Firhill Stadium - History

History

Partick Thistle played at various sites between 1876 and 1891, including Kelvingrove, Jordanvale Park and Muir Park. The club settled at Meadowside, beside the River Clyde, in 1891. They were forced out of this site in 1908, however, to make way for a shipyard. The club found some spare Caledonian Railway land in Maryhill, which became the site of Firhill. The ground was due to open on 21 August 1909, but the match was postponed because it had not been declared safe for public use and planning consent had not been obtained. Firhill opened a month later.

The site was purchased by the club for £5,500. The record attendance for a Partick Thistle game at Firhill was set against Rangers in 1922, when 49,838 people attended. The present main stand was constructed in 1927 and the terraces were improved. Although the main stand resembles an Archibald Leitch design, it was in fact designed by David Mills Duncan, who had previously worked for Leitch. The stadium's attendance record was set by the 1928 British Home Championship match between Scotland and Ireland, when 54,728 people attended.

Firhill was one of several Scottish grounds that used greyhound racing as an alternative source of income in the 1930s. There were no further improvements until the early 1950s, when Thistle had a relatively successful period. This success financed a roof over part of the terracing and floodlights, which were first used in a friendly match against Tottenham Hotspur in November 1955. Firhill hosted the first European Cup match ever to be played in Glasgow, when Swedish club Djurgårdens played their "home" match against Hibernian in 1955–56. Djurgårdens played at Firhill because of the freezing conditions in Sweden at the time of the match.

Firhill became designated under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act in 1977, which reduced its capacity from over 40,000 to 20,500. In 1986, Firhill became the first Scottish ground in modern times to be used by more than one team, when Clyde moved in after being evicted from Shawfield. This arrangement lasted until 1991. Hamilton Academical then shared Firhill with Thistle in two different spells, the first arrangement beginning in 1994. To cope with the resulting additional usage, undersoil heating was installed in 1994. The Jackie Husband Stand, opened in December 1994, is an impressive large cantilever stand which was built on the site of a huge section of enclosed terracing.

The North Stand was built in 2002 to meet the Scottish Premier League criteria on stadium capacity, which stated at the time that member clubs must have 10,000 seats in their ground. Ironically this criterion was later changed to only 6,000 seats, which not only allowed for the relegation of Partick Thistle, but meant they had spent much of their resources on a stand that under new regulations was unnecessary. Originally, the stand only ran for two thirds the length of the pitch, but it was extended in 2003. The construction of this stand was assisted by the sale of some land to allow the construction of student flats which now lie behind the stand.