The Thistle Archive

Andy Kerr came to Firhill from his home town team of Lugar Boswell. Although perhaps lacking a little in inches at 5’ 10” he arrived at as a centre-half and it was in that position that he made his Thistle debut against Aberdeen in September 1952, the opening League game of the season. Kerr was unable to mark his Thistle debut by being part of a winning Thistle team, the final score being a 1-1 draw, but he was singled out for some, qualified, praise in the press in the games aftermath: It was simple for Kerr, Thistle's centre half, to allow Dunbar to lose himself in a labyrinth of mistakes and the young Lugar man had better not get the impression that this was any test of his prowess. He merely had an airing."

It turned out to be something more than just an airing. While by no means a permanent fixture in the Thistle team he did mark his debut season by playing 19 games in the Thistle first team. His time as a centre-half though was soon at an end. That lack of inches was perhaps a hindrance to a career in the heart of the defence and it was a shrewd move indeed to move the young Kerr to the position of full-back. He first appeared in that position as Thistle, who would finish the season in third spot in the League, defeated Dundee in November 1953. He did, however, still appear as centre-half on occasion and indeed played in that role in the 1953 League Cup Final defeat at the hands of East Fife and the 1954 Glasgow Cup Final win over Rangers.

Kerr's form for Thistle was such that he soon came to the attention of the international selectors. He won the first of his two caps for the Scottish League in 1955 against the English League. The Scottish League lost 4-2 with Kerr's performance being described as "a mixture, sometimes he was the icicle and sometimes far out in his timing of the tackle." He had more success two years later as part of a Scottish League side that hammered their Irish League counterparts 7-0 at Ibrox. Kerr was drafted in to replace the injured Alec Parker. The Glasgow Herald was fulsome in its praise of Kerr's performance: "At full-back Kerr outshone Caldow, which is not to say that the Rangers player was not a success. It was noticeable, however, that whenever an ominous gap appeared between Evans and Caldow, the Partick Thistle player was quick to intervene."

Sandwiched between those two League caps Kerr was capped at 'B’ level for Scotland against England. Scotland drew 2-2 after reportedly having "no chance" of avoiding defeat. At full international level Kerr was capped twice inside ten days for Scotland. In May 1955 he was part of the Scotland side that defeated Austria 4-1 in Vienna during a game marked by fist fights on the field and pitch invasions from the terracing. Ten days later 102,000 spectators saw Scotland lost 3-1 to Hungary in Budapest.

There would be no further caps for Kerr although there were frequent calls for him to be brought into the side and he accompanied Scotland to Wembley in 1959 as reserve. Back at Firhill Kerr remained as part of Thistle's arguably best ever side until virtually the end of the 1950s but not exclusively as part of the Thistle defence. Already converted from centre-half to full-back, he moved further upfield in December 1957. A Thistle team entertained a Glasgow Select in the Jimmy McGowan benefit match and Thistle took the opportunity to try Kerr as centre-forward. In the admittedly low key surrounds of a benefit match the experiment had an almost instant reward. Thistle won 3-2 with Kerr helping himself to two of those three goals. A few days later Kerr again lined up as a centre-forward, this time in a League match against Queen of the South, and again scored twice. He scored the following week against Raith Rovers, seven days later against Celtic at Parkhead as Thistle won 3-2 and again the next week against East Fife.

The goals dried up after that burst of goalscoring but the following season, his last as a Partick Thistle player, he topped the Thistle scoring charts with 25 goals in all competitions. That kind of form was bound to bring him to the attention of others and he started the following season as a Manchester City with Thistle receiving a reported £11,000 transfer fee for him. His stay in Manchester was a brief one though, making just 10 League appearances for City before returning to Scotland to sign for Kilmarnock. He proved to be a huge success at Rugby Park averaging only a little less than a goal a game in 4 years with Killie. In 1960-61 he equalled a Kilmarnock record by scoring 34 times in the one season. He left Kilmarnock in 1963 to join Sunderland, this time for a fee of £22.000, before once again coming home to Scotland this time to Aberdeen the following year. He rounded off his senior playing career with a spell in Northern Ireland with Glentoran.

1952 - GLASGOW CUP

1953 - LEAGUE CUP

1954 - SFL DIVISION A

1954 - GLASGOW CUP

1956 - GLASGOW CHARITY CUP

1956 - LEAGUE CUP

1958 - LEAGUE CUP