Thorn Athletic’s McGhee reflects on 28 years of growth and future ambitions

This is part of  interview on Johnstone Sound’s ‘Scoreboard Sportlight’. The full audio interview can be heard here.

When Mark McGhee helped set up a football team for a group of local boys back in 1998, he never imagined it would grow into one of Renfrewshire’s biggest grassroots sports clubs.

Nearly three decades on, Thorn Athletic has become far more than just a football team. It is now a community institution in Johnstone, running everything from toddler football sessions to walking football, and serving as home to karate, taekwondo, and even wrestling events.

“I’ve been involved there for an eternity now, but I think it’s coming up 28 years,” he said. “I founded the club in 1998 and just basically watched it grow and develop since then. So it’s been a long journey. Now we’ve got a team in the West of Scotland League, community programmes and a variety of things.”

Thorn Athletic has grown far beyond just football. “We’ve got our own facility down at Thorn Athletic Sports Academy and it’s busy between a variety of different things – modern toddler groups, karate, taekwondo, football, you name it. We’ve got 20 teams, everything from kids at 18 months right through to the walking football. It’s grown arms and legs since we started in 1998.”

Mark admits his own chance of a playing career was cut short at a young age, but his passion for football and community drove him to create something lasting. “I had two screws in my hip when I was growing up, spent a year on crutches, so I quickly realised playing football wasn’t going to be much good for me. A group of boys approached me and said, ‘We’d like to get a Johnstone team on the go, but we can’t get anybody to run us.’ I stupidly said yes – and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Over the years, the journey has had its struggles. “There’s been a lot of low points,” Mark recalled. “One of our storage containers that contained a lot of the stuff that services the outdoor football pitch was completely burnt. There was about £20,000 worth of equipment in there. That was a big one for us. But everybody rallied round, everybody was generous, and we got donations from a lot of people. That’s what keeps you going.”

The step into senior football has been a major milestone. “Obviously, we joined the West of Scotland League four years ago and it’s been pretty hectic since then. Back-to-back promotions, won the league last year. It’s reinvigorated me, reinvigorated a lot of people within the club. We’re going to new venues, it’s increased the profile of the club no end, and we’ve been lucky enough in the four years we’ve been there to have two promotions and one league title. Sometimes you look back and you think to yourself, how on earth did we end up here?”

Looking to the future, Mark said Thorn is focused on its next big development. “We’ve been successful with funding bids to the SFA Community Facilities Fund and Renfrewshire Council’s artificial pitches fund. Our planning permission has been submitted and we would like to be underway maybe before the end of the year on the development of a full-size floodlit astroturf pitch with additional car parking facilities. That would be phase one. Phase two would be adding additional training facilities and floodlights to the grass pitch, and phase three would be adding five-a-side pitches. It’s a three to five year plan and it’ll be transformational when it happens. I would expect the club to double in size within three to five years of that happening.”

And for McGhee, it all comes back to the original purpose – giving people opportunities through sport. “It’s about changing people’s lives, making them healthier, giving them a focus. We’re already running free programmes – Disney Playmakers for girls, McDonald’s free sessions, walking football. There’s lots going on and if anybody’s interested in joining, just drop us an email. Hopefully we can help a few people along the way.”