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Dougie featured at #21 in our Top 25 countdown here on The Thistle Archive →

DOUGIE SOMNER

05.11.1977 Rangers [a] D3-3 (SFL Premier Division - game 12)
Dougie Somner (1-0, 14 mins); Jim Melrose (2-0, 16 mins); Ian Gibson (3-2, 50 mins)

♪ We've got Dougie Somner, number nine, we've got the best team in the land ♫ < Who remembers that one then?

Bertie’s Jags were on a great run in the autumn of '77, and were 4 League wins on the trot going into this one. Commentators were talking seriously about the Maryhill Magyars once again being contenders for a continental jaunt in 1978-79, and after 16 minutes of this Premier Division encounter, that talk was underlined in action, as Thistle rocked Ibrox with two goals in two minutes by Dougie Somner and Jim Melrose. Just one month earlier, Dougie had done the Celtic over, securing a 1-0 win at Firhill, and, for a long while, it really was game on for a mighty Old Firm double.

Much of Thistle’s success at this time was down to our strong and deadly number nine; eventually the big guy ensured his Thistle legend status by reaching the 100 goals milestone, 5 of which came against Rangers.

Of his opener, the Evening Times wrote: “Whittaker went on the overlap in 14 minutes and won a corner. Craig’s kick came over and was punched out to the feet of Mackie. The full-back crashed in a vicious shot and DOUG SOMNER deflected it high into the net.”

This set the tone for an unforgettable and pulsating encounter; the proverbial six goal thriller. Post-match, Jock Wallace was full of praise for Thistle: “They put up a tremendous show, it was skill and organisation against organisation and skill.”

Such was the excitement amongst the faithful on the terraces that Dad lost his car keys, and we all had to sit around shivering until deep into the evening when it was finally sorted by the breakdown bloke. We’d do it all again though, hell yeah!

Those tuning in to Sunday Scotsport at 4.15pm were in for a treat. We can only live in hope that, one of these days, a tape might just surface…

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