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| Tom Doonan |
 Thomas Doonan was born on Thursday, 5th October, 1922, in West Calder, West Lothian. The forward signed for Donald Turner's Thistle on Wednesday, 14th June, 1944 (after a trial game), having most recently been with West Calder Home Guard. Aged 21, he made his debut appearance on Saturday, 10th June, 1944, in a 3-2 win away to Third Lanark in the Summer Cup. That day, Tom became a member of our scoring debutant's club. He scored the last of his 12 goals on Saturday, 6th October, 1945, in a 4-1 defeat away to Celtic in the Southern League. That turned out to be his last game for the club, having appeared as a Jag on 13 occasions. His club-list included West Calder Home Guard, Partick Thistle, Forth Rangers, Albion Rovers, Bradford City, Tranmere Rovers and Bangor City. Tom died in December, 1998, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, aged 76. *
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 Tom, a centre forward, had been playing football with his local home guard when he rolled up to Firhill at the end of season 1943-44, just in time to make 3 appearances in the Summer Cup. He made a good impression straight away, scoring in his first two outings, although the 3-2 win away to Third Lanark on 10th June was followed by a 3-1 defeat at home to Clyde 7 days later. He played in 9 of the games in season 1944-45 and, astonishingly, scored 9 goals in the process. Despite this phenomenal strike rate, some of the results weren't great. In the following season, Tom appeared only twice, a 3-1 Southern League defeat at home to Hearts (18 August) and a 4-1 Southern League defeat away to Celtic (6 October). Tom had the last laugh on all of us though as he scored in his final game, just as he done in his debut game. No-one can argue with his goals-per-game ratio! Post-Thistle, a spell back in West Lothian (at Forth Rangers) was followed by 3 seasons at Albion Rovers. He moved to Bradford City in the summer of 1949, where he scored 7 goals in 13 League appearances. He signed for Tranmere Rovers in July 1950, where he scored twice in his 4 League appearances. Tom joined Bangor City of the Cheshire County League for season 1951-52. On account of his service during WWII, Tom is included in our feature piece, The Partick Thistle returned →. |
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