A pandemic, relegation and that missing vote...
WHEN Scottish football was brought to a grinding halt 12 months ago as the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic became fully realised, most people involved in the sport knew that the year ahead would be an eventful one.
Senior staff at Partick
Thistle were no different as they pondered the challenges to come and got ready to meet them head on. That diligence and preparation appears to have paid off as lower league football returns from its second mandatory shutdown in the space of a year this afternoon – almost a year to the day since the first lockdown was introduced.
But despite the adversity that’s been heaped on the Jags over the last year – whether it be their enforced relegation to the third tier by a margin of 0.04 points, the controversy surrounding league reconstruction and Dundee’s missing vote, the court case brought against the SPFL, or the distribution of the Government’s financial relief package – there remained a steely determination from the club that better days lay ahead. As chief executive
Gerry Britton explains, there was one clear philosophy that has guided Thistle through it all: hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
“Last year, everyone used the phrase ‘unprecedented’ but it didn’t change the way that we worked in terms of our financial planning,” he said. “We always work based on the worst case then if anything changes, it’s a positive.
“Our budgeting had started pre-Covid so when the reality of where we were going to be kicked in, we had a plan in place and we knew how to deal with it. So when the reality sunk in we said, ‘right, we know where we are, let’s just make the best of it’.”
That optimistic approach was difficult to maintain at times, particularly as the SPFL descended into civil war a year ago. But despite the poisonous atmosphere that polluted
the Scottish game, Thistle chairman Jacqui Low insisted that the club act in good faith throughout the finger-pointing and recriminations.
She said: “When we were at the start of the whole process with the SPFL, what we were going to do about staff – we did talk about [our approach]. You know, ‘how do we remain Partick Thistle and behave in a way that reflects who we are?’
“There were moments behind the scenes where things were being bounced off walls. There was rage, there was upset, there was all of that. But when we picked our way through it, we always did what we thought was best for the club.
“What else can you do but be yourself? I think being honest and open did us no harm, and I think we gained respect from
the rest of Scottish football. Even though there were some clubs that made our lives very difficult, we were up front with fans about what we were doing and why.”
More blows would follow in quick succession. There was the whole controversy surrounding league reconstruction and Dundee’s missing vote that was eventually changed from a no to a yes, effectively relegating the Jags. Even now, Low admits that the decision caught her off-guard.
“We couldn’t figure it out to begin with,” she said of her reaction when hearing about the change of heart.
After the unsuccessful legal bid from Hearts, Stranraer and Thistle, it became clear that the Jags’ fate was sealed. “It was the one remaining thing to do so that we could look ourselves in the mirror and say we did everything that we could,” Low reasoned.
The club put that disappointment behind them and the season kicked off in October but by January, the lower leagues were once again placed in cold storage as Covid-19 grew more prevalent.
There were real concerns that the season would be called prematurely again but after all 20 League One and League Two clubs united behind a proposal to get the game up and running, they were given the green light.
The shutdown was disruptive for a whole host of reasons but manager Ian McCall reckons there is one sideeffect in particular that has been particularly difficult for players and staff to deal with.
“In the last year the job has completely changed – it’s not the same job I’ve been doing for the last 20 years,” he said. “Some people get affected by Covid in other ways.
“We were in constant contact with the players but it got to the stage where I was phoning and they really wanted me to have stuff to say to them – about when we’re starting back and I never had any information. That became very frustrating.”
Despite it all, Thistle will return to action against
Cove Rangers at Firhill this afternoon. And while Low and Britton admit that the last 12 months have been far from plain sailing, they believe that the relationships between clubs that became so strained last summer are now the best they’ve been in a while.
“It’s a competitive business and you’re always going to have rivals,” Britton explained. “But one positive to have come out of it for us is the unity shown by the League One and League Two clubs over the last couple of months.
“The important thing is that lower-league clubs have realised that we might be small in stature but together we can be a real force for change. We showed that. The fact that we’re back playing, that it was the clubs that got the game going again. Make no mistake about it – without the clubs working together, I doubt we would be back playing.”
There were moments behind the scenes where things were being bounced off walls. There was rage, there was upset