| Alf Smith |
 Alfred Smith was born somtime between August 1916 and August 1917, and is most likely to be Scottish. * The 5' 6 (10st 4lbs) forward signed for Donald Turner's Thistle on Monday, 26th August, 1935, having most recently been with Logie. Aged 18 or 19, he made his debut appearance on Saturday, 21st March, 1936, in a 1-1 draw at home to Arbroath in the SFL First Division. Amazingly, Alf scored his first 3 goals for Thistle in the same match! His account-opening hat-trick was registered on Tuesday, 8th September, 1936, in a 5-1 win at home to Queen's Park in the SFL First Division. He scored the last of his 12 goals on Saturday, 16th October, 1937, in a 4-1 win at home to Clyde in the SFL First Division. He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 12th March, 1938, in a 6-1 defeat at home to Celtic in the SFL First Division, having appeared as a Jag on 34 occasions. His club-list included Logie, East Fife, Partick Thistle, Cowdenbeath, Southport and East Craigie. We don't know where or when Alf died. *
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 This left winger, known as Alf or Alfie, played juvenile football in his home city of Dundee with Victoria, before stepping up to the juniors with Logie at the age of 17. He played for a full season before senior clubs started taking an interest at the beginning of 1935-36. The youngster made his senior debut for East Fife (as a trialist) against Brechin City in August 1935, and the Fifers made him an offer after the game, but he turned it down to sign for Donald Turner's Partick Thistle. The arrangement was that the 18-year-old would continue to play with Logie for a while to continue his development. He would make his first-team debut for Thistle before the season was out. The youngster grabbed the headlines in September 1936 when he scored his first, second and third goals in the same match! In a 5-0 league win at home to Queen's Park he partnered well with his inside man, John McMenemy, son of the legendary Jimmy. Alf lasted two seasons at Firhill, before switching closer to his Dundee home in the summer of 1938 by signing for Cowdenbeath. 12 months later he made an adventurous move down south, signing for Southport. We're not sure how Alfie got on during the war, and he was last heard of back in Dundee in 1947-48, in the juniors once again, this time with East Craigie. |
| (WS/JK) |
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