"Partick Thistle FC - Firhill Stadium"

Partick Thistle v Motherwell - Weds 13th December 2017

my first Scottish Premiership match. It was cold and snowing, but it was Glasgow in December. But I still felt like a traitor to myself, going to a pro match, having spent 2 and a half seasons watch non-league. I'de rather have been at a lower league game but if it came down to a choice of Partick or the Old Firm boys It was always goong to be the city underdogs !

Location

Firhill is in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, but is easy walking distance from the city centre (in fact the Jags are probably the closest team to Glasgow City Centre so, as their stadium announcer frequently tells you, they are the ONLY team from Glasgow!). The ground itself is in a residential area and blocks of student digs overlook the ground. Its about 300yds from the Maryhill Road with its shops and pubs. Probably the nearest pub to the ground is Munns Bar, although it didn’t look a particularly great place.

There appeared to be limited parking at the ground although I wasn't sure if this was for the general public or not. There is plenty of parking in nearby residential streets - I had no problem finding somewhere to leave the rental

View

The ground itself is a mix of old and new. The Main Stand (The Colin Weir Stand) housed the away support during my visit. It’s an old Archibald Leitch style stand with the gable in the centre bearing the club crest. The club shop is located in the stand , out on the Firhill Road. Unusually, the far end of this stand – about 20% of its capacity- is taken up by the clubs offices , with spectator seating, and windows looking out over the pitch. The dressing rooms and tunnel are located in this area as well. I cannot vouch for the views from the Weir stand, although there are a number of stanchions along the front.
On the opposite side of the ground is the newer Jackie Husband Stand which is a large cantilever structure. This has a greater seating capacity than the main stand and is usually designated as the Home Support stand – the exceptions being when either of the Old Firm roll up. Imagine having a season ticket in this stand and 2-3 times a year being told you have to sit elsewhere because some fan from Billy Bignoise FC wants to come to your ground !!!! Anyway, the sets in the JH are of the plastic tip up variety and are perfectly comfortable. Views from the stand are good (and in fact, it was half empty when I visited with plenty of room to move around and pick yourself a better seat if you wanted….they all cost the same at £22 anyway.
Behind the goal to the right of the Jackie Husband Stand is the North Stand which is where to most vocal of the Jags support are located. Again, it’s a new stand, cantilevered in design and was all seater although it appeared the 500 or so supporters all stood towards the back anyway. The rear wall of the stand is decorated in Partick flags… mostly the cross of St Andrew but in yellow and red, not blue and white. The far end of the ground, behind the other goal is undeveloped and not used at all. This used to be the site of the City End open terrace which was demolished some years back.

Facilities

I can only comment on the Jackie Husband Stand ! Plenty of loos, all clean and tidy. There was a small kiosk selling old programmes in the stand. The main club shop is located on the outside of the Colin Weir Stand and was, in my opinion, suprisingly small, although the staff were very helpful

Food & Drink

The choice looked very good and the prices were very reasonable = actually comparible to some non-league grounds in England. Partick's pies are weel regarded and they had more than one variety on sale. Unfortunately being wheat intollerant means this fayre is out of my reach.

Police & Stewards

I had a chat with a couple of the police outside the Colin Weir stand before the match (being a visitor I wanted some directions to the ticket office). They were really helpful and checked up on me when they saw me later. The stewards in the ground and the ticket office staff were also helpful (quite a few seemed to be students from the University)

Atmosphere

The atmosphere inside the ground suggested that the crowd was far more than the 2400 that were there. I had heard that Firhill can be a bit of a library at times, but for this match both sets of fans were in raucous Glaswegian voice in both supporting and heckling their teams = Particularly the home fans, singing in support of their manager and local hero Alan Archibald.

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