| Harry Loney |
 Henry Loney was born on Wednesday, 26th April, 1893, in Denny, Stirlingshire. The defender appeared as a guest for George Easton's Thistle in November, 1916, having most recently been with Denny Hibernian. Aged 23, he made his only appearance on Saturday, 11th November, 1916, in a 3-1 defeat at home to Scottish Junior League Select in a Benefit match. There were no goals for Harry in his one-off appearance for Thistle. His club-list included Denny Hibernian, Partick Thistle, Falkirk, Alloa Athletic and Dumbarton. Harry died on Monday, 2nd September, 1974, in Denny, Stirlingshire, aged 81. |
 Although born Henry, he was commonly styled as a Harry in his footballing days, so either will do! Harry had two cousins who were footballers, Willie Loney (Celtic, Scotland) and James Loney (Clyde, Dundee Hibernian). Older cousin Willie had played with Partick Thistle in 1914-15; could it be he had a word in George Easton's ear as to his cousin's suitability for a trial? With a free Saturday in the middle of November 1916, Thistle played a benefit match at Firhill against a Scottish Junior Select and manager George Easton gave two Denny boys - Harry Loney (at right back) and Thomas Scott (at right half) - a run out in Thistle colours. Thistle didn't seem to be taking the fund raiser for Glasgow Royal Infirmary too seriously and trailed 2-0 at half-time, disappointing the majority of the 3,000 crowd. Ramsay and Harris both rattled the crossbar then an attempted clearance by the Select right-back reduced the lead. Neil Harris missed a casually taken penalty before the Select scored. Harry continued on with Denny and when he signed for Falkirk in August 1919, was reckoned to be the best junior back seen in Stirlingshire for many years, being described as “sturdily built”. Although he had been known as a back in his early years, he transitioned to half-back as his senior years developed. He spent one season as a Bairn making 25 league appearances before stepping back to the Central League with Alloa Athletic a year later. He once again became a top tier player when he moved to Dumbarton in May 1921 where he was pretty much an ever-present for 3 full seasons, the last 2 being spent in the newly re-formed Second Division after Dumbarton were relegated in the springtime of 1922. Remaining in the Second Division, Harry returned to Alloa for a second spell in the summer of 1924, where he played out his career for another 3 full seasons. |
| (WS/AFK) |