TONY WATT knew it was time to find a new club when a 63-year-old challenged him to a race over 60 metres at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena.
Former Scotland star Watt — released by Dundee United at the end of last season — has joined Partick Thistle after a long summer of solitary slog.
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He’ll make his Jags bow on Friday night when Scottish football’s new campaign kicks off with a Premier Sports Cup tie at Edinburgh City.
And Watt is relieved that a tough close-season — which also saw his beloved chickens killed by a hungry badger — is finally at an end.
The ex-Celtic hero said: “It’s been difficult for the last seven or eight weeks. I didn’t take a big break after the end of my loan spell at Motherwell.
“I’ve been running myself. I missed the camaraderie and having somebody to push me. I missed the team environment.
“The final straw was when I got called out in a race by a 63-year-old.
“I was in the gym at the Emirates and he came over and said, ‘I saw you running the other day and told my wife that I want to race you’.
“I was lined up on a track against a 63-year-old!
“After that, I called Robert Snodgrass and said ‘Listen mate, it’s time for me to get a club’.
“I explained it to him and he was crying with laughter at the thought of me racing a 63-year-old Mixed Martial Artist.
“I won the race. I wouldn’t be telling the story if I’d lost it, put it that way.”
Watt has penned a two-year contract to work under former Hoops team-mate Mark Wilson at Firhill.
He’ll hope to shoulder some of the scoring burden which fell on former player co-boss Brian Graham last season.
And he says the chance to work again with Wilson — now in sole charge at Thistle — was just too good to resist.
Watt added: “We were never on the pitch together at Celtic.
“I was in the squad for the final few games of one season before Mark left but we never played together.
“I knew him as I was a Celtic fan growing up and we trained a few times together.
“He was the driving force behind the move. We had some good conversations.
“I gave him my word that I’d sign and it was just a case of getting it done.”
Jags face a tricky opener at Meadowbank on Friday against a City side which won 3-2 at Premiership hosts Falkirk in a pre-season friendly.
Wilson will also throw his other newcomers in for debuts as Thistle kick off a new era.
Watt would love to open his scoring account in the capital — and is already planning a special goal celebration in memory of his lost chickens.
The 31-year-old explained: “The chickens are gone — they’re dead.
“We moved house and put them on a farm. The guy we gave them to forgot to put the door down on the coop and they got scranned by a badger.
“I wondered if it was a set-up and there was somebody who didn’t like me went up there with a badger suit on and ate my chickens!
“I had four. They were the best looked-after chickens. I was getting all sorts of eggs from them.
“You could feel their comfort level at my old house. And now they’ve gone away and been eaten.
“I’m not allowed any more. My wife won’t let me — she says they are stinking.
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“Every time I score, I’ll be pointing up to the sky and thinking of them.
“I think my original chicken celebration is maybe retired. But the fans seemed to like it so you never know . . . ”
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