EK JAGS at 50
Longest serving member recalls the glory days.. and tough times that followed
East Kilbride Thistle celebrate their golden anniversary this week.
And as they prepare for their 50th birthday bash, the club’s longest-serving member reckons their golden years between 1968 and 1983 make the Jags unrivalled in Junior football.
Jimmy Newell has been with Thistle since the very beginning and the 81-year-old is still a proud member to this day.
During the past five decades, he’s celebrated the highs of watching the club grow and winning the Junior Cup in 1983.
But the Greenhills resident struggled through the lows as the Jags hit rock bottom in the late 2000s with a series of relegations, compounded by a devastating fire which wiped out the social club that was an integral part of the once-thriving outfit.
So as the Showpark side head into a sixth decade, he’s keen to concentrate on the club’s first steps in the game, insisting the start they had to life in Junior football still puts other clubs to shame.
“There’s been some hard times at this club, but those first 15 years were fantastic,” he beams.
“Within 15 years we’d done everything that needed to be done. We won the Junior Cup, West of Scotland Cup, the Evening Times Trophy, promotion four times and it was a really successful spell.
“Not like the last few years, which have been a bit of a drudge.
“We won more in those first 15 years than some teams still haven’t managed in 100 years – some junior teams still haven’t won the Junior Cup.
“Personally, I’m very proud of what we did at the beginning.
“I don’t think there’s another Junior club in Scotland who can look at their first 15 years and say they won everything that was going.”
Thistle won 10 trophies in that spell, including finishing runners-up in the league on three occasions.
And their early haul is made all the more impressive by the fact they never actually kicked a ball in competitive action until the 1969/70 season.
They played their first-ever game on Sunday, April 7, 1968 in a friendly against Cumbernauld United, which featured a certain Kenny Dalglish and was even captured on film by Jimmy himself.
“There’s actually still a film around of that game - because I filmed it. I took it on my 8mm camera down at the Rolls-Royce playing fields,” he recalls.
“My brother-in-law and I set up a camera and there’s one bit on the film where it’s fairly obvious it’s Kenny running down the park. You can tell its him, just because of his actions.
“I was that busy filming I don’t really know what happened, but I believe they beat us 2-0.”
After the buzz of playing their inaugural match, attention turned to playing league football in the 1968/69 season.
But they were denied entry to the leagues as the Rolls-Royce playing fields they called their home at that time weren’t suitable.
Jimmy explained: “When I came to East Kilbride in 1965, there was no junior team. I arrived from Springburn and I was a Petershill supporter, so with no junior team here I looked around.
“David McGlone Snr said to me there was a group of guys looking to form a club in Kilbride and would I be interested? I’m a big junior football man, so of course I was interested.
“Harry Kennedy, Bobby Thomson, David, Willie Egan, Bob Armstrong - these were guys who all worked in the Rolls-Royce with me.
“That was the basis for the steering committee and we met in the Stuart Hotel and decided to go for it.
“We applied to play in the league, but we got turned back because we didn’t have a fully enclosed stadium.
“So from the Rolls-Royce playing fields, the Provost, John Wright, put us on to the Showpark.
“He got the Showpark classified for leisure purposes and we applied to get the ground. After some arguing with the council, we eventually got to play there and John was instrumental in that.”
So after all that effort, when the Jags played in the Junior Cup for the first time they could hardly believe what they witnessed.
Jimmy added: “We played Kirkcaldy YM and it was in this big open field.
“We couldn’t believe we were playing a cup tie in a place like that when we couldn’t get into our league because it wasn’t fully enclosed.
“The answer to that was that the various regions had different rules. Some places didn’t give a monkeys and you could play on the beach if you wanted to.
“It was a long wait, but we got a lot of stuff done and we managed to consolidate a team in that time.”
Martin Ferguson, the brother of Sir Alex Ferguson, was part of those early sides as was Willie Pettigrew, who scored 41 goals in 35 games for Thistle in 1971/72 before going on to become a Motherwell legend.
They are just some of the well-known faces to grace the Showpark down the years.
Jimmy said: “We’ve had some big names down there over the years, even the chef Gordon Ramsay that time he played for Rangers.
“Alex was down at the Showpark at least a couple of times that I can remember. Back then he was just Martin’s big brother.
“One of the games we had in those early days down there was a Rangers versus Celtic Select and Jock Stein came down to the game.
“So there’s some brilliant memories and there was a lot of great social occasions at that time as well.
“One of the great stories was the success of Willie Pettigrew.
“He only played half a season for us and then he went to Motherwell – and it took another 10 or 11 years before anyone matched his goal record.
“Nobody would have ever caught him if the referees hadn’t called him offside so often when he clearly wasn’t.
“He was so fast he was 10 yards ahead of you before anyone realised he’d moved. He was a great player.”
After the highs of the early years, a long barren spell followed.
It wasn’t until the arrival of John Brogan in 1999 that success returned to the club.
Brogan turned the team around within a couple of years, as the Jags progressed up the leagues and they won the Sectional League Cup in 2002 with a 2-0 win over Bellshill Athletic.
But his resignation in 2008 sparked the worst period in the club’s history. Thistle spiralled down the leagues and a succession of failed campaigns was compounded by off the field issues.
Former goalkeeper Alan Wardlaw came to the rescue when he steadied the ship in 2013. Within two years he had a competitive squad together and passed the reins to his assistant Billy Campbell in 2015.
Success returned to the Showpark last season when Campbell led Jags to their first promotion since 2006. The Jags won five of their last six games
to earn promotion, but changes were soon afoot again as Campbell resigned in the aftermath of leading the team to the Central District First Division.
Ex-Jag Alan Paterson took over in the summer and he has continued the positive vibe at the Showpark, starting the season with some impressive results and leading the club to the last 32 of the Junior Cup.
So as Jimmy looks to the future with his beloved club, he is delighted to see Thistle return to form after some turbulent times.
He said: “There was a spell there when we were really, really bad.
“It got to a stage when I was glad I couldn’t stand at a game anymore. I used to pick up the paper to see the results and think, oh not again.
“But the guys that are in now are ex-players and they’ve got the club at heart, so that makes a difference.
“I’ve got a great deal of hope for the future. The club is on the right track again.”
One of the great stories was the success of Willie Pettigrew. He only played half a season for us and then he went to Motherwell – it took another 10 or 11 years before anyone matched his goal record Jimmy Newell