Biggest Palmerston crowd

[84yards]

Was having a think earlier this week about the biggest crowd I've been part of at Palmerston over the years and I think it was the Queens v Motherwell Scottish Cup game of the early to mid 80's when over 7,000 fans packed into the ground

Can anyone confirm the official attendance that day and what's your own biggest Palmerston Crowd ???

[JRSLEFTPEG]

If you were at the next round against Patrick Thistle, then this was a bigger crowd than the Motherwell game . This was season 79-80 and Queens beat Falkirk after a replay , Coldstream after a replay , then beat Motherwell 2-0 in a great cup tie , before going out to Thistle 3-1 at Palmerston. There was a cup fever gripping the town before the Partick game and I remember badges and QoS rosettes aplenty outside the ground . This was one of the only two games I went to with my dad and remember vividly the very big Thistle support. Gerry Phillips scored our consolation and ( I think) the official crowd was about 8,000. This would beat the 7,000 crowd that were at Palmerston in 83-84 to see Rangers beat Queens 4-1 in the League Cup.

[JRSLEFTPEG]

84 yards - I recall the Motherwell crowd as about 5,000. There was plenty aggro at this game in early 1980. Both sets of fans in the covered end, a police line in between and missiles sailing over back and forth.

[JRSLEFTPEG]

The highlight of the Well game was a superb lob by Ian Mitchell over an advancing Hugh Sproat. Palmerston went bananas.

[84yards]

If you were at the next round against Patrick Thistle, then this was a bigger crowd than the Motherwell game . This was season 79-80 and Queens beat Falkirk after a replay , Coldstream after a replay , then beat Motherwell 2-0 in a great cup tie , before going out to Thistle 3-1 at Palmerston. There was a cup fever gripping the town before the Partick game and I remember badges and QoS rosettes aplenty outside the ground . This was one of the only two games I went to with my dad and remember vividly the very big Thistle support. Gerry Phillips scored our consolation and ( I think) the official crowd was about 8,000. This would beat the 7,000 crowd that were at Palmerston in 83-84 to see Rangers beat Queens 4-1 in the League Cup.

Perhaps it was the Partick Thistle game I was remembering . I was there and pretty sure Alan Rough was in goals for Thistle with his tight curly perm . Seem to remember somebody threw a can of lager at him and he picked it up , pretending to drink from it and threw it back

[Cresswell]

You youngsters must find it a touch frustrating when we oldies go on about what in was like "in my day". Do forgive me if I find posts about crowds of 7000/8000 rather amusing. In my early days at Palmerston (there I go again) we could average crowds in excess of 10,000 and on occasion we could exceed 20,000. I was there in February 1952 when we went down 1-3 to Hearts in a Scottish Cup game when the attendance was in excess of 26,000. Another notable Scottish Cup game was in 1958 when we went down narrowly 3-4 to Rangers in front of a crowd of 23,000. There was no segregation in those days and I recall a Rangers' fan beside me offering to swap Max Murray for Jim Patterson. There was a similar crowd (ie 23,000) at another Scottish Cup tie, again against Hearts, some two years after the record breaking tie of 1952 when we again lost narrowly, this time 1-2. Nowadays we can barely reach a "crowd" of 2000. In 1953 Queens actually took more than 2,000 to a Scottish Cup tie at Berwick who were then in C Division and had Billy Houliston at centre forward. Thankfully we won on that occasion by 3-2. I remember that it snowed heavily on the way home and that the bus I was in got lost.

[84yards]

Great post Cresswell

Was just wondering what the record crowd at Palmerston is for a LEAGUE fixture ?

[Francis_begbie_HFC]

i remember those games in the early 80s and seeing the crowds for those games quoted as 7 and 8 thousand seems wrong to me ,that rangers game in 83/84 season looked to me as there was a hell of alot more than 7000 at the game lol ,and that was ythe game super asswhole scored his first ever goal for rangers .

[JRSLEFTPEG]

The highest official league crowd I have been in is the 6.000 plus v Morton in our last game of the season in 01-02. However, the largest crowd was the Dunfermline game in April 1986 even although the official attendance was given as 4,400. A corrugated iron fence being barged over behind the ' coo shed' prior that game is the clue I will give you about the' lowish' crowd figure.

[JRSLEFTPEG]

The crowd figures given now are a lot more accurate than they used to be . For years there was skullduggery aplenty at the turnstiles and the new system of paying for your tickets beforehand has largely wiped this out. I recall, many years ago, a boy boasting that he had made a few hundred quid at the turnstile after a big cup tie and I knew he wasn't joking .