Greenock v Larkhall Thistle 1st December 2012

Thistle travel to play Greenock on Saturday looking to do the double on the league leaders. The Jags produced their best performance of the season so far in the corresponding fixture at home in September, running out 5-2 winners. Read report of Larkhall Thistle v Greenock.

After back to back home wins Thistle are sitting handily placed in fourth and level on points with third placed Carluke Rovers, a win would see the Jags only three points from the top of the table.

Greenock are sharing Port Glasgow’s new ground at Parklea, just off the roundabout on the A8, while Ravenscraig Park is being upgraded for the Commonwealth Games. Kick off is 1:45pm

Match Preview: Larkhall Thistle v St Anthony’s

We played St Anthonys in the third game of the season at McKenna Park and came away with a very good 3-2 win in blustery conditions, so this is our first chance of the season to do the double over one of our league rivals.

The Ants were on Scottish Cup duty last week and although they went down 4-1 at home to Irvine Meadow, by all accounts the score didn’t really reflect the game against what is one of the top sides in junior football. Since our last meeting, they have lost their star striker Chris Mackie to Beith, Mackie caused the Jags defence all sorts of problems in the previous game and he will be missed by the Glasgow club.

Thistle’s win against St Roch’s last week brought their terrible run of six defeats in a row to an end. We had of course been badly hampered by a fixture list that saw us play four consecutive away league games, as well as an away Scottish Cup tie at Super Premier League side Cumnock. The only home game was the 5-3 loss in the West of Scotland Cup to Rutherglen Glencairn, also a league above us.

St Anthony’s are in fine league form at the moment and had a great start, but lost their way a bit in the middle. They started the season with three straight wins before our win at McKenna Park started a run of four games without a win. The Ants bounced back though and have now won their last three league games and are sitting second top in the league.
They had a good run in the Sectional League Cup going unbeaten and just losing out to Pollok. They also had a couple of wins in the Scottish Cup before losing to Irvine Meadow last week.

It’s sure to be another hard game for Thistle today against a team who are on a three game winning run in the league.

Some info about St Anthony’s:

Name: St Anthony’s (The Ants)

Founded: 1902 or 1904

Ground: McKenna Park, Cardonald

Manager: James McKenna

Colours: Green and white
Honours:
Central League Division Two Winners: 2002–03
West of Scotland Cup winners: 1937–38
Glasgow Junior Cup: 1918–19, 1921–22, 1940–41, 1945–46
Glasgow Charity Cup: 1917–18, 1918–19, 1922–23

St Anthony’s have had a long and chequered history, beginning life in Moore Park in the shadows of Ibrox before falling on hard times and re-emerging with their move to their present home at McKenna Park. Moore Park was bombed by the Gemans in the Second World War, suffered many burglaries, arson attacks and acts of vandalism but finally fell to the developers in 1999.

In season 2003 – 2004 St Anthony’s achieved what many consider to be among the most remarkable set of results seen in junior football history. The competition was the curtain raiser for the season – the Sectional League Cup and the Ants were in a seven team section that included Super Premier giants Pollok, Arthurlie, Neilston and Johnstone Burgh, as well as Super League Renfrew and Benburb whilst the Ants had just been promoted out of the bottom league. The Ants shocked the junior world by pulling off one of the greatest feats ever – they won all six of the games, a record. They had never even qualified before!

Big Thanks to The Ground Staff

Big thank you to the ground staff and especially Hugh Kerr for their hard work in getting the match on today. Hugh has put in a tremendous amount of effort not only today but through the week and without his endeavour this game would not have gone ahead.

Thanks one and all.

East Kilbride game – OFF

Larkhall Thistle’s game today with East Kilbride has been postponed after a 10:30 pitch inspection due to a waterlogged park.

Our next game will be against St Rochs at home, next Saturday 17th November.

Match Preview: Larkhall Thistle v East Kilbride Thistle

After a run of four away league games in a row Lesmahagow, Dunipace, Lanark and Bellshill – the last home game being Neilston on 15th September – Larkhall Thistle at last have a home game. Thistle have had a drastic run of bad away results since the last home game, losing all four and dropping to 9th place in the table. Of the nine league games we have played so far, six of them have been away which hopefully will mean that we should have some home games coming up and some wins under our belts.

East Kilbride were relegated last season from the Super League First Division and have found life just as tough in this division, losing all nine games so far and scoring only five goals with the loss of 35.
Thistle crashed out of the Scottish Cup away to Super Premier League side Cumnock, going down 5-0, while East Kilbride did much better in the Scottish. They travelled north to Ellon to take on the Aberdeenshire side and came back with a great 2-1 win, meaning they have at least one more game in the cup. Ties to be played on November 17th.