JACQUI Low is an expert in dealing with horror and so, the dark joke goes, nobody is better qualified to become the new chairperson of Partick Thistle.

But when you’ve been a Scottish Office information officer whose time in the job covered Lockerbie, Piper Alpha and Dunblane, this impressive lady will never be so glib to use the word disaster after a last minute defeat.

Low is quite possibly the first Tory to be elected to anything in Maryhill, and while not many with blue rosettes have ever won much in that area of Glasgow, the new boss at Firhill is out to show she isn’t some token woman, her words, and that she is, to borrow an outdated joke, the best man for the job.

“I have seen real disasters where people have died,” she said when asked about Thistle’s relegation. “‘I was working the night of Lockerbie. I worked when Piper Alpha happened and also the tragic shooting in Dunblane.

“I was in communications and I hope I am never tested in any of those areas in anything related to football. But what those experiences do is give you clarity of thought and an ability to assess things quickly and not to panic.”

Low has been on Thistle's board for three years and has impressed all whose path she has crossed.

She is a football fan, always has been, and knows what the short-term goals are for a club who find themselves down but still looking upwards.

“It’s all about focus,” Low insisted. "In among everything we have to do, we have to retain our focus. We said we are going for promotion in one season and it’s my role to make sure everyone at the club believes that.

“We need direction and everything we do is driven towards getting us back up in one season. I worked in politics for years and there’s a saying in politics that when you are in opposition that’s the time when you do your thinking and re-organise.

‘You iron out the wrinkles you couldn’t do when you were busy governing.

‘That’s my idea. We are going to use the year in the Championship to get things right on the pitch and move the club on off it so that when we go back to the Premiership we are actually ready for it.”

Chief Executive Gerry Britton sat beside Low yesterday afternoon inside the Firhill boardroom and the respect they had for each other was clear. They exchange work emails at ridiculous times of the morning and while both have very different background, the hymn sheet they sing from is the same.

And for one man, this is the highlight of Low’s career.

“My dad, who is nearly 80, sent me a text yesterday morning,” she revealed. “He doesn’t do that very often as he’s not very technically literate. The text was, ‘I never thought I’d have a daughter who was chairman of a football club, I couldn’t be prouder of you.’”