The Thistle Archive

Media report

The 2003/04 season had been horrendous for the club. After back-to-back promotions and a 02/03 season filled with silky football, Alex “Toastie” Burns’ departure to Motherwell left a gaping hole up front that Thistle struggled to replace. Gerry Collins was sacked midway through the season, with Gerry Britton and Derek Whyte moving up from the players dressing room as co-managers. Thistle finished last in the Premier League, eight points behind 11th place Aberdeen and sixteen points from safety. Britton and Whyte stayed to rebuild, as Thistle looked to bounce back to the Premiership immediately. Thistle’s pre-season started on Monday the 12th of July with a trip to Ochilview to face Stenhousemuir. With 675 punters in attendance, Thistle raced into the lead when player-manager Britton headed home a cross from Jamie Mitchell after six minutes. Andy Gibson put Thistle 2–0 up on thirty minutes, with a low shot under the keeper. After the usual pre-season carousel of substitutions, the game fizzled out as Stenny failed to threaten in a dull second half where most Jags players were more concerned about whether they had packed their suncream yet.

A mere three days later, Thistle were in the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri on the island of Cyprus. A throwback to when Cyprus was a crown colony, Akrotiri was retained by the British under the 1960 treaty of independence. A vital part of the UK’s surveillance network in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, Akrotiri has a significant military presence to this day, with multiple bases and stations for signals intelligence. This British military presence would provide Thistle their opponents for two of the games in Cyprus, in the form of the Royal Highland Fusiliers. A legendary army regiment, the Royal Highland Fusiliers had a notable history in football too, winning the Army FA Cup three times in 1969, 1970 and 1979. Sadly for them, this reputation would count for nothing over the course of two games against the heavy fire of Partick Thistle’s brave boys overseas, both played at the Happy Valley Playing Fields in the Episkopi Cantonment.

With Akrotiri being a secure military facility, attendance was limited to a sparse number of curious locals. Those lucky enough to attend got a treat as Thistle hit the Fusiliers with an assault of military precision, crushing them 9–0, with John Gemmell, Willie Howie, Andy Ross, Steve Fulton & Andy Gibson getting on the scoresheet to compliment the four scored by journeyman trialist Richie Pacquette. To say Pacquette has been around a bit would be an understatement. The man has been through more clubs than Tyrrell Hatton on Ryder Cup weekend. Still playing at 40, the Dominican internationalist is listed as having played for 33 clubs on his Wikipedia, including multiple stints at Hampton & Richmond and Maidenhead. The fact Thistle are not listed raises a question… how many other clubs Pacquette has graced the turf of as a trialist? We could be in triple figures by now!

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