ON THE ROAD finds supporters coming from all corners of the globe to Grasp the Thistle at Firhill

Partick Distel 3 Queen’s Park 0

The stage is well lit, the sun giving Firhill a welcome warmth. The cast is assembled, over 4,000 fans from all over the world. The cameramen prowl the sidelines, capturing footage.

The struggling Jags fans will know that we’ve had Thistle: The Glory (a short-lived series that ended dramatically in 1971 after the League Cup win) and Thistle: The Comedy. Some might even argue that this is a series that’s been running for a while.

But now there’s Grasping the Thistle, a documentary in production led by an impressive team whose resume includes Netflix series and an Academy Award.

“It’s a bit of a thrill,” says Ray Bradshaw, comedian and Thistle fan. “As a supporter I wonder if it’s going to be as great as Wrexham’s documentary, or as Sunderland’s version, which was, well… not as great.”

The first shots certainly tell a bleak story.

Filming began after Thistle lost the Premiership play-offs, and the season had started off disappointingly until Saturday’s derby win.

“The club supported Kris Doolan and we were all hopeful before the season,” Bradshaw said, and that optimism was ultimately realised in the win against Queen’s Park.

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

The club reported early last week that it had made a loss of £170,000. Promotion to the Premiership is a sporting achievement, but it is also a financial necessity.

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

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

A group of Swedish fans are sitting in a corner.

A lone figure, bunnet in hand, watches from the door. It 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 used to be a project manager at a shipyard that built nuclear submarines.

Thistle is of course more complicated than that.

“I describe my job as splitting the operation into on-field and off-field,” he says. “The manager deals with on-field and I deal with off-field.”

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

He left the nuclear submarines to take up a management position at Barrow, the club he supported.

“It only took me seven seconds to decide to take the job when it was offered,” he says, going on to take a similar role at Altrincham.

“The Barrow connection was through my grandfather,” he says. He went to live with his grandfather and they both, although a mutual friend, decided to go to Barrow games.

“My professional life was born out of an accident,” he says. “It all started with that chance decision to go and see Barrow.”

His grandfather recently died. “I guess I’m a bit of an orphan now,” he says without a trace of self-pity. “But I’m used to it.

This is a real stadium with a real fan base. I have experienced the power of football. When I moved in with my grandfather,

I was 18 and the relationship wasn’t great at first because of our age difference. But football broke that frost.’

Sitting in the back of the stands on a clear day, he is invited to imagine what the sunny highlands would look like.

“On the pitch we have the ambition to get out of the Championship this season,” he says. “I’ve been going to St Mirren for years – I’ve got a mate who’s a fan – and I’ve watched their fan-ownership journey.

You could compare us to St Mirren in terms of community base and commercial ambition and we can be similar.

‘St Mirren have made the right decisions and we should emulate that… so why not Europe? That is the benchmark, the North Star, but first we have to get out of the championship.’

The Scandinavian bond with the club was born in cordiality and was baptized and maintained by whisky and beer.

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

His uncle first came to Thistle 20 years ago. Peter came in 2007. He comes back regularly. ‘This will be my 10th home game but I’ve been to the Challenge Cup final and a couple of away games.

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

He sips his beer and confesses that he is a whisky lover. ‘We once visited Islay to sample the malts and flew to Glasgow for a Thistle match,’ he says.

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

‘He told me that the Thistle players of that era certainly knew how to party.’ We, people like Alan Rough, are not so shocked by this revelation.

Holmberg points out that Thistle has become a part of his life. ‘In 2007, we were at the Woodside Inn and two guys sat down next to us.

They were Thistle fans and they are good friends now. One of them drove us to the game today and we come over here and visit him and he is coming to Stockholm.’

Why then Thistle for the Holmberg clan?

“There’s more of a family feel here,” he says. “There’s no sectarianism. If I wear a Thistle shirt on the street in Glasgow, no one insults me.

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

He added: ‘Can I put it this way? First of all, I love football and for some reason Partick spoke to me in a nice way. It’s hard to explain, but when you find a club that you have feelings for, that’s just the way it is.’

The overseas connection extends to Africa too, with Neil Cowan coming to watch a match between Jags and Spiders supporters in Toryglen.

Cowan volunteers with Jags for Good, a community group that raises money to help people in need.

Setting up food banks and helping pay energy bills are at the forefront of the group’s goals, but they also play an important role in helping those in need.

“We had a guy on the team who had come here from Africa,” Cowan said. “He lost his funding as an asylum seeker, so he had no money, no home. We chipped in to give him some money and he stayed with members of the team.”

Cowan knows what a real crisis is all about. Before the game, he was relaxed about Thistle’s unconvincing start to the season. ‘It’s not what I want, obviously, but I believe we can challenge.’

His words were backed up by events on the pitch, with Thistle eventually winning comfortably after a hard-fought match.

Their first win of the season moved them up to fifth place, placing them in the promotion-chasing group.

There were stories of family, ambition, community and charity in Firhill. There is still faith and no small hope in the dugouts and stands. It will all be on a screen near you soon.