| James Erskine |
 James Erskine was probably born in Scotland, although his place and date of birth remain unknown to us. * The forward joined Thistle in late 1882, having most recently been with South Western. He made his first known appearance on Saturday, 3rd February, 1883, in a 3-0 friendly defeat away to Rangers. There were no known goals for James during his spell with Thistle. He played his last known game for the club on Saturday, 14th April, 1883, in a 2-0 friendly win at home to Rangers, having appeared for the Thistle on at least 6 occasions. His known club-list included South Western and Partick Thistle. We don't know where or when James died. *
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 Our first trace of James comes in the Glasgow Herald on Christmas day 1882 in relation to a reserves game with Partick 2 days earlier: “Played at Jordanvale and resulted in favour of the Partick by one goal to nothing. Brown and Cooper for Partick and Hamilton, Stirling and Erskine (late of South-Western) for the Thistle were most conspicuous”. 5 weeks later, he was in the first team, squaring up to two of the mightiest teams in Scotland. Thistle lost 3-0 to Rangers at Old Ibrox on his debut, and 4-0 at home to Vale of Leven the following week. It was a baptism of fire for James, but all very exciting. The VoL game was the Quarter Final of the Scottish Cup and 2,000 was a record-crowd at the time. They would go all the way to the final. James had some respite in March 1883 as Thistle consoled themselves by winning the Yoker Cup for the third successive year. He featured in both the 6-0 semi final over the host club, as well as the final itself, in which Thistle defeated Sir John Maxwell by 2 goals to nil. After an even first half, aided by the wind, Thistle scored 2 and had a third disallowed. Sir John Maxwell were seldom seen out of their own half. The third win meant they got to keep the cup! James may not have played many games for Thistle, but he played in many interesting ones and, in April 1883, he was part of the travelling party, bound for Blackburn. FA cup winners the previous Saturday, Olympic were reported to be sluggish due to the “convivial meetings” they had had to attend! Even so, 1-up at half-time and with 2 more goals towards the end, they were too good for Thistle who had their moments - especially playing downhill in the second half. Back at Jordanvale a week later, James featured in his final game for Thistle, signing off with a 2-0 win over the Rangers. Way to go! |
| (WS/AFK) |
