Gow win takes promotion out of Thistle’s hands

Lesmahagow beat Benburb 4-1 tonight to set up a final day in the league that promises to be tension packed and nail-biting to say the least. Thistle take on Port Glasgow at home on Saturday, while at the same time phones will be pointed to Craighead to see how the Gow are doing in their final game at home to Dunipace.

Unfortunately the situation is now out of the Jags hands, if Lesmahagow win they go up – it is now as simple as that. If they don’t win and Thistle do win then the Jags are promoted. If neither team wins the league’s form team Shettleston go up thanks to their late surge which has seen them shoot up the standings to second place.

 

Can anybody help?

There’s a chap looking for some information on Glasgow Perthshire games with Thistle from the past, it’s a long shot I suppose but if anybody has anything they can contribute please reply here or to the post (on the right in Comments).

Games with missing scores, do you know how any of these finished?

1973-74 Glasgow Perthshire v Larkhall Thistle Division B
1980-81 Glasgow Perthshire v Larkhall Thistle RJ McLeod Trophy 3rd Round
1980-81 June 10 Glasgow Perthshire v Larkhall Thistle RJ McLeod Trophy 3rd Round Replay
1992-92 April 23 Larkhall Thistle v Glasgow Perthshire League

Match Preview Port Glasgow v Larkhall Thistle 4th May 2013

Thistle travel to Parklea for the first leg of the double header with Port Glasgow knowing only a win will be enough to stay in the promotion race. St Anthony’s have played all their games and are five points in front so only two wins would see us overtake them. Even then the Jags would not be assured of promotion  as Lesmahagow could overtake us.

The big park at Parklea suited Thistle last time and we go there with happy memories of the best result of the season, a remarkable 5-0 win against champions-elect Greenock. Nobody is expecting a repeat of that scoreline today, the Port are still in there fighting to stay in the division and will be giving it there all in both games so anything won today will need to be hard-earned.

Match preview -Thistle v East Kilbride Wednesday 1st May 7:00pm

East Kilbride were relegated from the West of Scotland League Super League First Division last season and like ourselves, were involved in a very tight relegation battle that went right down to the wire. Indeed if it hadn’t been for goal difference we could have found ourselves two divisions apart today instead of playing each other!

The visitors had spent the previous four seasons in the Super League so we haven’t played them for a while, they have been relatively successful with three top half finishes in that spell.  The “other” Jags have had a miserable season but have picked up a bit lately starting with a 5-1 win at St Roch’s.

About East Kilbride Thistle:
Founded: 1968
Ground: The Showpark, The Village, East Kilbride
Managers: Brian McMillan & Mark Wilson
Home colours: Black and White stripes
Away colours: All Red

Honours:
Scottish Junior Cup 1983
Central League Division 1 1992-93
West of Scotland Cup 1973–74
Central League champions 1974–75, 1975–76
Central League A Division winners 4 times
Sectional League Cup: 1974–75, 1982–83, 2002–03
Evening Times Cup Winners Cup: 1982–83

Although East Kilbride Thistle are a relatively new club to the juniors, they have done what many others have failed to do in lifting the highest honour in the junior game. Their proudest moment came as recently as 1983 when they beat Bo’ness 2-0 in the Scotish Cup final at Ibrox.

East Kilbride are currently campaigning to get South Lanarkshire Council to approve plans to redevelop the Showpark into a “community sports hub”. The ambitious plans include 7 and 11-a-side 3G parks as well as a 500-1000 seater stand in the main park. Part of the plan is for Clyde to relocate there and share the ground.

East Kilbride squad:
McGuiness
Kelsall
Emslie
McAneny
Sloan
Borg
Scott
McQueenie
Stewart
McRobert
Hastie
Jeffrey
Smith
Dolan
Gillies
Connolly
Campbell
Douches
Buchanan
McCrae
Martin
Harkins
Bennett
King
Craig
Bolato
Winters
Findlay
McBride
Clarke

East Kilbride were relegated last season from the Super League First Division and have found life just as tough in this division, losing all but one of their 16 games so far. They have been on the wrong end of some bad defeats, the worst of which was our 8-0 away win in the first game of 2013. They did a bit better in the Scottish however, travelling north to Ellon to take on the Aberdeenshire side and came back with a great 2-1 win before losing to Kinnoull in the next round. They also managed a win in the Euroscot Eng Central League Cup against Benburb, the only meeting so far between the sides this season.