Fans from all corners of globe Grasping the Thistle at Firhill

Partick Thistle 3 Queen’s Park 0

The stage is well lit, the sun bestowing a welcome warmth on Firhill. The cast is assembled, more than 4,000 fans from all over the world. The cameramen prowl the sidelines, capturing images.

The suffering Jags fans know we have had Thistle: The Glory (a short run that closed dramatically in 1971 after the League Cup triumph) and Thistle: The Comedy, some would unkindly suggest this has run and run.

But now there is Grasping the Thistle, a documentary in production and headed by an impressive team that includes on its cv Netflix shows and an Academy Award.

‘It causes a little trepidation,’ says Ray Bradshaw, comedian and Thistle fan. ‘As a supporter, I am wondering if it will turn out wonderfully like Wrexham’s documentary, or like Sunderland’s version which was, well… less so.’

The early shots certainly carry a downbeat story. 

Filming started when Thistle lost in the play-offs for a place in the Premiership and the start to this season had been underwhelming until Saturday’s derby victory.

‘The club have backed Kris Doolan and we were all in a hopeful mood pre-season,’ says Bradshaw. That optimism was finally realised by victory against Queen’s Park.

There were heady scenes as the supporters celebrated loudly in the sun. There is more sobering news in the background. 

The club said early last week that it had made a loss of £170,000. Promotion to the Premiership is a sporting achievement but it has a financial imperative, too.

Bradshaw, and most fans, realise this. ‘This is a big season,’ he says. ‘There is the perception that the Championship is more open and can be won.’ This raises expectations and also provides pressure.

The hospitality suite is packed. There is a constant buzz of noise, perhaps laced with nerves. The Thistle assistant manager, Paul McDonald, comes on stage to give some team news and to welcome his brother, who has flown in from Australia. 

A group of Swedish fans sit in a far corner.

A lone figure, bunnet in hand, watches from the door. He is Levi Gill, the 34-year-old general manager, who has also come to Maryhill from far-flung lands. 

Well, Barrow-in-Furness. He has taken on the task of balancing the books. He was once a project manager in a shipyard that built nuclear subs. 

Thistle, obviously, is more complicated than that.

‘The way I describe my job is to split the operation into on-field and off-field,’ he says. ‘The manager deals with the on-field and I deal with the off-field.’

He is concerned with making commercial deals and engaging with the fan base. His journey to Firhill is not just business, it is personal.

He left nuclear subs in his wake to take on a chief executive role at Barrow, the club he supported.

‘It took me all of seven seconds to decide to take that job when it was offered,’ he says. He then went on to take a similar post at Altrincham.

‘The Barrow connection was though my grandad,’ he says. He went to live with his grandfather and both, though a mutual friend, decided to go to Barrow matches. 

‘My professional life now came about through an accident,’ he says ‘It all started with that casual decision to go to see Barrow.’

His grandfather died recently. ‘I suppose I am a bit of an orphan now,’ he says without a hint of self-pity. ‘But I have settled in here. 

This is a proper stadium with a proper fanbase. I have experienced the power of football. When I moved in with my grandad, 

I was 18 and the relationship was not great in the beginning because of our differing ages. But football broke that frost.’

Sitting at the back of the stands on a bright day, he is invited to consider what would be the sunlit uplands.

‘On the field, we have the ambition to get out of the Championship this season,’ he says. ‘I have been going to St Mirren over the years — I have a mate who is a fan — and watching their fan-ownership journey. 

You could measure us against St Mirren in terms of community base and commercial ambition and we are capable of being similar.

‘St Mirren have made the right decisions and we would have to match that… so why not Europe? That is the measure, the North Star, but get out of the Championship first.’

The Scandinavian link to the club was forged in bonhomie and christened with and then sustained through whisky and beer. 

Peter Holmberg sits at a table in hospitality with his father, uncle and brother. ‘This trip is a gift to me from my family because I was 50 last year,’ he says.

His uncle first came to Thistle 20 years ago. Peter came in 2007. He returns regularly. ‘This will be my 10th home match but I have been at the Challenge Cup final and some away games. 

I love Scotland as a holiday destination and I once left my wife in Edinburgh to take a train down to Cowdenbeath for a game.’

He sips on his lager and confesses he is a whisky aficionado. ‘We once visited Islay to sample the malts and flew across to Glasgow for a Thistle game,’ he says.

His father, Lars-Ove, has a further link. ‘He played for Hammarby at the same tournament Thistle played in Sweden in 1972,’ he says. 

‘He tells me that the Thistle players of that era certainly knew how to party.’ Those of us who know such as Alan Rough are less than shocked at this revelation.

Holmberg points out that Thistle has become part of his life. ‘In 2007, we were sitting in the Woodside Inn and two guys sat down beside us. 

They were Thistle fans and they are now close friends. One of them drove us to the game today and we come across here and visit and he comes to Stockholm.’

So why Thistle for the Holmberg clan?

‘There is a more family feeling here,’ he says. ‘There is no sectarian stuff. When I wear a Thistle shirt in the street in Glasgow nobody insults me. 

Well, maybe they laugh at you,’ he says with a grin.

He adds: ‘Can I say it this way? First, I love football and, for some reason, Partick spoke to me in a nice way. It is hard to explain but if you find a club that you have feelings for then that is just the way it is.’

The foreign connection also stretches to Africa. Neil Cowan comes to the match from a game between Jags and Spiders supporters at Toryglen. 

Cowan is a volunteer with Jags for Good, a community group that seeks to raise money to help those in need. 

The provision of foodbanks and help with energy bills are at the the forefront of the group’s aims but it has also a powerful role in helping the simply bereft.

‘We had a guy in the team who has come here from Africa,’ says Cowan. ‘He lost his funding as an asylum-seeker and so had no money, no home. We chipped in together to provide him with some cash and he has stayed with members of the team.’

Cowan, therefore, knows what constitutes genuine crisis. Before the game, he was thus relaxed at Thistle’s unconvincing start to the season. ‘It’s not what I want, obviously, but I believe we can challenge.’

His words were backed by events on the pitch. Thistle eventually won with some comfort after a hard-fought match. 

Their first victory of the league season took them to fifth. It places the club in the pack chasing promotion.

There were stories of family, ambition, community and charity at Firhill. There is still faith and no little hope in dugout and stands. It all will be coming soon to a screen near you.