 |
Your Archive Needs YOU! Page upload volunteers are urgently required; free time is precious for everyone but if you can spare some then please do get in touch → and play your part in helping to build an Archive for all of Jagskind to use and enjoy! Read more → |
| Alex Gourlay |
 Alexander M. Gourlay was probably born in Scotland, although his place and date of birth remain unknown to us. * The forward signed for Donald Turner's Thistle on Thursday, 10th July, 1941, having most recently been with Strathclyde. He made his debut appearance on Saturday, 23rd August, 1941, in a 4-1 defeat away to Heart of Midlothian in the Southern League. Alex scored his first goal for Thistle on Wednesday, 27th August, 1941, in a 5-3 win at home to Queen's Park in the Glasgow Cup. He scored the last of his 36 goals on Saturday, 21st September, 1946, in a 3-2 defeat away to Kilmarnock in the League Cup. That turned out to be his last game for the club, having appeared as a Jag on 77 occasions. Alex's club-list included Strathclyde, Partick Thistle, Aberdeen, Clyde and East Stirlingshire.
|
 Alex joined the Jags in July 1941 from Strathclyde United. He played in the inside right position, but occasionally moved to inside left. In the 5 seasons he was at Firhill Alex chipped in to the goal tally for each of the seasons. He scored 15 in the 1941-42 season, With Willie Newall being top scorer with 36 goals. He was regularly in the Thistle side during his first season at Firhill, missing around 8 competitive matches, but his appearances were more intermittent for the rest of his career. His army service interrupted his availability for those seasons, with Alex playing for Thistle when available, but also turned out for Aberdeen during this period making 37 appearances for them between 1941-44, as he was appointed to Northern Command. Alex is shown in the record books as having scored a hat trick in the 7-2 Southern League win over Third Lanark at Firhill on 18th October 1941, but the 4,000 crowd saw Alex score 4 that day, as he managed to squeeze in an own goal before completing his hat trick. He was surely forgiven by the Firhill faithful. He must have enjoyed playing against the Hi Hi, as 9 of his 36 Thistle goals were scored against them. Alex made almost appearances for Thistle. After the war he moved on to Clyde, and towards the end of the decade signed for East Stirlingshire. Alex played for Army and Combined Services representative sides on 13 occasions between 29th May 1942 and 1st January 1944. On account of his service during WWII, Alex is included in our feature piece, The Partick Thistle returned →. |
| (DMAC) |
