Willie featured at #22 in our Top 25 countdown here on The Thistle Archive →

WILLIE MILLER

13.10.1934 Rangers [n] W1-0 (Glasgow Cup Final)
Willie Miller (1-0, 58 mins)

What this countdown really needs is a bit of silverware; enter Hampden stage left, Willie Miller.

Several seasons a Jag, the Camelon-born inside forward was playing his last season with the club. Willie clocked up 156 appearances in his time, with many important goals to his credit, but perhaps none more so than his strike on Saturday, 13th October, 1934.

That day, in front of 27,834 (a turnout affected by the heavy rain) he scored the only goal of the game in the Glasgow Cup Final at the national stadium. Rangers, the current Scottish champions, must have thought they had done all the hard work by beating Celtic in the semi-final, but they found Donald Turner's Jags too tough a nut to crack. The crucial counter in this hard-fought contest came in the 58th minute, as the conditions worsened. Willie, who had forced Jerry Dawson into a splendid save just 60 seconds earlier, had another go from 22-yards out. This time, luck was on his side; his shot took a deflection off half-back Jimmy Simpson, and Dawson was unable to adjust his feet.

Thus, history was made, and Thistle finally took custody of a much coveted trophy which had eluded them for nearly 50 years.

Sadly, the audio transcripts for this match, if they ever existed, will long-since have perished, so we shall have to use our imagination to relive what was sung down Mount Florida way that day. I'd rather like to think that Maurice Parry had introduced the Cwm Rhondda tune to the great Jaggy repertoire some 20-odd years earlier, and that our witty Great Grandads were in good form, singing and dancing in the rain… altogether now…

♪ Are you Benburb? Are you Benburb? Are you Benburb in disguise? ♫

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