald, David Stuart, Tommy Dickson, Sue Cant, Simon Reynolds, George Francis, Ros Whiteley, Kevin Bell, Gordon Bell, Andrew Maclennan, Mark Donnelly, Douglas Fyfe, Jamie Irvine, Andy Little, Drew McPherson, David Lang, Derek Gray, Stuart Goldie, Andrew Grant, Philip Jackson, Gary Stevenson, Paul Joannou, Gary Collins, Jeff Williamson, Christian Hesle, Peter Hawkridge, Iain Campbell Whittle, Ian McNeill, Raymond Barry, John McFarlane, Kay McMeekin, Morgan Holmqvist, Billy Allan, Adam Brodie, Amelia Little, Craig Mair, James McIntyre, Jackie Aspinall, Martin Stewart, Cath McFarland, Gary McGorm, Jan Nimmo, Billy Stenhouse, John Vaughan, Craig Jansen, Brian Welsh, Paul Doherty, Mike Whelan, Roy Bremner, Craig Tyreman, Bobby McNally, Archie Wiseman, Ian Hughes, Michael Murphy, Garry MacKay, Steve Dolman, Jim Gregor, Ian Davidson, Euan Ronald, Frank McCrossan, Holly Stewart & Steve Bell.
Bringing the 2002 Official history book up-to-date
There are a number of discrepancies between the statistics on this site and the Official History book that was published in 2002. The amount of source material available to the compilers of the book was limited and often there was only one source for team lineups and match details available when the book was compiled. Since that time many more sources have become available, some much more descriptive than the ones available in 2002, and this has allowed the Thistle Archive team to compare numerous sources and to make a value judgement as to the most likely correct information when sources conflict. On occasion this means that there is compelling evidence that the 2002 book is incorrect, and where the book and this website differ for match details we have explained why we have decided to update the statistics. A huge amount of research has been done since 2002 and much cross referencing and corroboration has been done, and we are confident that this website represents the most accurate statement of Partick Thistle statistics currently available.
Get involved
The more folks we can get involved, the better the site will be - your Archive needs you! There are a number of ways you can get involved:
- If you can spare some time to edit or upload pages that'd be helpful; no special skills are necessary for what is, essentially, a copy and paste exercise.
- Detailed lists of our unanswered questions and tasks pending are included on our help! page.
- If you'd care to help us spread the Jaggy gospel, then please do use your social media channels to do so. You can find us on Twitter .
- Get in touch with general help. Throughout the site we have a great many question marks asking for your help to resolve unknown facts - RSVP if you can help with any of these. Little things mean a lot - if you see any typos or anything else which looks wrong, let us know and we'll get it sorted pronto! You get the idea - 4 eyes are better than 2, and 500 eyes are most definitely better than 250!
- Give us your feedback, your ideas, and what you'd like to see on the site - we'll reply to all communications.
- Submit an article for publication.
Match Hubs
Our historical match hubs are easily accessed via the Matches page on a season-by-season basis.
Match Header
| Hub Logos | Our aims and contents explanations |
|---|---|
 |
We include club badges for each and every team, adhering to the latest official version for each club. Where none exist, we represent the club with a made up text badge with appropriate colours, if known. |
| Dundee | Without fail, club names in the header are hyperlinked to our competitive H2H record against that club. If there is no competitive match history with that club, then there is no link. |
 |
The match result (to 90 or 120 minutes as appropriate) is always clearly stated on the top line. Extra time breakdown and penalty shoot-out scores are always in the line below if required. Our preference is to use the match result (e.g. W4-2) as the hyperlink to access the match hub, and this we do at various places throughout the site. |
 |
Our aim is to include the half-time score for each and every match. |
 |
We've worked hard to make sure that all matches are dated correctly, and we're confident that is the case. Days of the week are included in every match hub, and in every season-by-season results overview. |
 |
Our aim is to include the kick-off time for each and every match, although they're hard to find the further back you go. In lieu of exact information, we input "forenoon", "afternoon" or "evening" wherever we can verfiy that. All kick-off times adhere to local time in relation to the venue. All kick-off times are adjusted to account for delays wherever appropriate. |
 |
Our aim is to include the attendance for each and every match. Our published figure adheres to a preferential order as follows: 1. The exact attendance as published by the home club; 2. The exact attendance as published by the tournament's governing body; 3. The exact attendance from any other source; 4. The estimated attendance averaged from as many contemporary sources as possible, rounded up or down to the nearest 500 in order to maintain the feeling that it's an estimate; 5. The estimated attendance from the OH; 6. The estimated attendance from any other source; 7. The estimated attendance from an eye-witness; 8. An estimated attendance based on gate receipt figures. Our settled figure appears on its own in the appropriate places throughout the site. |
 |
Our aim is to include the name of the venue for each and every match, and only a handful of matches are unfulfilled in this regard, as noted here. |
 |
Our aim is to include the name of the tournament and an indication of the tournament stage for each and every match, with non-tournament matches being defined either as friendlies or as per the named beneficiary, as appropriate for fundraisers and testimonials. |
 |
Our aim is to include the forename and surname of the referee for each and every match, wherever known. Up until season 1998-99 we also aim to bracket his home town (or club of association as it sometimes was in the 19th century) in line with the historic preference for doing so. This trait is non existent in the 21st century and from 1999-00 onwards we aim to list only the forename and surname of each match referee. |
 |
Our aim is to include the forename and surname of the Umpires (to 1890-91) / Linesmen (1891-92 to 1995-96) / Assistant Referees (1996-97 to date) for each and every match, wherever known. We also aim to bracket their home towns (or clubs of association as was often the preferred depiction in the 19th century) in line with the historic preference for doing so. This trait is non existent in the 21st century and from 1999-00 onwards we aim to list only the forename and surname of each assistant referee. |
'Match Information' tab
| Hub Logos | Our aims and contents explanations |
|---|---|
 |
Our aim is to include the names of the managers for both teams in each and every match from 1903-04 onwards (Thistle's first season as a limited company), thereby matching the first season when George Easton as an individual started becoming more directly involved with on-the-park matters. |
 |
Our aim is to list all players coming in to the Partick Thistle starting eleven for each and every match from 1881-82 onwards (the season where the number of known teamlines slowly started to rise). There are no plans to do the same for the opposition. |
 |
Our aim is to list all players dropping out of the Partick Thistle starting eleven for each and every match from 1881-82 onwards (the season where the number of known teamlines slowly started to rise). There are no plans to do the same for the opposition. |
 |
Our aim is to include the names of the goalscorers for both teams in each and every match, listed one at a time with score sequence and goal timing bracketed, and og's and pens clearly identified wherever appropriate. No matter where the game is played, the goals sequence is shown from Partick Thistle's perspective i.e. 1-0 when we take the lead and 0-1 when we fall behind. With the absence of any body accurately and reliably caring for such matters in Scottish football, we are the arbiters of our own statistics when it comes to crediting goals (or assists) to players. Our aim is to adjudicate and to publish a written explanation for every instance where more than one goal scorer is quoted in any published sources, whether contemporary or retrospective. This we do for goal scorers for and against Thistle. All such written judgements appear at the foot of the match information section of our match hubs. Our Dubious Goals Panel always consists of at least two of us, but anyone who cares about the subject is encouraged to get in touch with a viewpoint, especially if there's new supporting evidence for any given goal. Every goal (almost 12,000 at July 2025) has been painstakingly analysed using contemporaneous sources almost all of the time. Some 20,000 newspaper and programme pages have been consulted, not to mention the myriad of alternative routes such as studying videos, speaking to players, contacting other historians, even get librarians in far-off countries to check records inaccessible to us in the UK. As at July, 2025, we've had reason to make judgement calls on over 500 matches, 1876 to date, for and against Thistle. As far as analysing written accounts go, we are open to any source. Obviously the more descriptive the account, the more compelled we are likely to be. It has been known for us to scan as many as 12 newspapers for one goal to build up the best picture that we possibly can before reaching an agreed conclusion. In instances where the press split is even/inconclusive, we are inclined to side with the scorers as listed in the 'Official History' book. The authors themselves acknowledge this as being the correct approach, especially with increasing numbers of old newspapers becoming available on digital archives. With match videos being available for almost every single game in the modern era, goal accreditation has never been more accurate, although the close scrutiny has lead to challenges which never really existed in the newspaper era. In this new era, as we search for the truth per goal, our policy guideline when it comes to scorers is to credit the last player from the attacking team to touch the ball before it crosses the line, no matter whether the touch was intentional e.g. takes a deflection. However, if the touch of the attacking team's deflector was subtle but illegal, and missed by the officials, then we dismiss the deflector's claim and stick with the original player making the goal effort. By contrast, if the touch of the attacking team's deflector was obvious but illegal, but misjudged by the officials, then we credit the deflector as having “got away with one”. It should almost go without saying, but the obvious exception to the “last player from the attacking team to touch the ball” rule is the blatant own-goal, where a member of the defending team puts the ball into his own net by some calamitous error or misjudgement. In instances where the attacking team's player has his effort deflected into the net by a member of the defending team, we side with the conventionally accepted view that the attacking player still receives the credit, but only if his shot was on-target. We'll study as many camera angles as possible to establish this truth, but, if it's not clear, we give the benefit of the doubt to the attacker. We reserve the right to change any decision at any time should any new evidence come to light which makes it necessary to do so. In summary, you can be confident in referencing our all-time goal charts that they're 100% authentic, organic and, above all, accurate to the truth as much as is humanly possible. |
 |
Our aim is to include the names of the players making assists for both teams in each and every match from 2012-13 onwards, listed one at a time with score sequence and goal timing bracketed, and og's clearly identified wherever appropriate in relation to the main scorer. Again, no matter where the game is played, the assists sequence is shown from Partick Thistle's perspective i.e. 1-0 when we take the lead and 0-1 when we fall behind. Without exception, we have consistently applied the original OPTA model for assists, and award no more than one assist per goal. An assist is credited to the last player from the attacking team to pass the ball, intentionally or otherwise, to the goal scorer, unless an opposing player has made an intervention which has changed the trajectory of the ball in such a way that the pass would not otherwise have made it to the goal scorer. No assists are awarded for goals which are scored from rebounds, or goals which are scored directly from free-kicks or penalty-kicks. |
 |
The converted penalty tick symbol is not included in the actual match hub, but is utilised in the dedicated Every penalty (taken) or Every penalty (faced) pages as well as the 'Every penalty' tab on the individual player's profile pages. In terms of the match hub, our aim is to include the names and timings for every converted penalty in each and every match in the goalscorers sequence line, e.g. Jered Stirling (2-0, pen 43 mins). |
 |
The unconverted penalty tick symbol is not included in the actual match hub, but is utilised in the dedicated Every penalty (taken) or Every penalty (faced) pages as well as the 'Every penalty' tab on the individual player's profile pages. Our aim is to include the names and timings for every single unconverted penalty in these pages. In the actual match hubs, unconverted penalties are usually (but not always) acknowledged in our 'Match Report' tab. |
 |
Our aim is to include the names of the players receiving yellow cards for both teams in each and every match from 1997-98 onwards, listed in order received. Timings have not been recorded. In order to remain historically consistent, second yellows are always ignored as superfluous. Although we have a great many bookings noted since the 1960s, we have decided not to publish them, reasoning that incomplete data in this field would be unsatisfactory, and would lead to more confusion than was worth it. We may reverse this policy at some point in the future if our pre-1997 data collection can be greatly deepened. |
 |
Our aim is to include the names of the players being ordered off for both teams in each and every match from 1886-87 onwards - the first season known to have included such an occurrence in football. We also aim to bracket the score at the time of sending off and the timing in minutes. |
 |
Our aim is to include the names of the players involved in the substitutions (on and off) for both teams in each and every match from 1966-67 onwards - the first season of such occurrences being a regular part of the match day. We also aim to bracket the timings of all such substitutions. Beyond that, a special effort has also been made to include, in exactly the same way, substitutions wherever they occurred randomly in our fixtures before that date, the earliest being away back in season 1889-90. |
 |
Our aim is to name both teamlines, including substitutes, in forename and surname form, with sub goalkeepers in the #12 position. All Thistle players are aged on a per match basis, and have a profile picture (if one exists) beside their country-of-birth flag, and have a hyperlink to their profile page. Player names are listed in the common form wherever we get a good sense of what that is e.g. Bobby Law not Robert Law. All Thistle players have been appointed a unique database name meaning that there is no possible duplication in lists or reports. In cases where there is no discernable difference in name, we use a square bracketed roman numerals system, appointed numerically to make sense of the chronological sequence, with the first appearance on a match day squad being the all important date. For example, two unidentified Smiths from 1898 and 1914 would be identified as Smith [i] and Smith [ii] respectively. We have also ensured that the unique database name for all Partick Thistle players follows them wherever they go on their journey. This policy has enabled us to identify them in every opposition team line-up as "former Jag", "future Jag" or "current Jag" as appropriate. Our aims are generally less ambitious for opposition players, although we have made an effort to similarly list them in their common day form, including forename and surname. Although we have not uniquely identified all of the non Partick Thistle footballing journeymen, we have at least tried to ensure that we stick with the same name for each player on a per team basis. For example, John Lambie as a St Johnstone player would always be "John Lambie" and never veer off to the occasional "Johnny Lambie" or such-like. Further, we aim is to include a footnote to clearly identify the source for every teamline, with a comparison note to the OH position for reassurance or problem highlighting, wherever there is a comparison to make. By making a clear explanatory note to account for each and every teamline discrepancy / dilemma arising, we hope that others may be encouraged to offer information which may be helpful with regards to the tricky questions which arise from time to time. |
 |
As stated in the teamlines explanation above, our aim is to publish the age of each Partick Thistle player on a match-by-match basis. As an extension of this, we further aim to publish the average age of the starting eleven in each and every match. As you'd expect, the average age is calculated to correspond only with the number of players for whom a birth date is known. |
 |
Around 40% of our match hubs carry footnotes underneath the team line-ups, either using the header 'Notes' (for general explanations) or 'Match data help required' (self explanatory). Under the header 'Notes' we offer explanations for any special circumstances surrounding the match in question. It could be relating to the teamline, a note that the fixture was originally scheduled for another date, the name of an unfamiliar town in which the game was played, or any miscellaneous note of interest which isn't covered in any other part of the match hub. Written explanations for disputed goals or assists are also included in this section (see 'Goals' above for more info on our 'Disputed Goals Panel'). Under the header 'Match data help required' we isolate the specific instances of our desired missing data such as the venue, the kick-off time, the referee, the attendance, the half-time score, missing players or missing scorers. Any interested parties are invited to get in touch and assist with any of the problematic or missing data. Anyone who does so will receive our thanks and a mention in our credits section. |
'Match Report' tab
| Hub Logos | Our aims and contents explanations |
|---|---|
|
|
Our aim is to include our own potted report for each and every match, noting the key incidents with a brief indication of how the game generally played out. This we have done for all known matches, 1876 to date. |
 |
These days, we collect and re-publish a contemporary media report for every match as it happens, and will continue to do so. Our initial aim was to include a transcribed contemporary media report for every match historically, but this proved to be too laborious, and very little progress is being made on that front. That said, we currently have a contemporary media report transcribed for each and every match from 1992-93 to date. In total, almost 2,000 matches are covered in this way. Whilst there are no immediate plans to work towards increasing that number pre-1992 in any meaningful way, any contributions in that regard would be very gratefully received. |
 |
Our aim is to include a brief post-match quote from the Partick Thistle manager, although we have only introduced this dedicated feature from 2016-17 onwards. Beyond that date, quotes appear regularly in the bodies of the match reports, but are not especially isolated. Post-match quotes from opposition managers are also included often, but only when they're readily available online. |
'Podcast' tab
| Hub Logos | Our aims and contents explanations |
|---|---|
 |
Match-specific podcasts are occasionally embedded in our hubs, almost always by the excellent fan-produced 'Draw, Lose or Draw' podcast. Our latest aim is to include them for every match from 2024-25 onwards, as long as they are being produced. Back episodes from any Thistle match podcasts would be welcome; anyone interested in facilitating such an endeavour are invited to get in touch. |
'Scrapbook' tab
| Hub Logos | Our aims and contents explanations |
|---|---|
 |
This tab usually houses cut-outs from match-day newspaper reports. Potentially, it can also include side stories, previews or match-day memorabilia such as programme covers or match tickets. There's no firm plan or policy to go out of our way to collect entries but, by July 2025, Over 3,500 (around 52%) of our first team matches were covered. |
'Gallery' tab
| Hub Logos | Our aims and contents explanations |
|---|---|
 |
This tab is dedicated to match-day pictures and can house anywhere from one single picture to several hundred pictures when an entire album is being accessed or embedded. There's no firm plan or policy to go out of our way to collect historical entries but, by July 2025, some 600 (around 9%) of our first team matches were covered. In the modern era, we're looking for a reliable (and free) solution that will enable us to embed photo galleries from the image hosting site, Flickr, so please get in touch → if you can help (we've tried and failed with quite a few). Meantime, we're aiming for the second best option of linking externally to Donald Wilson's excellent galleries by directly including one leading photograph on our site. |
'Video Highlights' tab
| Hub Logos | Our aims and contents explanations |
|---|---|
 |
Our aim is to embed a match highlights video for every match where such media is freely available. Contributions of older matches not currently embedded would be very welcome. Obviously a Jagzone subscription (only £5.99 per month) is the vastly superior choice for the current seasons, with extended highlights, great commentary and lots of other special productions! |
'Stats Watch' tab
| Hub Logos | Our aims and contents explanations |
|---|---|
 |
Our aim is to include a bullet-point list to highlight key stats on a per-match basis, covering every known match from 1875-76 onwards. |
Match Category Definitions
Throughout the Thistle Archive you can rely on the terms "Top-Flight", "League", "League Max", "Major Competitive", "Competitive" and "All Games" to be used consistently and without contradiction to describe our streaks, tallies and milestones.
Top-FlightThe premier national-level League in Scottish football, governed throughout the years by the Scottish Football League (SFL), the Scottish Premier League (SPL) and the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). Note, the second world war disrupted the "first-class" competition, with the SFL running a regional League system in 1939-40 before retiring for six consecutive seasons in the springtime of 1940. In line with the Stats community, we do not classify any of the Leagues from these seven seasons as "Top-Flight".
|
LeagueThis is the preferred League category of The Thistle Archive and is in line with the general consensus of the Stats world, although we admit to feeling that it's a bit of a wrench not to include the pre-SFL and second world war seasons.
|
League MaxWith the SFL denouncing triumphalism in the WWII era, and declaring that the winners of the hastily arranged Regional Leagues (Western and Eastern Divisions) should not be regarded as the champion clubs for the season (albeit a springtime '40 about-turn sanctioned an end-of-season play-off decider), the Stats world have long since followed the path of not including the SFL's two regional Leagues of 1939-40 as "official", a thought process which was also carried forward to the 6 independently run "Southern League" seasons which followed. This is true, in fact, of Stattos for both the English and Scottish Leagues, with both the EFL and SFL having decided upon similar low-key regional strategies for the fitba'. Similarly dismissed are the Leagues which existed outwith the SFL in the early 1890s, namely the Scottish Alliance and the Scottish Federation, both of which are generally deemed to be "non-League" second-class affairs. We have mixed feelings about this, so much so that we'd say we were torn 50-50 as to whether or not we should ignore the protocol and include the nine other seasons as outlined. Ultimately, however, we decided to stick with the accepted national-level SFL / SPL / SPFL Leagues as our preferred League category. Occasionally, however, we feel it is in order to ensure a degree of justice for our players of the early 1890s and the seven wartime seasons, hence the reason why we have introduced a sub-category which we've labelled League Max, and can be wheeled out whenever it's deemed appropriate to do so.
|
Major CompetitiveThis category includes the tournaments from the Competitive category which are deemed to be "first-class" by the stats world. We don't pay much heed to this category on the Thistle Archive as we feel it doesn't suit the history of Partick Thistle; an example being our local tournaments which could in no way be described as second-class in the bygone days of old. That said, this Major Competitive category can be useful for levelling the playing field when it comes to making comparisons with the stats of other clubs and players.
excludes
|
CompetitiveThis is the most commonly used category on the Thistle Archive, and almost has an omnipresence in both our club and player records alike. We include every major and minor tournament, thereby avoiding the inconsistencies which are inevitably thrown up whenever subjectivity is introduced to the mix.
excludes
|
All GamesThe All Games category is one which is truly representative of the entire 15 decade breadth of the club's history, including, as it does, all legitimate first-team games - competitive, friendly and benefit fixtures alike. Given that friendly challenge matches made up the big majority of the fixture card in the 1870s and 1880s, this seems completely natural to us. Some players only ever played in these types of games - who are we to deny them their profile? We often like to utilise this category when analyzing individual player achievements such as hat-tricks, which might otherwise go unrecognized. Willie Paul, for example, is known to have scored over 220 goals for the club. If we stick with competitive games only, he would lose over 100 of those, which surely can't be fair?
excludes
|
Match Category Definitions (women)
At the time of launching the womem's category we have focused only on the "Competitive" record of Partick Thistle's women's team, and this we will use to describe our streaks, tallies and milestones.
Competitive (women)As with the men's first team, we include every major and minor tournament, thereby avoiding the inconsistencies which are inevitably thrown up whenever subjectivity is introduced to the mix.
excludes
|
Special Notes
Excluded GamesCompetitive fixtures which were voided due to abandonment, or were fully played then subsequently voided by the governing bodies, are excluded from all tallies, streaks, milestones and player records. They do not feature in our regular season match lists. We take a different view for the friendly matches which did not meet the regulation 90 minutes due to extenuating circumstances (usually the darkness), reasoning that these games had no bearing on competitions, and the results were generally accepted by all parties concerned. For the full list of all cut-short games which we've deemed to be legitimate, see here. For the avoidance of doubt, all games excluded from our stats are reproduced below. These matches are only included in our Z-list section. |
Win, Draw or Lose ScenariosWhen it comes to awarding wins, draws or losses for the purposes of our streaks, tallies and milestones, it's important to note that, for practical purposes, there can only ever be one single outcome for each individual match, and this may not be immediately apparent (or logical) from the result in regular time. Wins, draws or losses are obvious at the conclusion of 90 minutes play for the biggest majority of non-tie-breaker matches (e.g. league matches and friendlies) and no special thought process is required. Past exceptions would include a substantial number of matches which didn't make the full 90 (or 120!) and were called early, as noted here. The position at the call of time in all of these cases stands. Not so obvious are the wins, draws or losses for special matches where tie-breaker rules are in place. In these cases, the ultimate win-draw-lose outcome is usually only applied after the result of any extra-time or tie-break decider on penalties, corners or coin-toss, whichever was in place at the time by the tournament organizers. For the avoidance of doubt, three practical scenarios are outlined below: League Cup 'Bonus' PensSince 2016-17 to date, matches in the group stages of the League Cup which are drawn after 90 minutes result in both teams receiving one point and a penalty shoot-out ensues which gains (what's described by the competition organisers as) a "bonus point" for the winners. We deem such matches to be drawn in terms of streaks, tallies and milestones, and, thankfully, the published tables on the SPFL website concur, so we're all agreed! One-legged (no replay) knockout tiesSince these matches are played to an immediate conclusion, there can be no draw in terms of streaks, tallies and milestones. Ultimately, such ties are either won or lost. However, although technically speaking the rules state that penalty shoot-out goals are added to regular play goals to determine winners and losers, we don't strictly adhere to this as it would lead to some odd declarations e.g. that we lost 12-11 to St Johnstone in 2005. Therefore, for the purposes of our goals for and against columns - and for registering goalscorers - we display only the regular-play goals in our "headline result" (asterisked), and press the "re-set" button so-to-speak, allowing the penalty shoot-out (starting from zero-zero) to separately determine the ultimate winner for the purposes of our streaks, tallies and milestones. Two-legged (no replay) knockout tiesUndoubtedly the scenarios here can be very challenging in terms of perception, for example in the unique case of 17 May 2024 where Thistle "won" the second leg of their play-off tie vs. Raith Rovers (2-1 after extra-time), but lost the tie on penalties (3-4). It could reasonably be argued that the penalties relate to the 210 minute tie, not just the game on the night, and that the Thistle "win" on the night can therefore stand. However, the one MAJOR flaw with this argument is the scenario (with precedent on 2-Sep-1978) where both legs are drawn. After losing on penalties in such an example, it cannot credibly be argued that you've went "2 games unbeaten" in anyone's language. This is an unbeatable quandary. It's our conclusion therefore that - in circumstances where the second leg of a knockout tie results in a penalty shoot-out being required - the one-legged "winner takes all" rule (applied exactly as outlined above) takes the ultimate priority and that - for the purpose of streaks, tallies & milestones - Thistle "lost" on 17 May 2024. The precedent is firmly established. |
Abbreviations / SourcesThis (incomplete) list quotes sources which have been used in the compilation of match data and player profiles.In certain places throughout the website (mainly in the individual match profiles) we refer to these sources in abbreviated style, as clarified in the table below:
|
advertisement
Scottish referees have a rich history in international football, with the very best ranking amongst the world's greatest officials. Drew Herbertson's new book tells their long overdue story, providing biographies of all the Scots who have handled international matches. From the early pioneers when international football first started in 1872 through to the current FIFA list, “Scotland's International Football Referees” commemorates their careers and is a tribute to their achievements.
• World Cup appointments
Buy now: £13.57 (paperback) or £3.49 (kindle edition) from Amazon
• European Championship appointments
• International club and other country competitions
