The Thistle Archive

SEMI-FINALS DRAW

The S.F.A. convened at Carlton Place on this evening, with chairman Thomas White (Celtic) once again presiding over matters various, most importantly the draw for the Scottish Cup semi-finals, with 5 clubs in the hat.

And so, our destiny was set. If we could make the semi-finals for the first time, we would meet Hearts, conquerors of the Celts and strongly fancied by some to go on to lift the trophy itself. Thistle and Hearts had never met in the Scottish Cup before - could this be a season of firsts for the Jags? Reporting in Thursday's Dundee Courier, "Dark Blue", as usual, had plenty of opinion to offer:

GLASGOW'S MONOPOLY

The Scottish public has become so accustomed to seeing all the best of the football fare go to Glasgow that the venues of this year's semi-finals will be accepted with little comment. Still, the S.F.A. might have alloted one of the games to Edinburgh - the one in which Hearts will not participate. The financial side of the question no doubt gained the day for the West, the prospect of a 35,000 crowd or thereabouts not being sufficient to tempt the ruling body to depart from its usual course.

RANGERS OR ROVERS

The outstanding feature of the draw is the grouping of Albion Rovers and Rangers, who met at the same stage of the competition last season. To make the co-incidence still more pronounced, the S.F.A. have ordered the teams to play at Celtic Park, the ground on which they met for the first time last year, when, after two draws, the Rovers qualified to oppose Kilmarnock in the final. Rangers will be really fancied to reverse the result on this occasion, but the Coatbridge enthusiast will no doubt comfort himself with the knowledge that what his team could do once they are capable of repeating.

LIKELY FINALISTS

Hearts await the outcome of the Motherwell v Partick Thistle replay, and if one may judge from their victory over Celtic they do so with confidence. Cup tie prophecies "gang aft agley" however, although it is difficult to resist a forecast for the final. My clubs would be Hearts and Rangers.

Interestingly, a private meeting between Scottish League clubs was also held in Glasgow this night, where talk of introducing a Second Division together with, shock-horror, automatic promotion and relegation was the order of the day, the one caveat being that the clubs gaining promotion shall be bound to satisfy the First Division committee that their grounds are suitable for a first class match. The motion was carried, allowing the matter to be formally considered by the Scottish Football League.

MEDIOCRE LEAGUE FORM CONTINUES

Dundee 1 Partick Thistle 0 (SFL - game 34)

A combination of injuries and a desire to keep the Cup squad fresh meant that there were six changes in the side today, with Tuesday's massive game at Ibrox obviously very much in mind. Further, Jimmy McMullan was down South representing the Scottish Leage against their English counterparts (a 1-0 loss at Highbury) so John Bowie, who had stood in at centre forward on Saturday, slotted in at left half today, dead keen to get his injury plagued season back on track, in whichever position he was asked to play.

It was a feisty affair, but it lacked quality, and Thistle's mediocre League results continued. “Joe Harris was tricky, and tried hard to open out the game for his side, but, as already indicated, the Thistle's front rank was extremely weak, especially in the second half.” (SP)

Scottish Cup Winners 1921

back: Sandy Lister (trainer), Willie Hamilton, Tom Crichton, Kenny Campbell, Jimmy McMenemy, Matt Wilson, John Bowie, Watty Borthwick.
middle: David Johnstone, Jimmy Kinloch, Joe Harris, Willie Bulloch, Jimmy McMullan, Bob McFarlane.
front: John Blair, Willie Salisbury.

(PTS)

	An original Thistle Archive publication, 09-Mar-2021.
	Latest edit version 02-Apr-2021.