Partick Thistle - The Early Years
Posts by: niallcinneide
The 1905-06 season has been reviewed on the site. It was another successful season for Partick Thistle. More records were broken including a top 5 league finish. A record crowd watched a Scottish Cup tie at Meadowside.
At the age of 17 W.W. (William) Tennent signed for Partick Thistle. William was still a schoolboy at Glasgow High School.
Thistle signed Carrick Hamilton from Queen’s Park during the close season of 1905.
Andrew Swan joined Thistle in the summer of 1905, having spent time playing a handful of games Tottenham Hotspur in the Southern League.
In 1888 Partick Thistle travelled to play Mid Annandale, and this report of the journey and match reveals a lot about footballers at the time.
In August 1905 the Evening Times previewed Partick Thistle’s forthcoming season and squad.
In April 1887 the content of one of the sheds at the Henderson shipyard at Meadowside in Partick was revealed – the Partick Thistle yacht.
This advert from the Daily Record of 1906 seems to suggest that a fly puff could be part of the modern day footballer’s training regime, as long as the trainer doesn’t catch you.
Partick FC and two local footballers revolutionised English football by becoming the first players to be paid by their club for playing (four years before the English FA outlawed the practice) in the days of hardcore amateurism.
In October 1904 Andrew Smith was interviewed by the Scottish Weekly Record. Smith joined Thistle in 1880 and served as secretary and president before becoming a Thistle director.
