Bottom of the heap - a Scottish epic

retired_southdown · 03-14-2006, 11:04 AM

Instead of trying to put the match in my own words, I now present the updates as presented on the Edinburgh Thistle Supporters Club website on that fateful afternoon.

Quote:

10:00 - Raith have the first decent opportunity of the game with a header going over the post.
11:00 - Dean Walker places a shot wide after good lead-up from Marco Pelosi
18:30 - Gary Dempsey has the Rovers at sixes and sevens but placed the shot well wide
29:00 - Andrew Adam has a shocker of a free shot, with the shot going across the face of goal.
32:36 - GOAL THISTLE - Dean Walker slides a delicate shot past Andy McCondichie's outstretched arm after an excellent pass from Gary Dempsey. Davie O'Connor is still wearing his poker face
38:00 - Davidson blasts a free kick to the left of the goal. Gocha is warming up on the sidelines
40:00 - Raith denied an excellent chance of a goal after Adam Coakley's effort hits the crossbar and is cleared by Gavin Skelton
41:00 - Another chance for Raith blazes over the goalposts.
41:30 - Gocha enters the game in place of Marco Pelosi, who has struggled with the pace of the game
45:30 - The Irish magician, Connor Gethins - who is playing his 100th league game for Thistle today, tries a 30-yard strike but is pretty erratic with his accuracy.
48:00 - HALFTIME - Thistle lead 1-0, and are just 45 minutes away from promotion!

45:00 - Ross O'Donoghue starts the second half
55:00 - The first real chance of the second half belongs to Gocha, after some excellent passing, but his shot is wide
57:00 - GOAL THISTLE - The Irish Magician finds the net! Excellent long range pass from David Bagan finds Gethins with no defenders in front of him, the flags stay down and the ball blazes past the net. O'Connor smiles for just a moment, and gets Markus Paatelainen to warm up
61:00 - Gethins nearly scores yet again, with Gary Dempsey providing the opportunity for a header.
64:00 - Corner to Raith after David Bagan takes the safe option in the face of three Raith attackers. The corner is punched away by Graeme Smith, as Gethins breaks away with the ball. McCondichie parrys the ball, and it will be a Thistle corner. The Raith keeper is yelling at his defenders. Paatelainen enters the game for Dean Walker
67:00 - GOAL RAITH - Coakley makes a break down the sideline, and waits for his attackers to arrive, with the resulting header scored by John Boyle. It is his first goal of the season.
73:00 - Gocha provides clear passage for Gethins, but the Magician's shot on goal is parried away and cleared by the defenders
76:00 - Raith fail to score from a Coakley free kick. Daniel Ferry enters the game for Thistle, with Robbie Horn being pulled from the field. Gethins appears to have a minor strain, but now stays on the field with no more changes possible for Edinburgh
84:00 - Just six minutes to go. The Thistle supporters here are going off!
85:00 - GOAL THISTLE - Mark Dempsey gets the ball from an errant Raith pass and finds Paatelainen, who makes sure of the shot. We are going to the First Division!!!!!
89:00 - David O'Connor is going mental on the sidelines, punching the air. He knows we're through
93:00 - John Brady blows the whistle and its official! We're through! The players have made a huddle in the middle of the field and all the replacements and staff run over to join the heap. Some hardy Thistle supporters have also jumped the fence and are running over the join the action. The bus arrives back at Bowmans Road in approximately three hours. I'll see you there! Go The Thistle!

I was stuck in the middle of a huge human sandwich. [i]"It doesn't get any better than this"[/b] exclaimed someone, possibly Gavin Skelton, from underneath me. The celebrations continued off the field, into the dressing sheds, and on the bus trip back to Edinburgh. Back at the stadium, over a thousand supporters were there to greet us. Connor Gethins and Marco Pelosi hammed it up for the cameras, bodysurfing their way over the outstreched arms of the supporters. Despite the fact that we obviously weren't (Stirling had a late draw against Montrose), we sang We Are The Champions over and over and over, never once getting sick of it. Another 25 bottles of champagne were waiting for us on the field of Bowmans Road Stadium, with the party lasting well into the night.

Also celebrating at that very time were the Black and Whites of Gretna, after making it through to the Premier League for the first time. Over in Glasgow, Rangers fans were celebrating their second successive premiership, and calling for Craig Levein to be knighted, whilst Martin O'Neill was facing calls for his sacking from angry fans.

The awards season went by in a flash, with Marco Pelosi, Dean Walker, Gavin Skelton, Graeme Smith and Ross O'Donoghue earning selection in the Second Division Team of the Year. Dean was a deserving runner-up in the Player of the Year award for our division, whilst I finished second to Stirling's Allan Moore in the Manager of the Year.

The season officially ended with a flurry of Cup finals - Sevilla upset Real Madrid to win the UEFA Cup. In an all-Italian Champions League decider, Juventus finally won a final, besting AC Milan on penalties in the final in Rome.

Finally, Kilmarnock claimed the Scottish Cup with a 2-1 win against 2006 champions Motherwell. The Killies have claimed the Cup double for the first time in their history, having earlier won the League Cup.

Three years at Thistle, two promotions, two cup finals, one victory. Not too bad at all.

retired_southdown · 03-14-2006, 11:05 AM

Gee, my formatting is pretty shonky right there. Sorry about that!

***

And so onwards to our fourth season - 2007/08

It was no surprise to see Connor Gethins receive the fans' Player of the Year award for the third straight year. The 'Irish Magician' has really taken the fans to heart with his 70 goals in the past three years. Here's hoping that the rich vein of form can continue.

June meant qualifying for Euro 2008, and Scotland didn't really put their best foot forward, drawing 2-2 with Ireland and losing 0-2 to group leaders Holland

Anticipating a huge rise in the standard of the First Division, I thought it was necessary to sign some more gamebreakers to add to our squad, and decided to look well beyond Scotland's sunny shores for the men required. With Bowmans Packages underwriting all of our signings, we added Ederson, a Brazilian attacking midfielder direct from RS Futebol at a fee of $350,000.

David Hay was released on a free transfer, after three years of service as the main back-up goal keeper, being restricted to just seven apperances. We wish him well in finding a new club. John Dillon and Andrew Reid have also been shown the door as we decided to pay the required compensation and let them go on a free transfer. Aberdeen showed some serious interest in Graeme Smith, offering $50,000, but we decided to knock back the offer and stick with the young keeper for a second season, not fully trusting that Cameron Bell would be able to replecate the efforts that Graeme has in the past season, although I intend to mix the two keepers during the trials.

The draws for the cups were held, and we face two relatively easy matches first up - away to Stenhousemuir in the League Cup, and away to Alloa in the Challenge Cup. However, we were quickly dumped out of the Challenge Cup after a surprise defeat.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">28/7 - Alloa 3 Thistle 2Scorers - Walker 32, 78 (Ross 19 pen, Brighton 37, Cosgrove 55)Challenge Cup 1st Round</pre>

I doubt whether the bookmakers were influenced by the latest result when calculating their odds for promotion this season, but to give Thistle the huge odds of 150/1 is hardly a vote of confidence. As expected, Dundee United are the hot favourites with odds of 4/6.

Celtic were sensationally knocked out of the Champions League in the second qualifying stage by Loko Plovdiv of Poland 3-2 in the second leg after a scoreless first tie.

retired_southdown · 03-14-2006, 11:06 AM

August 2007

Bowmans Road Stadium was a sight to behold on the occasion of our first game in the First Division - a near-capacity crowd of 9,483, all cheering and chanting their way through the game. We back from a goal down, and eventually led but ultimately drew 2-2 to mark a good debut against Dundee United.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">4/8 - Thistle 2 Dundee Utd 2Scorers - Walker 37, Paatelainen 61 (Crawford 33, Scotland 64)League Position - 4th</pre>
During the week, former player Stephen McManus agreed to rejoin Thistle on a heavy incentive-based contract. The fee payable to his Portugese club was $20,000. McManus will probably slot back into the defensive line, where he previously played 45 games for us.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">11/8 - Partick 3 Thistle 1Scorers - Gethins 45 (Hinds 7, 51 pen, Howie 81)League Position - 7th</pre>
We won our first game of the new season with an excellent result at Cappelow Park

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">18/8 - Morton 0 Thistle 2Scorers - O'Donoghue 13, Dempsey 61League Position - 5th</pre>
Inverness CT made the long trip down to Bowmans Road and returned empty handed. Connor Gethins scored an outstanding goal, a 60-yard run capped off by a 20-yard strike. Marco Pelosi broke his nose and will miss a week.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">25/8 - Thistle 2 Inverness CT 1Scorers - Gethins 21, Walker 75 (Juanjo 66)League Position - 5th</pre>
Table - August 2007 - 4 games played

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1. Ross County 12 +82. Dundee Utd 10 +63. Clyde 10 +44. Partick 9 +8 5. Thistle 7 +16. Airdrie Utd 4 -47. Stirling 3 -28. Hamilton 1 -7 9. Morton 1 -1010. Inverness CT 0 -5</pre>

retired_southdown · 03-14-2006, 11:08 AM

September 2007

The League Cup game against Stenhousemuir should have been a good opportunity for our players to play themselves into a bit of form. Unfortunately, they seemed to do exactly the opposite and went down in a very disappointing effort, especially considering the home side were with ten men for half the game.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">4/9 - Stenhousemuir 2 Thistle 1Scorers - Gethins 61 (McNiven 8, Arthurs 23)League Cup 1st Round</pre>
A comfortable win against Hamilton Academical followed. I'm not sure if I can get used to the two-faced performances of the team thus far this season. When we're good, we're very good. When we are bad, we are horrid. The win establishes a handy buffer between us and the bottom half of the division, with a six point gap already. To be honest, I really don't mind missing out on the cups, as long as we can extend this good league form and really begin to challenge the top teams.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">8/9 - Hamilton 0 Thistle 2Scorers - Dempsey 11, Gethins 75League Position - 5th</pre>
We utterly dominated Stirling in our next game, allowing Allan Moore's just two shots on goal. Marco Pelosi and replacement Liam Buchanan scored their first goals of the new season.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">15/9 - Thistle 2 Stirling 0Scorers - Pelosi 63, Buchanan 90League Position - 4th</pre>
We were left ruing what could have been when Ross County paid us a visit.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">22/9 - Thistle 3 Ross County 3Scorers - Ederson 8, 22, Skelton 32 (McStay 12, Higgins 45, 67)League Position - 4th</pre>
Although I'm not a big believer in holding grudges, it was quite important to me that we beat Clyde. Apart from the Bully Wee being an important opponent and marginally above us on the ladder, there was the small matter of their goalkeeper - Michael McGovern, who once termed my managerial abilities as being 'neanderthalic'. Imagine my immense joy when Markus Paatelainen slotted the winning goal past Mickey!

After being ranked a hot favourite for relegation, Thistle were now riding high in the saddle and despite the early stage of the season, it was quite satisfying to see us going toe for toe with the promotion favourites.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">29/9 - Clyde 1 Thistle 2Scorers - Walker 7, Paatelainen 88 (Bell 45)</pre>
Table - September 2007 (8 games played)

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1. Partick 19 +122. Thistle 17 +63. Ross County 16 +64. Clyde 15 +45. Dundee Utd 13 +66. Morton 13 +07. Airdrie Utd 6 -88. Stirling 5 -79. Inverness CT 5 -410. Hamilton 3 -14</pre>

Quote:

Scottish Football News

It is only September and already there is just one Scottish team still in European competition. Following Celtic's stunning exit from the Champions League last month, Kimarnock and Dundee have failed to make the group stage of the UEFA Cup. The Killies lost 3-6 on aggregrate to Liverpool, whilst Dundee were unlucky to be eliminated on away goals against Greek side PAOK.

Partick Thistle will defend their Challenge Cup title in the final against Clyde. The game will be played in early November at Hampden Park. It is Clyde's first apperance in a cup final since 1958.

retired_southdown · 03-14-2006, 11:09 AM

October 2007

Smiles all round at Bowmans Road Stadium, with Ederson winning the Player of the Month award slightly ahead of Ross O'Donoghue. Another midfielder figured prominently in the Young Player of the Month, with Marco Pelosi finishing first runner-up. Just to top it off, I was a runner-up in the Manager of the Month, being slightly shaded by Morton's Jim McInally.

We had two weeks off before our first game of the month at New Broomfield, but it was certainly worth the wait, with Dean Walker bagging a double in a man-of-the-match performance. Partick Thistle's unexpected loss to Clyde meant we were sitting on top of the table for the first time this season.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">13/10 - Airdrie Utd 0 Thistle 2Scorers - Walker 27, 71League Position - 1st</pre>
Ahead of the Dundee United clash, we suffered a setback with Ross O'Donoghue and Gavin Skelton ruled out for at least two weeks each. Kieran McAnespie is promoted back into the side to cover Ross's loss in the midfield, whilst Kevin McMullan and David McClune will be considered for the vacant defenders slot.

Regardless of the losses in personell, we kept our excellent form going with a fabulous display at Tannadice Park. Thistle were now three points clear at the top, with a home game against second-placed Partick in the following week. Great times to be a Thistle fan.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">20/10 - Dundee Utd 0 Thistle 2Scorers - Gethins 18, Ederson 25League Position - 1st</pre>
Even though we were barely ten games into the season, the Partick game was already of vital importance. Should we be lucky enough to win, it would create a substantal gap between us and the rest of the division. The psychological benefits would also be enourmous. Even though most of the media focuses on Partick's superior playing credentials - we had very few players that would be considered 'household names' in Scotland, and we were in just our fourth season - I desperately wanted to win the game and send out a message to the rest of the country.

If we do in fact qualify for the Scottish Premier League next season, this will forever go down as the game where Edinburgh Thistle stood up and made a statement in the best possible way:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">27/10 - Thistle 4 Partick 1Scorers - Conroy 14, Ederson 25, Paatelainen 60, Walker 66 (Hinds 43)League Position - 1st</pre>
A magnificent win, in front of a capacity crowd. The only downside was the sending off of Daniel Ferry, who received two yellow cards within five minutes of coming on late in the game.

The table after eleven games was a sight to behold:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1. Thistle 26 +132. Partick 20 +83. Morton 20 +24. Ross County 19 +55. Clyde 18 +56. Dundee Utd 16 +57. Inverness CT 10 -58. Stirling 9 -69. Airdrie Utd 7 -1210. Hamilton 7 -15</pre>

Quote:

Scottish Football News

Euro 2008 qualifiers decided
After a tough qualifying schedule, the fourteen teams joining Austria and Switzerland in the Euro 2008 tournament have finally been decided.

Sweden survived a tough challenge from the Czech Republic to top Group A. The surprise packet of the group was Luxembourg, who topped Latvia and Cyprus to finish fourth.

Portugal and Belgium qualified with ease from Group B, although Bosnia kept things interesting and dominated the rest of the group, which included Finland.

As expected, Italy skated through Group C undefeated, with Russia progressing to the playoffs. Holland only conceded one goal in ten games and had a perfect record in claiming Group D, with defending champions Greece moving to the playoffs.

The real upset of the qualifying was in Group E, where Albania qualifed for their first ever major tournament, sealing the number one position with a 3-2 win against Serbia, who now face a playoff. Turkey, who were World Cup semi-finalists in 2002, and eliminated from the 2006 tournament after three scoreless draws, have failed to qualify.

The remainder of the groups went largely to form, with one exception. France claimed Group F, England won Group G despite a strong challenge from Bulgaria, and Spain outclassed Romania and Wales in Group I. The exception was in Group H, where Poland hammering Germany 3-1 in the decisive game at Chorzow to advance straight to the Euro 2008 tournament.

The playoffs are as follows:

Greece v Russia
Germany v Bulgaria
Croatia v Czech Republic
Romania v Serbia

retired_southdown · 03-14-2006, 11:10 AM

November 2007

A fantastic start to the new month, and some more recognition for our feats in the league. David Cowan was announced as the Player of the Month, whilst I earned my first Manager of the Month award since April 2005.

Morton made the trip to Bowmans Road and managed a late equaliser. The game extended our undefeated run to ten games, the longest such streak since our Third Division days.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">3/11 - Thistle 1 Morton 1Scorers - D.Walker 53 pen (J.Walker 77)League Position - 1st</pre>
Craig Brewster beccame the first manager casualty in our division when he was axed by Inverness Caledonian Thistle. The smart money is on Colin Calderwood returning north of the border from Northampton Town to manage. On the same day, Clyde beat Partick Thistle in the final of the Challenge Cup, the first title for Dave Mosson's men since the Second Division championship of 2000.

The competition went into recess for a fortnight due to the international schedule, which included the playoffs for the four final slots in Euro 2008, which were duly claimed by Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Serbia. Incredibly, Germany will not be present after losing 2-0 to Bulgaria in Berlin and 3-0 in Sofia.

On a dark, wet, windy way up in Inverness, we managed to pull off quite a good win in Colin Calderwood's debut as the new Caley manager.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">17/11 - Inverness CT 1 Thistle 3Scorers - Gethins 17, Walker 68, 79 pen (Juanjo 1)League Position - 1st</pre>
We lost our unbeaten record in a scrappy game against Hamilton Academical. Worrying, Connor Gethins had to be pulled off the field after fracturing a few ribs. We won't be seeing any more of the Irish Wizard until January 2008.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">24/11 - Thistle 0 Hamilton 1Scorers - (Shiels 48)League Position - 1st[/quote]Table - November 2007 (14 games played)[code]1. Thistle 30 +142. Partick 25 +93. Morton 25 +44. Ross County 24 +65. Dundee Utd 23 +106. Clyde 22 +5</pre>

retired_southdown · 03-14-2006, 11:12 AM

Ah crap! Can someone fix that last post up, pretty please? Lets hope we get to Page 3 quickly...

***

December 2007

Ederson continues to earn the respect of the media and his peers, and cemented his position as an important player for Thistle with another award - this time, the Young Player of the Month.

We played like rubbish against Stirling, which takes nothing away from the performance of our opponents. However, to only steal a late draw against nine men was a bitterly disappointing result.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1/12 - Stirling 1 Thistle 1Scorers - Buchanan 90 (Lyle 31)League Position - 1st</pre>
We returned to form with an expected victory against Airdrie United at Bowmans Road Stadium. However, the win came at a cost with Marco Pelosi joining Gethins on the sidelines with fractured ribs. Our player depth will now be tested, with a mounting injury toll.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">8/12 - Thistle 2 Airdrie Utd 1Scorers - Skelton 42, Walker 69 (Dunn 75)League Position - 1st</pre>
Ross County defended their home fort well and came away with a deserved victory. The result means that Morton have now drawn level on points with us at the top of the table.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">15/12 - Ross County 2 Thistle 1Scorers - Paatelainen 34 (Kerr 43, McLaughlin 79)League Position - 1st</pre>
The draw for the third round of the Scottish Cup was held, with the Old Firm being drawn against each other with the first two balls of the draw. We've drawn defending champions Kilmarnock, with the match being the third occasion we've played a Premier League team.

We earned three valuable points against Clyde in a committed team effort. The game attracted yet another sell-out crowd of nearly 10,000. Should we qualify for the Premier League next season, I doubt that the number of seats will match the interest of the Edinburgh public. Starting from nothing four years ago, we've come quite a long way and although we hardly have the following of Hearts or Hibs, we are still attracting our own committed troop of followers. I've formally asked the Bowmans Packages board to consider stadium expansion for the following season, and will expect an answer within a couple of weeks.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">22/12 - Thistle 2 Clyde 1Scorers - Walker 13, Dempsey 51 (Carcary 84)League Position - 1st</pre>
In the annual Boxing Day match, we were dethroned from the top of the table by the giant-killing Dundee United with a goal five minutes from time, much to the disappointment of the sold-out crowd. In a positive, Connor Gethins returned to the top side, although he was largely ineffective.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">26/12 - Thistle 0 Dundee Utd 1Scorers - (Wilson 85)League Position - 2nd</pre>
The boys had a chance to keep up with new league leaders Morton with a victory against Partick Thistle, but were unable to capitalise on a good start, and eventually sent all three points down the toilet. A very disappointing result, and probably a sign that the tough schedule is taking its toll on the team.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">29/12 - Partick 2 Thistle 1Scorers - Gethins 12 (Escalas 75, 86)League Position - 2nd</pre>
Although we keep our second position, the bad news is that there are now five teams vying for the one promotion position. In our final meeting of the year, I couldn't stress enough to the players that 2008 would by a very important season, and that we still had our destiny in our own hands. Ominously, our first game of the new year would be against league leaders Morton.

Table - December 2007 (20 games played)

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">1. Morton 38 +82. Thistle 37 +133. Ross County 36 +114. Dundee Utd 35 +145. Partick 35 +10</pre>

retired_southdown · 03-14-2006, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Scottish Football News

And what of the state of Scottish football at the end of 2007?

The national side spluttered yet again in European qualification, despite having a very achieveable goal of finishing second in their group behind giants Holland. Walter Smith's men could ultimately finish ahead of only Estonia and Leichtenstien. Attention now turns to qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Scotland have drawn Spain, Romania, Ukraine, Armenia and Moldova in a challenging group.

The Scottish U21 side showed far more promise, qualifying for the 2008 European U21 Championship to be held in Italy, where they have drawn France, Russia and Germany. After narrowly failing to advance past the pool stage in the previous tournament, we will follow the progress of the team with great interest.

The Scottish U19s have also experienced success, and have made it to the final qualification round of the European U19 tournament, but face a big challenge to get past France, Russia and the Ukraine.

After finishing dead last for the past four seasons, East Stirling have hit a rich vein of form and currently sit second in the Third Division. Peterhead head the division by some considerable margin and look certain to bounce straight back into the Second Division.

The Second Division is far more interesting, with seven teams within five points of the competition lead. At this stage, the only certainty is that the eventual two promoted teams are still uncertain!

Gretna have made a brilliant start to life in the Premier League and sit in fourth position at the end of the season. Rangers' bid for a hatrick of titles is currently on the back burner with Celtic leading the division by seven points. Queen of the South continue to survive in the top flight, and are six points ahead of currently-last Motherwell, who have only finished in the top half of the SPL once since 1995.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle are making a charge to the League Cup final, but face a tough challenge at Ibrox in the semi-final. The other semi-final sees Falkirk face up against Dundee.

Attendances in the Premier League are excellent at present, with only Falkirk, Queen of the South and Gretna averging below 10,000 spectators per game. With a new stadium rumoured to be in the pipeline, it is difficult to see how Gretna can survive in the long term in the SPL with crowds of only 2,000 at Raydale Park.

retired_southdown · 03-14-2006, 11:16 AM

Well, that's my last update for a little while, as I'll be off teaching in remote Oostraylia for the next two-three weeks. Apologies again for the dodgy formatting (I'm doing the formatting as I write it, and obviously need to check it a bit better). Hope everyone is enjoying the story, and I'll be back with a whole stack of updates in future! - Bowman

retired_amyslack · 03-14-2006, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bowman4NQ:
Just a request - can a moderator or someone else with similar powers please fix up the formatting in the 'August 2006' post? The page is far too wide otherwise and difficult to read. Thanks - B

Bowman - you should post this request in the Mod Request Thread to get it actioned.

Bottom of the heap - a Scottish epic

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Bottom of the heap - a Scottish epic