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| Eddie Campbell |
 Edgar Campbell was born on Monday, 7th December, 1959, in Cathcart, Glasgow. The 5' 11 (10st 10lbs) midfielder signed for Bertie Auld's Thistle on Thursday, 16th August, 1979, having most recently been with East Kilbride Thistle. Aged 20, he was listed as a substitute for the one and only time on Monday, 5th May, 1980, in a 1-0 win away to Hibernian in the SFL Premier Division. There were no registered first-team appearances for Eddie in his time at Thistle. His club-list included East Kilbride Thistle, Partick Thistle, Brunswick Juventus and Footscray JUST. |
 This versatile young midfielder signed from East Kilbride Thistle and held his association with that club for a number of years, although he was a registered Thistle player for three full seasons from 1979-80 onwards. Eddie's appearances were limited to the reserves and his first-team activity was limited to a sole bench-warming afternoon in an end of season Premier League match at Easter Road. This was the 'George Best' season for Hibs, although he had departed by then. Compare and contrast: Hibs (with George Best) v Partick Thistle, 1 Dec 1979, attendance 20,632 So a disappointing crowd in Eddie's only first team involvement, but Thistle won in Edinburgh by one goal to nil, Alex O'Hara the scorer in 16 minutes. The George Best circus did little for Hibs on the pitch in 1979-80, as they easily finished bottom of the League, Thistle gathering twice as many points, 36 to 18. Indeed, Thistle were only 12 points behind the champion club, Aberdeen, who failed to register a single League win against the Jags in 4 attempts that season, a feat unique to Thistle within the elite ten. This gives an idea of the quality of the side into which young Eddie was trying to establish himself. He finally admitted defeat when he stepped back down to the juniors with East Kilbride Thistle (with whom he also had a loan spell whilst at Partick Thistle), signing a permanent deal with the EK Jags in the summer of 1982. Come the end of his first full season back, Eddie was the proud possessor of a Scottish Junior Cup winners medal as goals from Joe Reilly and Kenny Gordon saw the EK Jags overcome Bo'ness United 2-0 in front of 15,000 at Ibrox. Securing the prestigious Scottish Junior Cup was a first in the 44-year history of the club at that point, and has never been repeated since. As things turned out, Eddie enjoyed his most succesful period in the game in Australia! The 24-year-old departed for the land down under in April, 1984, settling in Melbourne. There, he played at the highest possible level in the National Soccer League, the precursor to the A-League today. As an interesting aside, one Ange Postecoglou (of South Melbourne) was an opponent that he came up against. Eddie spent 3 seasons at Brunswick Juventus and, brilliantly, won the national title in 1985, his first full season with the club. Eddie and Juve won their regional section of the League in 1986, but lost out in the play-off semi finals to would-be Grand Final champions, Adelaide City. Eddie switched to city rivals, Footscray JUST (Jugoslav United Soccer Team) who also played in the top-flight, and remained there until 1988. In all, Eddie featured in 98 Australian top-flight games over 5 seasons, finding the net on 3 occasions. |
| (WS) |
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