I didn’t panic in the face of real disaster and I won’t start now
SAYS NEW PARTICK THISTLE SUPREMO JACQUI LOW
WHEN football teams suffer a relegation, perspective is often the first casualty. Managers lose their jobs, players are cut loose, directors held to account and supporters contact radio phone-ins to vent their anger
Yet Jacqui Low, the new chairman of Partick Thistle, knows what real disaster looks like.
Relegation to the Scottish Championship is a financial blow, a temporary setback. But no lives were lost and there was no requirement for a 999 call.
Working for the Scottish Office, Low was assigned the task of dealing with press queries during civil emergencies, football’s trifling insignificance becoming apparent on December 21, 1988 — the day a passenger jet crashed down on the town of Lockerbie.
‘I have seen disasters,’ said one of Scottish football’s first female directors. ‘I have seen real disasters where people have died.
‘I was working the night of Lockerbie. I worked when Piper Alpha happened and also the tragic shooting in Dunblane.
‘I was in communications and I hope I am never tested in any of those areas in anything related to football.
‘But what those experiences do is give you clarity of thought. And an ability to assess things quickly and not to panic.’
The importance of taking time to plot a way through difficult situations acquired the status of a life lesson during three years as a broadcast journalist.
A communications specialist born and raised in Fife, Low worked for Radio Tay alongside BBC veteran Eddie Mair.
‘I learned very quickly that 30 seconds is a huge amount of time,” she said. ‘I think my background is in dealing with crisis. And I think a lot of times, when you are in a bad situation, you need to think things through and act.’
Those skills made her the ideal person to replace David Beattie when Thistle found themselves in need of a new boardroom figurehead.
Brought up in Dunfermline, Low’s father urged his oldest daughter to choose between her hometown team or Partick at an early age. Fatefully, she chose Thistle.
‘My dad, who is nearly 80, sent me a text yesterday morning. He doesn’t do that very often as he’s not very technically literate, she said.
‘The text was: “I never thought I’d have a daughter who was chairman of a football club. I couldn’t be prouder of you.” That sums up where I am. I love this club and I think I have the skills and attributes to be part of this team going forward.’
Previously a special advisor to former Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth, Low once stood, unsuccessfully, as a parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives.
‘There’s a saying in politics that when you are in opposition, that’s the time when you do your thinking and re-organise,’ she insisted.
‘You iron out the wrinkles you couldn’t when you were busy governing. We are going to use the year in the Championship to get things right on the pitch and move the club on off it, so that when we go back to the Premiership, we are ready for it.’
Thistle lost their top-flight status after a play-off defeat to Livingston, with former chief executive Ian Maxwell leaving for the SFA 24 hours later. Manager Alan Archibald’s status was the subject of a predictable — and, rumour has it, lively — debate. In stereotypically unpredictable Thistle fashion, the decision was taken to stick by the manager.
‘There was a conversation — and it was a conversation,’ says Low. ‘We were very clear in what we were looking for and Alan was extremely keen to work with us and chase what we wanted.
‘It was a poor season, but one season doesn’t make a career. If I didn’t have people who had faith in me earlier in my career, I wouldn’t be sitting here just now. He accepted the challenge and we are all in this together.’
In a league featuring Ross County, Dundee United, Dunfermline and Falkirk, the goal of immediate promotion back to the Premiership is both ambitious and difficult to deliver.
Unrepentant, Low insisted: ‘Everything we do is driven towards getting us back up in one season. If we hadn’t said that was what we wanted, it would have looked as if we were a club which lacked ambition — and we don’t.
‘I have spent my whole career being told what I can’t do and what I shouldn’t do and what is not possible. And I have made a career out of proving people wrong.’
‘Upstairs, there is a sense of excitement around the club now. We are all facing in the same direction. We have our plans in place and it’s all good.’
In a summer of change around Firhill, the appointments of Low to club chair and academy director Gerry Britton as chief executive provide some continuity.
A former Thistle player and co-manager, Britton is also a trained criminal defence solicitor. At 47, he is uniquely qualified to bridge the gap between dressing room and boardroom. He said: ‘I was really keen to come out of my comfort zone. I gave it consideration, I love this club and I have had every role going.
‘So to get the opportunity to take up this role really excited me, especially given the starting point of this season where the challenge is to take the club back into the Premiership in one go.’
Joining John Lambie’s Thistle as a striker a quarter of a century ago, Britton played with some colourful characters. A dressing room featuring Chic Charnley, Steve Pittman and Alan Dinnie was a hard school.
Hardly a shrinking violet himself, Britton admits his former team-mates would be ‘very surprised’ to see him become the club’s chief executive.
‘Throughout my career, when I became a manager and when I became a lawyer and even into the academy, there would have been people who knew me 35 years ago who would be surprised,’ he said.
‘It was 1993 when I first signed and it’s been a long journey but getting this opportunity makes every morning like Christmas morning for me. I have been fortunate that every role I have had has never felt like work.’