The Thistle Archive

This right back, capped with Scotland schoolboys, hung in with Thistle for 7 seasons from the summer of 1950 onwards, although first team appearances were few and far between after the initial excitement of 6 starts over the course of several weeks early in 1951. Alex was having to rely on Jimmy McGowan getting injured - and that didn't happen often. On 6th January 1951, the 20-year-old Alex had a debut that was memorable for life. The Jags resisted an onslaught at Ibrox, and left with both points in a 3-1 win, to the great consternation of more than 30,000 home fans. Over the years at Firhill, Alex was granted permission to fill in downtime with occasional guest appearances for the two Irvine clubs; Meadow and Victoria. It was a wrench to leave such a great Thistle team but, eventually, he headed for pastures altogther new, signing with Preston North End for a transfer fee of £500 in the summer of 1957. He finally settled as a first team regular at Carlisle United one year later, playing with them for three full seasons in Division 4, clocking up just over 100 League appearances.