Picture: Thistle fans watch on at Borough Briggs
February 2026 saw Partick Thistle face Elgin City for the first time competitively. Here, the Clyde Insider offers up first-hand accounts from four different generations of Jags supporters, on the day the Jags invaded Elgin.
For Kieran Ashton, 24, the news that Thistle had drawn Elgin in the Scottish Cup Fifth Round was simply too good not to share. “When we finally drew them, it was a state of disbelief. It was the tie every Thistle fan wanted really, and we’d been talking about it for years. I was straight on the phone to my friend Dave, planning the day out three/four weeks before.”
But what was it about Elgin that could possibly provoke this reaction?
In Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy’, the number 42 is “The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”, but for Scottish football fans, it means much more., There are 42 grounds in the SPFL league system, from Premiership to League Two, with many trying to visit every one.
One man well versed in the 42 is Gary Sutherland, football journalist and author of “Hunting Grounds: A Scottish Football Safari” (available on Amazon) which saw him complete “the 42” in a solitary season, after travelling to Arbroath to cover a Scottish Cup game against Rangers.
“I had a taste of lower division football and could be quite obsessive anyway, like collecting all the albums of Prince, so I thought I’m going to do them all. It takes over your life.”
“I travelled around the country, seeing all the stadiums. Football takes you places you wouldn’t ordinarily go. There’s a lot of humour in Scottish football. There’s something surreal and amazing about Scottish football and when you go down to lower divisions. It’s so unpredictable.”
Before this year, Alan Holloway, 65, had seen Partick Thistle play at 41 of the original 42 SPFL grounds since Elgin City joined the SPFL in 2000. In that time, Elgin have never left League 2, a division the Harry Wraggs have never dropped down to. Before the introduction of relegation from League 2, Elgin were the last of the original 42 to play Thistle competitively.
“By 2010, I had three left – Cowdenbeath, Annan, and Elgin. Cowdenbeath were promoted into our league that season, and we got a cup tie away at Annan. Three down to one in a couple of weeks, I’m thinking it can’t be long until we get the last one, and I’d been waiting since then.”
Since then, several of the teams Alan visited dropped out of the leagues replaced by new upstarts with soulless grounds. Recently promoted Spartans, for example, have never hosted Thistle, making a modern Thistle 42 impossible.
“We’ve lost quite a few of the character grounds. Cowdenbeath has the stock car racing, with the great big fences and piles of tires everywhere, and had just quite a different feel to it. It’s a shame these teams vanished and the memories subside somewhat from your recollection.”
Another person who had waited decades for Elgin was Ian MacKinnon, 40, the frontman of Thistle-themed band The Lambie McParlands.
Ian spent most of the 2010s travelling the country in bands, playing Elgin multiple times. During lockdown, Ian and bandmate Neil Donaldson wrote “Return To Firhill Road” – a much-loved Thistle anthem. Ever since, Ian has resisted calls for the band to play gigs until Elgin saw the band make their live debut, playing at a packed Dicey’s Bar before the game. Despite Ian admitting that they were under-rehearsed and a bit ropey, the gig was a resounding success.
“I was lucky I had someone up there who I knew and was able to sort it out at short notice. When we put out the song, our promoter Scott Divers said; ‘If Elgin happens, come up here and do a gig;’ but we’d given up hope of it ever happening. When the draw was made, he was straight on the phone.’“
“It was only meant to be a one song thing, but then the idea of playing in Elgin was just… ‘Yeah, this is the first gig. This is where it’s going to be.’”
Ian MacKinnon
“If I’m being honest, if we went up there and farted into the mics for thirty minutes, then played ‘Return’ at the end, it would have been a success. That’s pretty much what we did. but then we nailed ‘Return To Firhill Road’, so all could be forgiven.”
By 2PM, the pub had run out of Tennent’s Lager, drunk dry by a captive audience of Jags who sang loudly along to an acoustic repertoire of classic Thistle songs.
“We were in Dicey’s on the Friday night, but not long after I left, they had to close, because of a plumbing issue. I spoke to the bar owner Aaron on the Saturday morning, and he was literally knee deep in shit, in his boiler suit. He’d been up all night, making sure that the gig could open. The fact he did that summed up the people of Elgin for me.“
Ian MacKinnon
For Kieran Ashton (36/42), the gig was an experience unlike any other.
Kieran is one of the most recognisable Partick Thistle faces on sites like Instagram and Twitter and an integral part of the new generation of young Jags fans who have reinvented the club’s image on social media as well as the matchday atmosphere.
“Elgin was everything I expected and more, to be honest. Just seeing everybody of a Thistle persuasion there, making the trip up, and actually have proper Thistle songs getting played was excellent. People that I have not seen at games in years, but they wanted to go to Elgin. I loved it, it’s probably the best Thistle away trip I’ve been on.”
1,200 Jags fans made the trip, aided by a ScotRail offer which allowed you to travel anywhere in Scotland for £20, instead of the usual £70/80 it costs from Glasgow to Elgin. Steven Murphy, 33, was one of those who endured an early start and late return in the name of affordability.
“The 7AM start was quite an experience. Opening a can of beer at 7:04AM on the train when it was still dark was a good laugh. It was great Scotrail had their £20 deal, it was a big saver. You couldn’t really ask for a better cup draw to coincide with that. It would be great if we had that luck some other time.”
Steven has followed the Jags since the late 2000s, and is a regular fixture of the Draw, Lose or Draw podcast, taking part in their “Travel Jags” strand, which documents various away day adventures following Thistle around the country.
“The Dandy Lion – the big lion mermaid statue with a monocle and a top hat. It’s quite a unique structure. Probably the best thing to do in Elgin is to go see that. ”
Steven Murphy
After years of waiting though, was visiting Borough Briggs everything they hoped for? For Ian, definitely so. He tells me of a 2010 gig which took place in the function room at Borough Briggs. After finishing their early set, Ian and the band soon wandered onto the pitch for a kickabout, with Ian fantasising about what a Thistle away day trip would look like. Sixteen years on, the reality didn’t disappoint.
“It was full when we got there, and what a sight it was. I remembered being on that pitch in 2010 and it was exactly what I envisaged all those years ago. The banners, the colours, a packed away end. It was a very special moment.”
“Finally seeing Borough Briggs in the flesh, wow. It was a proper old school ground… and the weather! The wind really ripped right through you with the cold.
Kieran Ashton
The game though, was far from ideal. Thistle toiled to a 2-1 lead when word came through that all trains back to Inverness were cancelled for the night. Seconds later. Elgin’s Ryan Sargent headed home to make it 2-2 as Steven Murphy started to get concerned.
“When we took the lead and they equalised twice, there was a bit of doubt. I did think we were going to get a winner at some point, but the thing I was concerned about is extra time and penalties. With the trains cancelled, if it went to penalties, do we have to just miss them and try get a bus or will we still have time to get back?”
A Ben Stanway winner ten minutes from time, though, gave train travellers ample time to scramble on buses back to Inverness.
For Alan, ticking off Elgin was extra special, doing so with daughter Heather, son Andrew, and Andrew’s children Evie and Ruby.
“The cup tie at Forfar [in November] lacked that atmosphere. A very unfriendly welcome, it was a cold day, the game was a bit stodgy. The Elgin one though was just a perfect away cup tie. There was jeopardy, there was uncertainty. It wasn’t a straightforward walk in the park. An old-fashioned, friendly ground, good atmosphere, a grassy bank to stand on, terracing. It was just a warm-hearted, happy experience, all I could have hoped for it to be.”
“Back when we were in the third tier for a few seasons in a row and the kids were very young, it was super fun going to all these interesting, mainly coastal resorts round Scotland together. It’s much less fun now with the sort of grounds we go to, but those third tier grounds were super. Elgin gave us much of the same.“
Alan Holloway
“It’s been a real family experience. When you’ve got kids who are a generation below you, there’ll be times that you can’t talk about certain things, or you don’t always agree with everything, there’s always football. You always share that passion. I’m so pleased that they’ve become dedicated supporters, and not been tempted away by other teams.“
For Kieran and Steven, it was the wider Thistle family that made the trip special. “It was fantastic seeing Thistle take over this wee town up north.” says Kieran. “Doing it with your best mates. You can’t beat it.”
Steven agreed. “It’s not very often that you have 1500 people just descend on your town at the weekend. It was a classic Scottish football away day, and that’s what it’s all about. When it comes to the 42, you don’t get much better than Elgin.“
For Alan though, with the 42 in the books, where does he go from here? As a man of devout faith, it was only natural that he would turn to The Good Book for answers.
“I likened it to the New Testament and the wait for the Messiah. Eventually, Simeon the prophet actually had his dream realised and said ‘now I can depart in peace’, his life had been fulfilled. He had achieved what was really important, seen it with his own eyes, and that was fine. In some ways, as I’m getting older. there’s nothing else for me to do either having got the 42.”
“It’s nice to have the next generation now coming up and showing that excitement. They know the songs and hopefully will become committed fans of the future as well. It’s an important legacy”
“Perhaps they’ll start their own 42, whatever it might be now.”
All pictures in this article were taken by David Forrest, unless otherwise stated. The Lambie McParlands’ latest single “They’ll Be Up For This” is available on Bandcamp.
