The Thistle Archive

Media report

IT'S PURE GENIUS; It's Thanks to John That Jags Are on a High. MESSAGE for Mr Roger Mitchell, courtesy of the SPL, somewhere inside Hampden. Get the cigarette papers bought, see big Dave around the corner for some waccy baccy and turn on, tune in and drop out. Because Partick Thistle are back. Mitchell might not be alone in his assumption that anyone who thinks the good old Harry Wraggs will survive in the top flight is on something a wee bit stronger than Buckfast tonic wine. But he and you other doubters out there have forgotten to take one important thing into consideration. Maryhill's very own Mr Nice - John Lambie. The guy is nothing short of a football genius and if anyone can keep Thistle in the SPL then it's him. He did it for three years in the 1990s after all. Perhaps it is his fondness for straight-speaking, with a few sweary words thrown in, or maybe it's the pigeons, or even that daft baseball cap, but for whatever reason Lambie has never been given the credit he deserves. Not that the Thistle fans care about their manager's standing in the Scottish game. As they sang and danced at Love Street, nobody had to tell them what he means to their football club. The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for Lambie when he ran on to the field at the end. The team all love him as well, a point which was driven home when you look at how many players keep re-signing for him.

Alan Archibald has been at the club for the best part of a decade. He knew exactly how bad things got and just what everyone connected with Partick Thistle owed Lambie. He said: “It has been up and down. When I first signed it was full houses at Firhill for Rangers and Celtic and within a couple of years we went down and things got worse and worse. Hopefully things have turned around now but a couple of years ago if anyone had told me this was going to happen I wouldn't have believed them. After the Save the Jags campaign it actually got worse. We were okay financially but we ended up just one game away from the Third Division. When the manager came back the place was a shambles. He is a miracle worker and has made Partick Thistle a great place to work. You really are happy to come into the dressing every morning. The fans have been great, even when we were really down and it's great to pay them back with two championships in a row. We thoroughly deserved it, from the start of the season, and it means everything to the fans that we are back in the Premier League. Everyone thinks we are down already but we surprised a few people this year and we'll be happy to do so again.”

The game itself was almost secondary to everything else, although Thistle did want to seal it off their own backs. That didn't look a certainty as St Mirren started by far the stronger but fate was on the side of the Jags. In 22 minutes Derek Fleming's perfectly-flighted corner was met by the head of Mark McCulloch who powered home the first goal. Saints' best chance came on the stroke of half-time and Barry McLaughlin must have thought he had scored with a header of his own, until Kevin Budinaukas produced a stunning save. The game was settled in 52 minutes when Fleming nipped in to poke Scott McLean's inviting cross home. Unfortunately, he collided with Saints keeper John Hillcoat and left the field on a stretcher.

But nothing could take away from the celebrations and I'll leave the last word to the man himself. Lambie said: “It's all about the players. They have done brilliantly for this club. I know we have big worries for next year but I'll not worry about it now. We will just try to enjoy all of this right now.”

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