‘Loons’ Out to Break Cup Tie ‘Duck’ v Thistle

When Kevin Thomson made the draw for the third round of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup just over four weeks back he paired the ‘Loons’ and the ‘Jags’ together for only the second time in the history of the national tournament.

Amazingly despite the lengthy history of both clubs and the amount of seasons they have competed in the competition in all its guises the only previous clash between the sides took place in the 1987/88 season. It did however take two matches to find a winner to be fair on that occasion and in the end it was the Maryhill outfit who proceeded to the fourth round and a tilt at Clydebank.

At the time just under 40 years ago the clubs were certainly not two leagues apart. Forfar managed by Henry Hall were in fact just ahead of Partick going into the tie in old style First Division of 12 clubs in a three tier system at the time, by the end of the season finishing in fourth spot, four places and seven points ahead of John Lambie’s side. The ‘Loons’ had actually triumphed 1-0 courtesy of a Kenny Macdonald strike in Maryhill only two weeks before on Fine Fare League One duty as it was known back in the day.

A 2,000 plus crowd was anticipated for the third round tie between the sides in late January of 1988 at Station Park but sadly the waterlogged playing surface was deemed unplayable on the Saturday morning after 24 hours of torrential rain in the area. The game however went ahead the following Wednesday in front of an attendance of 1,332, still by a distance the best turnout of the season and in a hard fought encounter, the home side deservedly took the lead in the 74th minute, John Clark heading the ball just inside Archie McLean’s post from a pinpoint Steve Clarke cross.

The home side had a couple of golden opportunities to seal the tie, but paid the penalty with four minutes of the ninety remaining. John McNaught rose unchallenged in the box to bullet home a header from a Pat Kelly assist, Stewart Kennedy in the ‘Loons’ goal unable to prevent the tie going to a replay at Firhill the following midweek.

That replay was due to go ahead on the Monday evening but the Firhill pitch was deemed unfit in mid afternoon after steady rain had fallen since early morning. Forty eight hours later on an exceptionally heavy surface, the ‘Loons’ hope of a cup run came crashing to a halt, Partick totally dominating the game from start to finish. Stewart Kennedy had already saved an Ian McDonald spot-kick prior to Eddie Gallagher breaking the deadlock on the twenty minute mark. Nine minutes later and the mercurial Billy Dodds added number two pouncing on a rebound after a ferocious Alan Dinnie strike hit the woodwork, the ‘icing on the cake’ for the home side a second Dodds counter with five minutes remaining.

The ‘Loons’ fans in the crowd on the night of 2,434 could only ‘lick their wounds’ and as it so happened look forward to an excellent run of results before the season’s close.

Hopefully the current Athies support will have more to cheer come this Saturday evening, but all of a ‘Loons’ persuasion are realistic enough to know a tough ninety minutes lies ahead against Mark Wilson’s side who recorded a 1-0 home win over Dunfermline Athletic on Tuesday evening to go equal on points at the top of the Championship table alongside St. Johnstone.

The ‘Loons’ line up in the first clash at Station Park back in ’88 was;- Kennedy, Lorimer, Hamill, Brazil, Morris, Brewster, Blackie, S. Clarke, J. Clark, Morton(Ward) MacDonald. Sub not used – Bennett. In the replay Phil Smith replaced Rab Morris, while Kenny Ward was up front from the start in place of John Clark.