The Thistle Archive

Jamie began his career with Norwich City, moving with his family to Norwich from Glasgow and coming through the famed youth academy alongside players like Danny Mills and Craig Bellamy. He turned professional in 1995 under the management of Martin O`Neill however he was released in 1996 where he was deemed too lightweight to make an impact in the English Premier League. Norwich were struggling financially at the time, and the fact that Jamie was living in a £250K house owned by the club (which needed to be sold) probably had something to do with it! He joined League 2 side Scarborough who had hired former Norwich assistant Mick Wadsworth as manager. Scarborough reached the English League play offs in 1998 but failed to gain promotion and, due to financial problems, the team was broken up.

Jamie returned to Scotland to join Clyde and was an important part of the team which won the Scottish 2nd Division in the 1999-00 season, becoming a fans favourite and winning 3 consecutive Player of the Year awards. He rather controversially joined Clyde's arch rivals Partick Thistle in 2002, who had just been promoted to the Scottish Premier League, having been impressed by Thistle gaffer, John Lambie. A strong top-flight season in 2002-03 was followed by back-to-back relegations as Thistle struggled to find their identity post-Lambie. In the summer of 2004, specialists advised Jamie that he should consider giving up the game due to a serious hip injury, but he decided to soldier on. As he put it: “My final season at Thistle in the First Division I was really struggling, was hard for me but felt we as a club were struggling also so I was trying to battle through.”

Even after giving up the professional game in the summer of 2005, he still harboured plans to continue at a lesser level: “Initially the plan was I was going to be moving back to Norwich in 2005, my old team mate was the manager at Wroxham and it was semi-pro level. I was down for the week and played a game as a guest. Ended up not moving, so never got off the ground. It was hard to give up. I couldn't play at Pro level so was going to play the odd game. Glad I didn't to be fair!” Jamie had a hip replacement operation in 2010, and has enjoyed a succesful career in digital sports marketing since giving up the game.