The Thistle Archive

David was a left-half specialist who spent 4 full seasons as a Partick Thistle man, captaining the team for spells and gaining representative honours with Glasgow as he did so. He signed up at Inchview for the start of the 1891-92 season, an exciting time for the club which had just become founding members of the Scottish Alliance, a brand new league to cater for teams which were excluded from the inaugural Scottish Football League, set up 12 months earlier. It was his consistently good form in his first months as a Jag which led to his first cap for the Glasgow FA, early in the New Year. The match, set for 9th January, was doubtful due to a week-long snowstorm and a frozen pitch but, knowing they would not be able to find a re-scheduled date, the city FA decided to simply “roll down the snow” and play the game! Despite the miserable conditions, some 4,000 turned out at (what we now call) Second Hampden Park and it was to the great credit of the players that they put on a decent show; Glasgow 4 Sheffield 2. Several weeks later, David could proudly point to the fact that he scored his first goal in an historic campaign, the ultimate equalising goal which earned a point in a 2-2 draw away to Glasgow Thistle on 27 February 1892. Throughout his time as a Jag David was always there or thereabouts at the top of the appearances lists and was the top man in his first season, with 28 confirmed starts in all competitions.

David also got on the scoresheet in the 5-2 win over Celtic in August 1892, which opened the new season - our first-ever win over the Eastenders. Scoring wasn't his game, but he notched another important goal the following month, helping the club to a 3-1 win over Johnstone in the 2nd Preliminary Round of the Scottish Cup, as a total of 162 teams played off to join the elite 16 in the 1st Round proper. Alas, David's goal was in vain as Thistle fell at the (final) 4th preliminary hurdle, a brutal 4-3 exit in West Lothian, which ended with a Broxburn Shamrock player putting the winning goal through with both hands! A second cap was won for the Glasgow FA on 1 October 1892 when Glasgow (“the metropolis of the Association Football world” as the local press called them) triumphed by 7 goals to 1 away to the North of Scotland in Inverness. Putting their Scottish Cups woes behind them, there was better news on the silverware front later in the season for Thistle and David, who received a winners' medal in the Greenock Charity Cup. The final was played at Cappielow on 28 May 1893. 2 goals in 10 minutes set Thistle up, although Morton fought back to 2-2 at half-time. Due to an injury, Thistle played with 10 men after the break, went behind, levelled, then Morton scored from a penalty. After that “Thistle fairly nonplussed the ground team” as the Greenock Telegraph put it, and 4 more goals won the cup more than comfortably; Morton 4 Partick Thistle 7!

After two seasons in the Scottish Alliance, Thistle resigned at the end of the campaign to become a founding member of the Scottish Football League Second Division in 1893-94. Thistle were mid-table in their first two seasons, but held their own with some memorable wins on the way, and David was a regular throughout this time. Again he made history by playing in Thistle's first-ever “official” league game (a 3-2 win away to Morton in August 1893) and he even got a couple of league goals under his belt that season too, scoring in wins over Morton (5-2, 14 October) and Northern (4-3, 25 November). In the autumn of 1894 David was contemplating a move to Newcastle and he turned out in a couple of midweek fixtures for Hawthorn Leslie's Draughtsmen… as centre forward! He earned his third and final cap for Glasgow on 20 October 1894, playing alongside Thistle teammate John Proudfoot at Kirkcaldy; East of Scotland 3 Glasgow 3. In January 1896 - alongside Thistle team mate John Cameron and (former Jag) John McCorkindale - he turned out for Clydebank United, a short-lived exhibition/combination team. For this reason, he was later referred to in some English papers as “late Partick Thistle & Clydebank”. By March 1896, David did indeed move southwards and succesfully tried out for New Brompton, who played in the Southern League (first team) and Kent League (reserves), although his appearances were few and far between during 1896-97. Reading between the lines, it seems David's “real job” became his priority, and there's no trace of his career as a footballer continuing from then on.

1893 - GREENOCK CHARITY CUP