Partick Thistle fans have had to dig deep in recent weeks. Between season ticket renewals and the call to arms issued earlier this month by the club board and The Jags Foundation (TJF), the supporters’ group, to up their donations and throw their financial backing behind the team, there has been no shortage of causes to separate fans from their hard-earned.
Amid that backdrop – not to mention the cost-of-living pressures affecting us all – it would be perfectly understandable if charity was the last thing on the minds of many. But the opposite has proven true.
Jags For Good is a collection of supporters who have raised tens of thousands of pounds for local causes in Maryhill since its formation a little over a year ago, and they are once again asking fans to chip in with donations so they can buy season tickets at Firhill that can be distributed to Glaswegian charities.
Last year, the group raised £8,500 – a sum that was matched by the club – and a week or so into this season’s fundraising efforts, they have been once again blown away by the generosity of the fanbase at a time when every penny is a prisoner.
“When we launched we had a target of £5,000, then we beat that in less than two days,” explains Neil Cowan, one of the volunteers at Jags For Good. “We have now raised over £9,000. We will probably raise it again and see how far we can take it.
“Last year we raised about £8,500 but we set the initial target at £5,000 because of cost-of-living pressures – people don’t have as much money to donate at the moment and everyone is finding it tough.
“Season tickets went on sale recently so lots of fans will have just paid for that. It is the holidays so people are spending money on that too. We thought we might not get as much this time around – which would be totally understandable because everyone is feeling it – but the fact that we got smashed that target, it’s ridiculous.
“The club matched it last year and they are doing it again this year. We emailed them to ask about it and they got back right away saying yes, they’d help.
“I think they see the value of it in terms of getting new fans into Firhill and getting them to catch the bug. The club have always been really supportive of Jags For Good and to have them match it again is brilliant.
“It’s amazing. A lot of folk have already bought their season tickets or have had to tighten their belts a little bit to save for season tickets, so we felt like there wasn’t going to be that much money to support a fundraiser on top of that.
“One of the good things about the fundraiser is that people know they are supporting the club through it as well. The main purpose is to open up Firhill to everybody and get season tickets to people who otherwise wouldn’t get them – and that’s the main aim – but by doing that, people are supporting the club as well because they are buying season tickets.
“It’s a win-win, really. The slogan we are using is ‘support our community to support our club’. People donate to support Thistle but also to support the community, which in turn supports the club. We have been totally blown away by people’s generosity.”
It isn’t just the fans or the club itself that are doing what they can to help the cause, though. Thistle players have regularly supported Jags For Good’s various schemes, either through promoting the group’s fundraising efforts or by having a whip-round in the changing room – and although Cowan hopes they will follow suit again this year, he’ll be keeping his powder dry for the time being.
“The players we’ve got left, quite a few of them have been promoting it on social media,” Cowan explained. “Last year, the players all chipped in and made a squad donation to the fundraiser. We will probably do that again this year – but we’ll wait until we have a bigger squad!
“The players have always been absolutely brilliant and supportive, whether it’s promoting things on social media or coming along to events or donating their own money. They have always been class.
“Before one of our foodbank collections last year, Brian Graham came out in his training gear before his warm-up and dropped a big wad of cash in the bucket and had a chat. He was just doing it off of his own back and loads of stuff like that has happened since we launched Jags for Good. It speaks to the kind of club that Thistle is.”
Helping the local community is Jags For Good’s primary mission statement but the group also want to help Thistle grow and attract new supporters to Firhill. They give out free tickets in the hope that the team will earn some new supporters and are already making progress in this regard.
You only have to look at the long-term success of the club’s Kids Go Free scheme, that brought at hundreds of new supporters through the gates at Firhill, to see how such a policy can bear fruit. Many of the Jags’ most passionate fans can be found standing in the John Lambie Stand at Firhill or travelling the length and breadth of the country every week to cheer on the team.
“Loads of the guys that are our most vocal, colourful and lively fans in the John Lambie are a group of folk who have came to Thistle through the Kids Go Free scheme and god knows how much money they put into the club by going to every single game,” Cowan said. “The season ticket fundraiser will hopefully do that but on a smaller scale.
“Last season we received loads of messages from people who had received tickets and come along to Thistle for the first time. They were often new to Glasgow, from different parts of the world, and they now have Thistle as their football club.
“They fell in love with Thistle by getting season tickets and coming along, so the hope now is that they will be just like the rest of us and come along every Saturday.
“At the end of last season there was a wee boy, Saad, and his dad, Mouadh, who had been given tickets, and they had then contacted the charity they got them through to pass on their thanks.
“Saad ended up being the mascot for a game and him and his dad have properly fallen in love with Thistle. That’s just brilliant – an Algerian father and son, who Thistle fans have shown solidarity with, are now proper Jags fans. For me, that’s class.
“We are all delighted with that but anyone who has made a donation should be chuffed with that as well because that’s what the money has gone towards.”
Between the painful Premiership play-off defeat in Dingwall, where Thistle shipped three goals in 20 second-half minutes before eventually missing out on promotion via a penalty shoot-out, the club’s well-publicised financial difficulties and a host of out-of-contract players moving onto pastures new, June has been a pretty tough month for Jags fans.
Despite it all, though, there is a sense of cautious optimism at Firhill. The team’s magnificent form in the play-offs until that final hurdle against Ross County provided fans with a team they could truly believe in, while the supporters’ response to the club’s financial woes has lessened that particular burden, too. Cowan takes a holistic view but he is all too aware that a mood of general positivity around the club can have far-reaching effects.
He said: “Dingwall was pretty devastating – I’ve never had a bus journey like that after the game. But in retrospect, the games leading up to Dingwall were some of the most enjoyable games that I can remember as a Thistle fan.
“The atmosphere, the buzz of positivity around the whole place was just incredible. The fact that it has happened off the back of [Kris] Doolan’s arrival, because he is someone that everyone loves and adores, is special.
“Dingwall was terrible and we will all be waking up in a cold sweat thinking about it for years to come, but I think most of us are getting over it and looking forward to next season.
“With The Jags Foundation continuing to being real leaders of the support, changes in the boardroom, even [the statements about the club’s finances] resulting in TJF gaining more members – it just speaks to the spirit of the club.
“Jags For Good see the benefit of that because if everyone is feeling positive then they’re more likely to donate. It’s a virtuous circle.”
You can donate to Jags For Good's season ticket fundraiser here.
