| David Harvey |
 David Harvey was born on Saturday, 7th February, 1948, in Leeds. The 5' 11 (12st 2lbs) goalkeeper signed for Benny Rooney's Thistle on a short-term basis in February, 1985, having most recently been with Leeds United. Aged 37, he made his only appearance on Saturday, 9th February, 1985, in a 1-0 defeat away to Clyde in the SFL First Division. David's club-list included Leeds United, Vancouver Whitecaps, Partick Thistle, Bradford City, Whitby Town, Morton and Harrogate Town. |
 The son of an Ayrshireman, David was born in Leeds in 1948, and attended Foxwood School (in the Seacroft area of Leeds). He played for Leeds City Boys before leaving school to work in a Stylo shoe factory. He was signed as a professional footballer by Don Revie in February 1965, after having played as an apprentice for two years. He was the reserve goalkeeper for Leeds United during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and was on the reserves' bench when Leeds won the League Cup and the Fairs Cup in 1968, the League championship in 1969, and the Fairs Cup in 1971, though he did play four times in each of the two Fairs Cup trophy winning campaigns. In the 1970 FA Cup Final, an error by first-choice goalkeeper Gary Sprake allowed opponents Chelsea to equalise in the first half. Sprake was blameless for the second equaliser, but Harvey replaced him for the replay, which Leeds lost 2–1. In the 1971–72 season, Harvey played only eleven matches, but was selected ahead of Sprake for the 1972 FA Cup Final against Arsenal, as Sprake was suffering from a knee injury. Leeds won 1–0 with an Allan Clarke goal, and from that point on Harvey was the first-choice goalkeeper. David played 63 times in the 1972–73 season, and played in both the FA Cup Final and the European Cup Winners Cup Final – ending up on the losing side both times. In November, 1972, Tommy Docherty, in what would be his last game as Scotland manager, selected David for the World Cup Qualifier against Denmark at Hampden. Scotland won 2-0 with goals from Kenny Dalglish and Pater Lorimer. Despite that clean-sheet debut, new manager Willie Ormond went with Bobby Clark (Aberdeen), Peter McCloy (Rangers) and Ally Hunter (Celtic) before David got the nod nearly a year later for the World Cup qualifier in Czechoslovakia, a 0-1 loss. On the domestic front, Leeds were in the middle of putting together a 29-match unbeaten start to the 1973–74 season, and would win the League championship, earning David the physical medal to which he had not been technically entitled five seasons earlier. He was now undroppable for club and country and was in a good place for the Germany World Cup in 1974. And what a tournament he had, only conceding one goal in the three games played, but Scotland were eliminated on goal difference after a 2–0 win against Zaire and draws with Brazil (0–0) and Yugoslavia (1–1). It was an agonising exit, especially when Scotland emerged as the only unbeaten nation at the tournament. For his part, David was voted best goalkeeper of the tournament, although it turned out to be a token-gesture: “I didn’t get anything for it!” he says. At the start of the 1974–75 season, David took the last penalty during the shoot-out at the Charity Shield game against Liverpool but missed, thus allowing Liverpool to carry the trophy home. Later in the season, he was injured in a car crash. He missed the rest of the season and was replaced by his understudy, David Stewart. Stewart was praised for his bravery and “inspirational saves” beating Anderlecht and Barcelona in the 1974–75 European Cup. Leeds were beaten 2–0 by Bayern Munich in the final in Paris. In a somewhat poetic act of synergy, David won his last international cap on 8 September 1976 in 6-0 friendly win over Finland at Hampden. The future Jag came on at half-time, replacing Partick Thistle 'keeper Alan Rough. It was the changing of the guard and the same-match double clean-sheet for Thistle goalies stands as a unique occurrence in our internationalists story! The rest of the 1970s saw Leeds decline after the ageing team Revie built broke up. He left the club in 1980, dramatically moving to the NASL with Vancouver Whitecaps. He had an unsteady first season with Vancouver, and even though his form improved in the second season in the NASL, major injuries from another car accident prevented him from regaining his form and place. David returned to Leeds in 1983, by which time the club had been relegated to the old Second Division. By the time he left in 1985, he had played under three of his old teammates; Allan Clarke, Eddie Gray and Billy Bremner. In the final tally up, David made over 400 career first team appearances for Leeds. A free transfer release for the 36-year-old was sanctioned by Leeds early in 1985 after they paid £30,000 for Aston Villa 'keeper Mervyn Day. At this time, David was considering moving to rural Scotland and agents alerted Scottish clubs to that fact. This was good timing for Partick Thistle manager Benny Rooney with John Brough having just picked up injury, and a match-by-match deal was announced. So it came to be that the Scotland hero of '74 was between the sticks for Partick Thistle away to Clyde on 9th February 1985. Only 1,254 were at Shawfield to see it and it ended in defeat for the struggling Jags, an Andy Willock goal to nil. “I enjoyed the game, the First Division here is about the same as the Second Division in England” was his verdict. Fate intervened in Yorkshire the following Saturday (Thistle had no game) when Bradford City's 'keeper, Eric McManus, dislocated his shoulder in a match versus Hull City. Money talks, and Bradford made Harvey an offer he simply couldn't refuse. He played 6 league games for City before the end of the season, under the management of an ex-Leeds teammate, Trevor Cherry. He then played 3 league games in Scotland for Morton in 1986, one of which, on 25 October 1986, was at home to his former team; Morton 1 Partick Thistle 2! He next played non-league football with Whitby Town and Harrogate Town before his retirement from the game aged 37. Thereafter, he managed a public house at Stamford Bridge, near York. He then became a postman, saying, “The sorting office atmosphere was like a dressing room”. In 1994, with his second wife, June (and their five children), he bought a 150-year-old stone cottage with 10 acres of farmland on Sanday in Orkney. He again worked as a postman. On 24 December 2009, he suffered a heart attack, from which he recovered. In July 2020 Harvey relocated to Lochmaben near Dumfries for greater accessibility to his grandchildren in comparison to Orkney. David is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists → |
| (WS/WIK) |
16 caps, 8 clean-sheets
retired
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