Triumph then tragedy — the story of Partick Thistle’s first-ever league win at Firhill
Much like in 2020, Partick Thistle found home victories in the league hard to come by when the Firhill doors opened in 1909.
Yes, they won the first match after coming from behind against Dumbarton Harp — but that was a Scottish Cup qualifying fixture.
Another Scottish Cup qualifying victory at Firhill followed almost exactly a month later against Nithsdale Wanderers but in the league, Thistle couldn’t find any home comforts just yet.
Into December and Thistle were still winless in Maryhill in the league, although they had taken credible draws with Falkirk and Rangers who would eventually finish second and third respectively.
A match with Hamilton Accies on December 4th of 1909 was abandoned and a week later Thistle drew 1–1 with Aberdeen, before falling to a 2–1 defeat against Rangers at Ibrox the following week (nothing new there)
Up next was Hibs on Christmas Day, no such thing as a break over the holiday period as there is nowadays.
Although Dan McMichael was back in charge at Hibs in 1909, it was perhaps fair to say that Hibs were not hitting the heights of his first tenure in charge which included the much-teased for years 1902 Scottish Cup triumph [it wouldn’t be until 2016 that they won it again, you see] and the winning of the Scottish league title the following year.
Between 1903/04 and 1908/09, Hibs had finished 10th, 5th, 11th, 12th, 5th and 6th in the then 18-team top flight, only reaching the Scottish Cup semi-finals once in 1907, including in that time a first-round replay loss to, ironically enough, Partick Thistle.
In the same season as their cup exit to Thistle, Hibs signed a young man named James Main, previously of Motherwell, Main was to quickly become popular at Easter Road, gaining a reputation for being a good tackler of opponents and a fair player who would not engage in any ‘skulduggery’.
Thistle, by contrast, were looking to just be competitive again having finished bottom of the First Division with only two wins and twenty-eight defeats in their 34 league encounters.
Despite this, they were not relegated and with the new ground at Firhill due to open they sought to improve — especially defensively after having conceded 102 goals in the 1908/09 season.
Who better to improve your defensive than the best Scottish centre half money can buy in Alex Raisbeck?
Raisbeck was the best of his era. Born in Polmont he began his career at Larkhall Thistle in 1894, spending two seasons with them before moving on to Hibs where he made 25 appearances and scored three goals between 1896 and 1898 before moving to Stoke.
This spell was brief, however, with Raisbeck only making four appearances.
Later in 1898, he was on the move once again, this time to an ambitious club eager to make their mark on the English game, Liverpool Football Club.
Within two seasons he was Liverpool captain, and in 1901 he led the club to the first of their plethora of English titles.
Raisbeck was not the only high-profile arrival as Thistle bid to exorcise the horror of their terrible 1909 season, with Welsh international Maurice Parry also joining from Liverpool’.
Robert Graham, who scored 11 goals in 24 matches as Third Lanark won their only Scottish title in 1903, also arrived at Firhill as George Easton sought to change things up’.
The game was played in wintry conditions that would probably have seen it called off today. Indeed, just two weeks previously a match at Firhill between Thistle and Hamilton had been abandoned
A heavily sanded and frost-laden Firhill surface awaited both sides, but back then it was the club directors of both sides who decided whether a match went ahead and not the referee. With a crowd gathering outside on Christmas Day no less, both parties agreed to the match going ahead.
Hibs suffered a double blow before the match, with captain Willie Duguid complaining that he felt unwell and vice-captain Sam Allan twisting his knee in the pre-match warm-up. That put rising star Main in the spotlight, with McMichael appointing him captain for the day.
Though a replacement was found for Duguid, the days long before substitutes meant that Hibs started the game a man short.
Their handicap didn’t show as they took the lead through John Sharp.
Then, as the interval approached, James Main and Thistle outside-left Frank Branscombe challenged for the ball. Branscombe slipped on the treacherous surface, causing his foot to land in Main’s groin. The Hibs captain was unable to continue and was escorted from the field.
With a man advantage, Thistle rallied and scored three unanswered goals to record a historic first win at Firhill in the league. Everything seemed okay…
But later that night Main’s health would begin to falter and required a doctor, two of whom diagnosed severe bruising — indeed, the marks of Branscombe’s studs on his torso were clearly visible but the next morning his condition worsened again and he was rushed to the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh — where he was diagnosed with a ruptured bowel as a result of his collision with Frank Branscombe’s boot.
The initial operation to fix the rupture was successful, with there even being reports of Main singing to himself in his hospital bed, but subsequent treatments were not as such, and tragically, on December 29th 1909, James Main died at the age of just twenty-three.
As can be seen upon the grave marker, more grief for the Main family followed less than a year later with the passing of James’ father at the age of 55.
The grief surrounding Main’s tragic death is perhaps comparable to the events years later when Sam English of Rangers and John Thomson of Celtic collided in 1931.
The incident affected Branscombe tremendously and he did not feature in Thistle’s next match on January 1st against Queen’s Park, although it is not clear if he attended Main’s funeral.
Branscombe would eventually go on to have a successful time with Thistle before leaving for Rangers in 1915. Main’s death really affected his own form and didn’t truly recover from the malaise that stemmed from it until the 1910/11 season.
The tragic irony is Main himself apparently being overheard telling Dan McMichael that, in allowing the game to be played with the pitch in such a state, the directors were risking the players’ lives.
Dan McMichael would remain manager of Hibs until February of 1919 when he succumbed, like so many others at that time, to the Great Flu Pandemic, known perhaps more commonly as the ‘Spanish’ Flu.
He was around 59 years old.
Frank Branscombe, as mentioned above, went on to become a Partick Thistle legend.
Though only scoring four goals in 21 games in that fateful 1909/10 season and just one in 18 in 1911/12, he would hit a career-best 15 goals in 32 matches in 1912/13.
Four goals in 24 matches in 1913/14 would follow and seven in 31 in 1914/15 which earned him a loan move to Rangers [something you don’t see often].
Branscombe’s 1915/16 season at Ibrox saw him only make seven appearances — but in those seven appearances, he scored five goals.
He returned to Maryhill for the 1916/17 season, which was his final one for the club — scoring twice in eighteen appearances.
Frank Branscombe made 182 appearances for Partick Thistle and scored 37 goals. He died in Maryhill at the age of 52 in 1942.
For the centenary of Main’s tragic passing in 2009, he was honoured with a plaque in the concourse of the Famous Five stand at their Easter Road ground.
Present for the ceremony were many relatives of Main, including his great-nephew. It was most fitting to have the memorial to the tragic young defender be within the stand which honours Hibernian legends later to come.
A first league victory at their new home should have been a seminal victory for Partick Thistle. Instead, the untimely loss of a gifted professional ensured it would forever be tinged with tragedy.
