The Thistle Archive

Martin began his career in the Scottish lower leagues with Albion Rovers and Stenhousemuir. He then dropped back into the Junior grade with Shotts Bon Accord for three years before joining second-tier Falkirk in 1985. In his first season with the Bairns the club achieved promotion to the top division, and maintained their status in the second. In 1987 Martin moved to Hamilton Academical, and in his single campaign there he again helped the Accies win promotion, this time as champions. By then he had already moved on to St Mirren, where he stayed for three seasons in the Scottish Premier Division before being signed by fellow top-level club Motherwell in November 1991 for £175,000. He made 237 appearances for Motherwell between 1991 and 1998, and was part of the side which finished league runners-up in 1995. He was named in SPFA Team of the Year for 1994.

While playing for Motherwell, the 32-year-old Martin earned two caps for the Scotland national team and also represented the B side on three occasions in the same era. His two caps were earned in memorable style, namely the 1995 trip to Japan to play in the tri-nation Kirin Cup. He made his debut in Scotland's first-ever match vs. Japan, earning his stripes in a hard-fought 0-0 draw with the hosts in Hiroshima on 21-May-1995. Cap #2 was earned 3 days later in Toyama as goals from John Robertson and Stephen Crawford earned Scotland a 2-1 win over Ecuador. It wasn't quite enough to win the cup, with Japan defeating Ecuador 3-0 a few days later to top the group.

The highlight of my career was winning two Scotland international caps in Japan. The only thing was nobody in this country saw us! It would have been better if I'd played at Hampden.

Martin left Motherwell in 1998 and started working full-time with NEC Logistics in the town. He continued his football as a part-timer with Stirling Albion before a falling out there in November 1999 led to John Lambie jumping in with an offer until the end of the season. The former Motherwell stalwart was typical of Lambie's signings at this time; a good experienced pro to help lift Thistle out of the 3rd tier doldrums. The central defender didn't let anyone down, but the season was a disappointment in general. 3 from 10 went up, but Thistle could only finish 5th in what was very much a transitional period for the club in the aftermath of the "Save the Jags" campaign. Brian retired from the professional leagues in the summer of 2000, but his love for the game kept him going for a good few seasons back in the juniors, appearing for Lanark United, Stonehouse Violet, Shotts - two decades after his first spell there, and Cambuslang Rangers, also playing the occasional game for the 'Motherwell Legends' team.

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