The Thistle Archive

Billy was the local boy from the Village area of south Belfast who went on to achieve fame as a player of great pedigree with Linfield, Rangers and Northern Ireland. He had a brief spell with Partick Thistle in season 1959-60. Brilliantly, Billy celebrated his 30th birthday on 12th December 1959 with a goal at Firhill in a 4-2 League win over St Mirren!

As a 17-year-old, Billy scored twice on his Linfield debut in a 5-0 win against Cliftonville on March 24, 1947. It was a sign of things to come, with Billy going on to score 93 goals in 143 senior appearances for the Blues, winning back-to-back titles in 1949 and 1950 and lifting the Irish Cup in 1948 - scoring in a 3-0 victory over Coleraine at Celtic Park - and again in 1950 with a 2-1 win against Distillery at Windsor Park. Billy also enjoyed three Gold Cup successes, including scoring a hat-trick against Glenavon in the final during the 1948/49 season, the same year he claimed an Ulster Cup winners' medal. He would go on to win the City Cup the following season and scored in his final game, a 5-1 City Cup win against Ballymena United on October 14, 1950. It was legendary Rangers manager Bill Struth who brought Billy to Ibrox for a fee of £11,500 on October 19, 1950. In Scotland, Billy continued his lethal scoring streak by bagging 174 goals in 262 appearances for the Gers. He won Scottish League winners' medals in 1953, '56 and '57, and was also a member of the Rangers side that won the Scottish Cup in 1953.

Billy was part of the Northern Ireland squad from 1951-59, scoring five goals in 12 appearances for his country. Northern Ireland's journey throughout the 1950s under the managership of Peter Doherty is viewed as a classic period in their footballing story. Not many gave the Irish a chance of qualifying for the 1958 World Cup, having been paired with Italy and Portugal. Billy played in 3 of the 4 fixtures and scored in the excellent 3-0 win over Portugal in Belfast on 1 May 1957. Northern Ireland's last game (at home to Italy) was set for 4 December 1957, but it ended in farce when fog prevented the referee from making it and the game was played as a 2-2 “friendly” which ended in a riot as the crowd (infuriated by both the postponement and rough play from the Italians) invaded the pitch. Danny Blanchflower played a captain's role by ordering his players to escort their Italian counterparts off the field while the police dealt with the crowd. It was dubbed the “battle of Belfast”. The draw would have taken Italy to Sweden, but Northern Ireland won the re-scheduled game by 2 goals to 1, thus qualifying for their maiden World Cup and ensuring that the two times champions were eliminated. Having played such a key role in the campaign, Billy was sure to have played in the World Cup, but he picked up an injury in training just days before the opening game and was a frustrated spectator as the Irish reached the quarter-finals, where they lost to France, who had earlier put out Scotland. Shortly before he died, Billy looked back on that great Northern Ireland team of the 1950s: “we were more than a football team, we were all mates.”

Billy left Rangers in 1959 for Stirling Albion and also enjoyed brief spells with Partick Thistle and Oxford United before retiring in 1961. Brilliantly, Billy celebrated his 30th birthday with a goal at Firhill in a 4-2 League win over St Mirren! After retiring, he worked as a joiner in the Govan Shipyard in Glasgow right up to the 1980s. In April 2015, the feature-length documentary Spirit of '58 was screened as part of the Belfast Film Festival. It featured Billy Simpson prominently alongside the other surviving players (Billy Bingham, Peter McParland, Jimmy McIlroy and Harry Gregg) as it told the story of Northern Ireland's journey throughout the 1950s under the managership of Peter Doherty, culminating in the 1958 World Cup. Simpson continued to reside near Ibrox until his death at the age of 87. A month earlier Rangers had hosted a tribute evening for Simpson, though he had been too frail to attend. Shortly before he died, Simpson looked back on the great Northern Ireland team of the 1950s: "we were more than a football team, we were all mates."

Billy is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists →