The Thistle Archive

The 17-year-old John Murray signed for Coltness United in the summer of 1977 and, following a number of good reports in Lanarkshire junior circles, Bertie Auld brought the 20-year-old to Firhill in December 1979. The right back (as he was in his early days) put in a competent performance on his debut, Thistle winning 1-0 at Easter Road in the second last league game of the season, 5th May 1980. With Hibernian marooned at the foot of the table and Thistle safely in mid-table it was a Monday night dead rubber and only 1,191 were dotted on the vast terraces to see it. This was in stark contrast to the 20,632 which had witnessed the same fixture in early December when George Best famously made his debut in green and white. What a come down!

John spent his first few seasons as a Jag alternating between the reserves and the first team. He had 11 competitive appearances to his name in 1980-81, mostly under Bertie Auld. He didn't play a league game that season after Peter Cormack took over in December. Nevertheless, his personal highlights of that season included some fine results against Rangers at Firhill; a 3-2 Anglos Scottish Cup win in August, a 1-1 league draw in October and a 1-0 Glasgow Cup win in January. Jags would win the cup by similarly defeating Celtic in April. John also played in the famous 2-0 league win at Ibrox on Halloween 1981, but it was a bittersweet season which ended in relegation for Peter Cormack's Jags. Again, John was a bit-part player appearing in 9 of the 44 games that term.

By contrast, John became a near ever-present in the First Division for 4 straight seasons from 1982 to 1986, notably making the succesful switch to central defence in the autumn of 1982, a steady performer who won a number of Player of the Year awards along the way. That said, it was a drab era for the club who spiralled downwards after failing to win promotion in either 1983 or 1984. Crowds plummeted and money was even tighter than usual. In the springtime of 1986, when Thistle alerted the playing staff that the wages were to be re-structured, John refused to take a cut and was subsequently freed by the club. However, in a strange old twist of fate, he remained at Firhill for season 1986-87 as he explained to the Weekly News at the time:

Clyde's Craig Brown, as well as one or two other bosses, got in touch and I signed - a move up the corridor of some 10 yards as Clyde now occupy the away dressing room at Firhill. I went on holiday to Yugoslavia and, when I bought a paper over there, I found Craig was now Scotland's assistant boss, but it didn't say whether it was full-time or not. So I came back to discover John Clark was the new Clyde boss. But that was far from a great worry to me because, as the Stranraer manager, he was one of the other bosses who had tried to sign me!

We never saw John play against Thistle as he soon fell out of the picture as first-choice centre-back for Clyde and played in less half the games. He made the bench for the 0-0 draw against Thistle in August but was not introduced. He dropped back down to the junior game with Larkhall Thistle for season 1987-88. Always a part-time footballer, John had a good job as a civil servant for many years. In early August 2026, we were sorry to hear from a few from his old work colleagues that John had recently passed away whilst holidaying abroad, and his son, Christopher, was able to confirm this to be true, John passing away in Malaga whilst holidaying with the family. Christopher tells us that John loved his time at the Jags and always enjoyed telling his stories of his time at Firhill, this one in particular concerning 'Uncle Thomas' being a favourite:

His own brother Thomas was furious with my Dad and Thistle beating Celtic in 90 minutes at Celtic Park in the cup in 1980. Celtic would in the end qualify in extra time but Thomas had agreed to drive my Dad home that evening and when my Dad got changed after the game Thomas was nowhere to be seen, still in a huff that his own brother and Thistle nearly knocked them out. It always got a good giggle at family reunions much to Thomas’ embarrassment!

1981 - GLASGOW CUP