The Thistle Archive

Media report

After eleven years at Meadowside, time was called at the end of a troubled season. The club had to leave because the ground was to become Henderson's Shipyard. The curtain came down after the 1-1 draw with Hibernian on 30th April 1908. There was only a sparse crowd in attendance with gate receipts amounting to a mere £9. Thistle were required to pay a £30 guarantee to the Edinburgh club!

Only 35 minutes each way were played due to heavy rain. Fred Robertson had the honour of scoring Thistle's last Meadowside goal. There were all sorts of emotional scenes following the final whistle, which must have seemed akin to 'the Last Post' to many of the Thistle diehards. The Union Jack was hauled down for the last time and many a tear was shed by the good folk of Partick. Could this be the death knell of the team they had taken to their hearts, some not just since the opening of Meadowside in 1897, but since the very birth of Thistle in 1876?

Reports that Thistle were close to death were both premature and somewhat hysterical, although being without even the prospect of a new home, and finding themselves acutely embarrassed financially, the outlook was decidedly grim. All sorts of imponderables preyed on people's minds. Would the citizens of Partick continue to follow the club if they were to survive and spring up elsewhere from the ashes of Meadowside? Could they establish themselves in another part of the city if a suitable ground could be found? Then out of the blue (literally) came a flicker of hope. Rangers agreed to let Thistle use Ibrox for some of their season 1908-09 fixtures as a temporary measure.

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