The Thistle Archive

John, a prolific forward, came to the club in June 1927, after spells with Maryhill and Queen’s Park. His first team debut was on 1st May 1928 against his former club Queen’s Park, Thistle losing 2-1 at home in the Charity Cup contest. He did play and score in the opening match in the successful Dental Cup campaign in the 1928/29 season, though he didn’t take part in any of the subsequent rounds of the competition. He scored 6 competitive goals in the 1928/29 season. The late 20s and early 30s was a period when Thistle hovered around 6th place in the SFL First Division. He scored a hat-trick against Ayr United in a 4-2 league victory at Somerset Park in August 1929, the start of a period of prolific scoring on his part. He scored 24 competitive goals in the 1929-30 season, only bettered by John Torbet (26).

By the springtime of 1930 Thistle were being quoted as serious contenders for the Scottish Cup and John was playing his part, but in the Quarter Final against Falkirk on 1st March 1930 he got injured early in the second half, but finished the game even though he was limping around; these were much different days! “The injury to Simpson, the Partick Thistle centre-forward, is not serious as was at first feared. There is no cartilage trouble, and now undergoing the routine training, and is looking forward to leading the Thistle attack against Hamilton in the semi final.” reported the Dundee Courier on 15th March. The Hamilton game in question was the following Saturday (22nd March) but John didn't make it. Thistle won 3-1 though, and a Scottish Cup final versus Rangers was now secured. On the 26th March, a specialist looked at John's knee declaring him fit, and that there was no cartilage trouble. “It may happen that Johnny will be fit for the Scottish Cup final” said the Daily Record. John finally re-appeared for the league game at Celtic Park on 5th April, but it was reported that he'd played gingerly. Another report stated that he was lame, which must have been so frustrating. The Sunday Post reckoned it would more likely be Boardman in place for the final. Thistle gave it every chance in the run-up for the final on the 12th, but he was deemed unfit in the end.

At the end of the 1929-30 season - as a reward for reaching the Scottish Cup final - Thistle embarked on a 6 match tour of Norway. It “set the Norwegians agog” and the Jags were described as “elegant” and “dazzling”. 23rd May 1930 goes down as the day that Partick Thistle played its first-ever game against continental opposition and John marked the occasion with a haul of four in a 6-1 victory over Frigg, a match that was switched to the (national) Ullevaal Stadion due to a larger crowd being expected. Amazingly, John went one better with a glut of five in the next game that he played in, a 7-2 win at Drammens BK. He actually scored in all 5 of his games, finishing with 14 in his scoring account. The last of these came in a 2-0 win at Brann. That game in Bergen today stands as the second most northerly in Thistle's 150+ year history (behind only Gävle, where Thistle played in July 1972). Read more on the tour here on the Archive →.

In August 1930, John scored a hat-trick in the First Division fixture against East Fife, following this up in October by scoring 4 in a 5-1 League fixture against Queen’s Park. His pièce de résistance was an amazing 9 goals in Thistle’s 16-0 1st Round Scottish Cup victory over Royal Albert at Firhill in January 1931. A story told is of a fan on his way home down Maryhill Road being asked the score. On the reply “16-0”, he was asked “To whom?” We trust that query was tongue in cheek! No surprise that John was top scorer that season. For some reason, John found himself in the Thistle Reserves in the early months of 1932, but he made a triumphant return to the first team in the tour of Southern England in mid-April with 5 goals in 3 games, played on successive days. The first of these games - a 3-1 win at Plymouth Argyle in Alec Hardie's benefit - proved to be consequential as Argyle signed him to terms just 4 weeks later. His Thistle teammate, Jimmy Rae, followed for the same reason several days after John.

25th February 1933 was a momentous day in the history of Plymouth Argyle when the club's 1000 goal milestone in the Football League was reached. It was John who put his name in the history books when he scored the only goal of the game to secure a 1-0 Second Division win over Stoke City in front of 17,747 at Home Park. Again, he suffered a serious knee injury, and didn’t get much game time at the “Theatre of Greens”, and came back to Scotland to play for Stranraer as player-manager. His knee trouble persisted, and he joined Sligo Rovers, claiming that “you only needed one leg to play in the League of Ireland”. He quickly returned to Stranraer, where he ended his playing career. He passed away in Glasgow in May 1999.

1928 - GLASGOW DENTAL CUP

1930 - SCOTTISH CUP