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Ian McCall last wrote to you on the day you would have expected to be reading his pre-match programme notes; today is the same, so he writes to you again.

 

Saturday afternoon at 3pm; as a boy growing up in Dumfries I could plan my whole week around this sacred time, knowing with some certainty what I would be doing. I would be at Palmerston Park (in those days one of the best grass pitches in Scotland) with my dad watching Alan Ball, Peter Dickson, Jim Donald et al playing for my home town team, Queen of the South.

Before I state the obvious about how times have changed, I must refer to my favourite game in this early period of my football life; let’s be honest, we all have a few of these!!! Strangely enough, or perhaps not due to the strange nature of Scottish football, it was against Ayr United, the club that I owe a great deal to. The score … 5-4 to Queens at a windy, sodden Palmerston and a Peter Dickson hat-trick. What a game!!

Although TV has at times changed our Saturday routine, it is doubtful whether we will ever have a moan about this again as the current disruption is of a far, far more serious nature.

The pandemic we are all facing is a truly gruesome, silent foe and before I get to an update on football matters; please take care, of yourselves, of the people you love, and of all your neighbours.

The players all have their fitness schedules to follow. We have split them into five groups to make monitoring their work a little bit easier and to a man (it seems!!), they are following their programmes to maintain a good base level of fitness. They are all currently fit and well. When they can get back to work is a little more difficult to predict but perhaps not of the utmost importance at this time.

The players and I are making phone calls to supporters, to keep in touch, in recognition of the fact that we are all in this together. On this note I must apologise to Mr Lawson Spiers, who I phoned on Thursday; I was expecting to speak to a 12-year-old but he informed me that he was a little bit older, born in the fifties!!

Lastly, our CEO (the King of Spain) has told me of the incredible effort of our fans, who if we are being brutally honest have had a turgid two or three years, in terms of getting in touch to see how they could help the club they love. It is quite humbling to hear.

Please take care.

IMc.

Ps in the next instalment, I may tell you why I love the Jags, what my favourite Jags game is and anything else you want to know!!!!!!

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Just had a call from Robert Reid asking if I was keeping well. As glad as I was that 1) he is still kicking about and 2) it wasn't one of our shitebag players calling, it felt a bit like role reversal. The guy is about 105 and struggles to walk, but he's the one asking if I'm coping okay..

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Watching The English Game (vomit) on Netflix. Even the c***s on this call us 'Partick'
Unpopular opinions thread for this pish, but I'm not sure Thistle fans as a collective can get angry at others calling us Partick when some among us refer to The Staggies as "Ross".
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59 minutes ago, cilitbang said:

Got the full article @jagfox99? No quotes in the article (cba subscribing) so just file it under speculative BS?

I couldn't get it either. I'll see if anyone has a copy of it  

Forsyth is quite respected so likely to be true, imo.

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Saturday 4th April, 2020 at 1:59pm

The latest message from the manager arrives for you today, on the date of another scheduled home game, against Arbroath, which is now postponed. Enjoy!

 

Saturday afternoon at 3 o’clock; so why is the red and yellow so dear to me?

Firstly, let’s get an undeniable fact out of the way. Perhaps a little bit different to my first stint in charge of this awesome club, I need to win games to remain here. By that I mean that I completely realise that being a Jags man does not make me exempt from the laws of being a football manager. I freely admit that the job is a bit more difficult than I realised (more on that another time!) but these laws are kind of set in stone and apply to every full-time gaffer.

Back to why Thistle … and there are two strange coincidences that happened before I fell in love with our club.

It may have been around 1987/88 that I attended a reserve game at Firhill; the opposition was either Dunfermline or Hamilton. I was there to watch a pal of mine (Stevie ‘Snowy’ Morrison). I sat in the main stand and got chatting to an older gentleman who was there to watch his son play for Thistle. He was called John Elliot and his son was called Thomas. I met Tommy about a month later, we became great pals and, many years later, he was the best man at my wedding. Already Thistle was starting to seep into me!

Secondly, and at another reserve game at Firhill, I saw a striker play, a striker that I would sign a few years later; his name was Stephen Dobbie. He scored five, six, maybe seven goals that night and I went away with his name written in my wee book in capitals! I’ve managed a few international players but in terms of natural talent, most were a good bit behind him. Incidentally he still tells me he owes me a season!

Why the Jags? Having lived locally for many (many!) years, my base of friends were, almost to a man, Thistle fans. None were working in the football industry … which in some ways explains my mediocre playing career! But they all loved going to Firhill and when I could I would join them. We always stood in the old terracing behind the goal. It was kind of beginning to start then.

I started to realise that the team in Glasgow that most suited my personality was Thistle and I think that’s important. I couldn’t get my head round wanting to watch any team that was going to win almost every week; how can the taste of victory be so incredibly sweet when it is almost guaranteed? Another reason why I evolved to the red and yellow.

There are other reasons but I will leave you with one that rightly or wrongly, I believe. There are maybe another 10-12 clubs of our size in Scotland but we are the only club of our size that can claim to be iconic.

Please be safe and please be healthy.

IMc

 

PS. I have also managed a player with the same levels of natural ability as Dobbie at Thistle!

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Unpopular opinions thread for this pish, but I'm not sure Thistle fans as a collective can get angry at others calling us Partick when some among us refer to The Staggies as "Ross".
Enjoy the seaside league guys lol lol

 

Sent from my Stolen Samsung s20

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, jagfox99 said:

I started to realise that the team in Glasgow that most suited my personality was Thistle and I think that’s important. I couldn’t get my head round wanting to watch any team that was going to win almost every week; how can the taste of victory be so incredibly sweet when it is almost guaranteed? Another reason why I evolved to the red and yellow.

There are other reasons but I will leave you with one that rightly or wrongly, I believe. There are maybe another 10-12 clubs of our size in Scotland but we are the only club of our size that can claim to be iconic.

 

Looks like Jakey McCall's on a second bottle of Scottish Leader.

IMG_1566034068.646287.jpg.e6be8951c88d9744a4841c805cf55019.jpg

Edited by vikingTON
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