You Couldn't Make It Up!

by Jack Little

Port Glasgow Athletic provided Thistle with many encounters laced with incident - especially at their Clune Park home. Thistle led 2-1 with just seconds to go in their match on 19/9/1903. Both teams had been criticised in the press for their over-robust play and when the referee failed to give Port a penalty in the dying seconds the final whistle signalled a pitch invasion by the Port supporters. Several Thistle players were assaulted. The referee (Mr Russell from Dunfermline) had to be given a police escort to the station to catch his train. The resulting SFA enquiry concluded that supporters in Port Glasgow had "novel ideas…as to how they ought to comport themselves" and that "the language of its people is neither refined nor classical" and that throwing missiles at visiting players and kicking them on their way to the pavilion was commonplace. After much damming testimony, Port were censured and their ground was inspected.

Publishing date An original Thistle Archive publication, 07-Sep-2020.
Latest edit date Latest edit version 02-Jun-2020.

© The Thistle Archive 2015-2024. All rights reserved. Third-party trademarks and content are the property of their respective owners, and subject to their own copyright terms and conditions. See the website links provided in each case.