Robert Reid - A history of Partick Thistle

On 8th June 2013, club historian Robert Reid held a talk, in the Woodside Library, on the history of Partick Thistle.

He very kindly allowed the Jagscast to record this talk to allow it to be spread amongst Jags fans throughout the world.

Listeners should note that the views expressed in this Jagscast are Robert Reid's personal views, and do not reflect those of Partick Thistle football club.

The Jagscast would like to thank the Woodside Library for hosting the event and Mr Reid for allowing us to record it.

Conrad Balatoni Special - Part 2 and 3

After some major technical issues, who knew laptops didn't like Irn Bru?, we have the final two parts of the Conrad Balatoni special.

Apologies for the delay.

A night with Conrad - Part 1

On Wednesday 24th April, the Jagscast went to Edinburgh. ThistleStats and Raymond Stark met up with three members of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland Supporters Association.

A special guest, Conrad Balatoni, also joined them and what followed was over 2 hours of intense recording, talking about everything football-wise.

This is part 1 of the recordings.

Our thanks go to Kenny Macgregor who arranged the venue, and EEOS involvement and also to Conrad Balatoni for being a good sport and generously giving us his time.

We hope you enjoy!

Goodbye SFL!!

Jagscast Episode 13 Released 12th May 2013

Topics Discussed:
Review of the Season!



Panel: Donald Larmour, Raymond Stark

Enjoy the show!

Thanks to everyone who has listened this season!

Paul Paton Interview

Donald "Marc Corcoran" Balatoni caught up with PTFC club captain Paul Paton earlier this week, to discuss his Firhill highlights, footballing heroes and favourite PTFC tops.

One Last Trip

Jagscast Episode 12 Released 5th May 2013

Topics Discussed:
Points Round
Firhill Cup Round-Up
Dunfermline Review
Steven Craig
Speed Round
Dumbarton Preview


Panel: Donald Larmour, Davy Mains, Barry O'Neill, Raymond Stark

Enjoy the show!

Firhill Cup preview with Davy Mains

On Sunday April 28, 120 Partick Thistle fans will get to live their dream by walking out onto the pitch to play in the Firhill Cup.

The competition was set-up by Davy Mains and Charlie Kirkwood three years ago and it gives Thistle fans the chance to play at the stadium in which they have been watching their heroes all season.

Davy said: “Charlie’s run loads of football tournaments and it was his idea. Every fan in the world of any team wants to play on that team’s park with the shirts. The first year he approached me and I sponsored one of the teams through my company. It was really good, a really good experience for everybody. My team won which is when I got bitten by the bug of helping Charlie to organise it last year and then this year as well.”

Although the tournament was set-up so the fans could play football. It is also a big earner for the club. In the past two seasons they have raised around £12,000 - which has gone directly to the manager’s playing budget – and this year they hope to raise close to £8,000.

Fans pay £25 each and that guarantees them at least three matches. The eight teams are split into two groups of four with the winners of each group playing off in the final. Davy said:

“The final gets a wee bit special. If you win your group you flip a coin and one of you is the home team and the other’s the away team. You go into the home dressing room and in there are 16 Thistle kits on the pegs with the numbers on the back, same in the away dressing room. We have a proper referee for that. We get everyone wound-up as we normally do the beat the goalie competition before the final. Then the run-out music comes on. The referee leads the teams out into the centre-circle and you play 20 minutes each-way - the group games are 20 minutes each - with the full proper kit, which is amazing. All my avatars and my pictures on
my twitter and stuff like that are me wheeling away from scoring into the City end. It was immense. Everyone who has had the experience of playing in the Firhill Cup just says it’s a magical experience. It’s hard to put into words I think - the experience of being a fan in the stands and then actually getting onto the park. And although the crowd is not huge for the Firhill Cup you’ll still have maybe 500 people in the stands.”

He added: “In order to have it over one day you can’t really have any more than eight teams. We’ve gone up to 16 players on each team to try and accommodate everyone that wants to play. And this year we’ll probably play 12-a-side rather than 11-a-side, which is great because for old men like me it’s a big park.”

The event is set-up as a family-fun day, tickets are only £1 for Adults and it is free for kids. The players will hope to have a big crowd to cheer them on and this season have been putting in some extra effort to prepare for the tournament.

Andy Young, a Community Coach at Partick Thistle, volunteered to give the players professional coaching sessions in the lead-up to the Firhill Cup.

(Writer Adam Henderson attended the final two training sessions and will be writing an article on them before the Cup takes place this Sunday - including; interviews with the coach, players and videos of some of the highlights.)

Davy said: “This is the first year we’ve done the Firhill Cup training program, which is just to give the guys a wee bit of formal coaching. We want them to feel as if they’re involved a bit more. Andy brilliantly volunteered to do it for free. We got a pitch in the Firhill complex for free and we get donations from some of the guys after. Which is absolutely brilliant because it’s what we can afford because we want it to be inclusive and not exclusive.“

The players will have plenty of incentive to play well as amongst the crowd will be their Jags heroes who take part in a role reversal by watching the fans from the stands.

Davy said: “Hopefully most of the first-team squad will come along. There’s no insistence on the players coming along. But this year we’re hoping that the day before the Firhill Cup we’ll lift the trophy at our home game against Dunfermline. I’m sure the players will go out and have a few sherries afterwards and therefore most of them will be kicking about Glasgow. We’re also hoping this year that we’ll have the trophy at the Firhill Cup and everyone will be able to see the trophy and have their
picture taken.”

Davy had several stories of current and ex-players who have attended in previous years. He said: “Paul Paton came along the first year– ankle in cast – and his crutches, and spent two hours talking to fans. Second year he came along - that was him established in the team - and signed some shirts for us. We get guys like Gerry Brittain and Ian Maxwell who come along as well. Last year Jackie [McNamara] and Sid [Simon Donnelly] refereed some of the games. The year before we couldn’t get Paul Cairney off the pitch because he refereed five games on the trot. It’s great because the players contribute to the day tremendously - just by mixing with the fans.”

Charlie and Davy organise almost the entire tournament themselves. The only input the club have is setting the date. Davy said: “The biggest difficulty we have is finding the right date. Last year was a nightmare because Thistle were sharing with Glasgow Warriors and we had to wait until we knew they hadn’t qualified for the play-offs and unfortunately that meant by the time we actually got onto the park there wasn’t too much park left.”

After Davy and Charlie set a date with the club. Davie said they have to: “organize the players, put the links to sign-up out through social media and collect the money.” He said the latter is: “basically standing about street corners waiting for people to come up and hand you £25 and walk away which is a bit weird at times. This year we’ve pretty much been at all the home games and a couple of the away games too.”

He added: “Charlie organizes the websites and the day stuff. I do most of the sponsorship and the business stuff. It’s my job to go round and talk to all the companies that sponsor Thistle or would like to sponsor a team and collect sponsorship money.”

Although they want to raise money for the club, Davy said: “The main driver for the whole thing is to have a fun day.”

He listed some of the family attractions at the event which help make it a fun day, including: “bouncy castles, slides, face painting, beat the goalie competitions and storytelling for kids.”He said they also have: “a football shirt auction where fans donate their shirts that they’ve grown out of or no longer want and we re-sell them back out.”

Davy said: “We haven’t quite managed to get sponges for the players yet - which we’ve been threatening to do for three years. We sell programs as well and we get donations of MacB water and McGhee’s pies as well.”

Firhill will open at 10am on Sunday and the Cup is expected to finish at 4pm. Both the club and organisers have said that everyone is welcome to come along and it’s only £1.
More information can be found on Charlie Kirkwood’s website which is:
http://www.kirkwoodscastles.co.uk/firhill-cup---2013.php

Interview by Adam Henderson - Sports Journalist Student and friend of the Jagscast. You can contact Adam on Twitter at @Adam426

Champions!!

Jagscast Episode 11 Released 26th April 2013.

Topics Discussed:
Points Round
Turning Points in the season.
Foxy Love
Dunfermline Predictions

Panel: Adam Henderson, Donald Larmour, Davy Mains, Barry O'Neill, Raymond Stark, Andy Young

Enjoy the show!

The Jagscast apologise for the abrupt nature of the ending. due to rising background noise making the end of it unlistenable

One More Point

Jagscast Episode 10 Released 19th April 2013.

Topics Discussed:
Points Round
Airdrie Review
Rovers Review
Favourite Paton and Erskine moments
Falkirk Preview

Panel: Graeme Cowie, Donald Larmour, Steven Murphy, Raymond Stark

Enjoy the show!

Goal of the Season

One Game At A Time

Jagscast Episode 9 Released 12th April 2013.

Topics Discussed:
Points Round
Ramsdens Cup Final Review
Morton Review
Airdrie Preview

Panel: Donald Larmour, Barry O'Neill, Raymond Stark, Andy Young

Enjoy the show!

We Got This

Jagscast Episode 8 Released 5th April 2013.

Topics Discussed:
Firhill Cup Training
Cowdenbeath Review
Raith Review
Ramsdens Final Build Up
Morton Build Up

Panel: Davy Mains, Raymond Stark, Andy Young

Enjoy the show!

Not drunk, drinking or hungover.

Jagscast Episode 7 Released 29th March 2013.

Topics Discussed:
Points Round
Archie's appointment
Livingston Review
Cowdenbeath Review
Firhill Cup Exclusives
Chat with Russell Buchanan - owner of Brass Monkey and The Den
PFA POTY chatter
Cowdenbeath/Raith preview

Panel: Donald Larmour, Davy Mains, Andy Young

Enjoy the show!




Firhill Cup INFO:

Teams - To be Announced

Training

When? - Thurs 4th April, Thurs 11th April, Thurs 18th April, Thurs 25th April. 5.20PM START!! Approx 1 hour.
Where? - Firhill Complex
Cost? - Donations into Firhill Cup fund buckets.

NO METAL STUDS!!!


Firhill Cup T - Shirts are available at http://www.teamwearscotland.com/partick-thistle-replica-store/376-firhill-cup-shirt.html

Xtreme Buggypushing.

Jagscast Episode 6 Released 22nd March 2013.

Topics Discussed:
Points Round
Accies Review
Where Are They Now?
Stuart Bannigan
Speed Round *NEW*
Livingston preview

Panel: Vinny Ferguson, Donald Larmour, Raymond Stark

Enjoy the show!



Raymonds blog can be accessed at: http://themaryhillmagyar.wordpress.com/

Amazing Archie

This episode of the Jagscast is dedicated to @Archietime1

Jagscast Episode 5 Released 15th March 2013.

Topics Discussed:
Points Round
Dumbarton Review
Where Are They Now?
A case for the defence
Flawless Lawless
Accies preview

Panel: Davy Mains, Donald Larmour, Raymond Stark

Enjoy the show!

Once a Jag. Always a Jag.

After some issues last week with not being able to locate the Jagscast on mobile devices, we have released the cast this week on two different players, a HTML one and a flash one. They both play the same cast, it's just the players that have changed. If you are still unable to see this week's cast(or the interview with Andy Young) then please inform us through Facebook, Twitter or by leaving a comment on the blog. Thanks for listening!


Jagscast Episode 4 Released 8th March 2013.

Topics Discussed:
PTFC One Goal Wonders
Dunfermline Review
Steven Craig
Interview with Andrew Young - PTFC Community Coach

Panel: Adam Henderson, Andrew Young

Enjoy the show!







The full, unedited, interview with Andrew Young:

The Fife Element

Jagscast Episode 3 Released 1st March 2013.

Topics Discussed:
Former players we'd like to see return.
Airdrie/Cowdenbeath review
Thistle's adaptability.
Dunfermline Preview

Panel: Donald Larmour, Davy Mains

Enjoy the show!

Vinny The Poo

Jagscast Episode 2 Released 22nd February 2013.

Topics Discussed:
Firhill Cup
PTFC Autobiographies
Morton/Accies Review
Chris Erskine
Goalscoring defenders
Youth v Experience
Airdrie Preview

Panel: Vinny Ferguson, Jay McGhee, Davy Mains

Enjoy the show!




Firhill Cup Auction details:

"Right guys - we need your help! Last years Firhill Cup included a footie shirt auction and sale which was a huge success - so much so that lots of people have asked if we'll do it again! so we are - but we need your help. We need donations of unwanted or outgrown (!) football shirts - from any team. We'll be delighted to accept books, boots, hats scarves - anything footie related at all!

You can make donations by handing in or posting to the club office; to me in the Aitken Suite before home games or my posting to Firhill Cup c/o Enigma 1 Woodside Terrace Glasgow G3 7UY."

The JagsCast is back!!

The Jagscast has returned to your ears.

On this weeks show we review season 2012/13 so far, talk about Thistle's outstanding home form, assess the factors which will affect the rest of the season and preview the upcoming Morton game.

The Jagscast apologise for poor sound quality. This WILL be rectified for next weeks show.