2008 is a special year for East Kilbride Thistle with the 25th anniversary of their Junior Cup win and the 40th anniversary of the club’s inception. In the first of a two-part special, we look back on the jubilant scenes of 1983. By Paul Thomson MAY 29, 1983. The streets of the Village were awash with colour as East Kilbride Thistle returned from Ibrox Stadium with the Scottish Junior Cup. Thistle captain, Joe Reilly hoisted the cup aloft as he made his way from the team bus that had squeezed its way past hundreds of jubilant Jags fans in the Village’s Main Street on the Sunday evening. It was Thistle’s proudest moment. Reilly escorted the trophy to the Montgomery Arms for a heroes’ reception where a capacity crowd joined in the celebrations, with fans drinking from the cup and becoming merrier by the minute. A rather vivacious party ensued at the Thistle Social Club... and the rest, as they say, is history. This week marks the celebration of a very proud moment in the history of East Kilbride Thistle Football Club. For 25 years ago, sheer euphoria gripped the town as Willie Egan’s team lifted the 1983 Scottish Junior Cup after a 2-0 win over Bo’ness United. Streets in the Village were swarming with fans as the cup winner’s made a triumphant return to the Thistle Social Club for the post-match party. At Ibrox, Thistle took the lead just before half-time as Bobby McPhee swung in a superb cross for Kenny Gordon to head home at the back post. But it wasn’t until the 75th minute that the Jags sealed their historic triumph. A piece of genius from Hugh Farrell left two defenders for dead and his cross saw club captain, Joe Reilly chest the ball down before firing the ball past the Bo’ness goalkeeper. And so Reilly proceeded to lift the Junior Cup, but as he told the News, that was always going to be the case on that famous Sunday afternoon. Reilly said: “At the start of the tournament, the whole team just had this belief that it was going to be our year and on the day of the final everything went for us. “As Bo’ness came onto the pitch we all started singing on the park and that seemed to unnerve them. “It was a special day and with it being 25 years since we won, it is quite sad that some of the folk who were there on the day, can’t share in the celebrations this week. “Among them are my father John Reilly, Tommy Dowdalls, Willie Egan and committee members Alec Orr and Willie Wark just to name a few. “We had a great team of guys at the club and 1983 was a great season.” Joe now works with the Scottish Ambulance service and still stays in the town. The Whitehills man moved to Cumnock Juniors after his Thistle triumph and became one of a very few players to lift the Junior Cup twice. However, the 51-year-old still cites his Thistle win as his greatest. “It didn’t feel the same winning the cup with Cumnock,” he said. “Obviously, it was great to win the cup again, but it’s a greater feeling when you win it with your home town team and the celebrations we had after the game were amazing. “Cup final day was filled with so many great memories, but I’ll always remember the time when Tommy Dowdalls got left behind for the bus ride to Ibrox. We’d been having lunch in the Rolls-Royce club and we all left without Tommy, who was in the toilet. “Whether it was pre-match nerves or not, I don’t know but we were on our way to Ibrox by the time we realised and Tommy had to make his own arrangements to get to the game.” Another legendary striker for Thistle was Jim O’Donnell and his love of Junior football remains strong as he reports on the Junior game for the Scottish press. As the cup final programme states, Jim had scored 100 goals in 167 games for the Jags by the time Bo’ness came calling, but the prolific goal-scorer didn’t net that day. However, Jim was quick to heap praise on his team-mates. He said: “The first thing I remember about the final was that Gordon Stuart failed a fitness test on the morning of the final and it is ironic to think that with him missing out, Tommy Dowdalls came into the team and was, arguably, the best player on the park.” “Also, Kenny Gordon coming up to score was a rare event, but Bo’ness were the favourites for the final that year and in the end 2-0 doesn’t reflect how easy the game was for us. We played some lovely football that day and I still have the video of it.” The 53-year-old added: “It was a dream to play for EK Thistle at that time and we were one of the top junior sides in the country.” And one of Jim’s most memorable moments was being able to keep his cup final shirt, despite being told they would have to hand them back. Jim said: “They told us we had to give our strips back after the game, but we all wanted to keep the shirt as a memento of the win and Joe Reilly went further than others to keep his. He was so frightened that he wouldn’t get to keep his strip that he threw his shirt to his brother in the crowd and told Willie Egan that ‘a fan took my shirt’ — but most of us pocketed our shirts anyway.” It was a fine moment for everyone involved with Thistle and over the next couple of weeks, no doubt some players will return to their old haunts to enjoy a beer or three and reminisce about the time East Kilbride Thistle won the Scottish Junior Cup. | 
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