| James Gifford |
 James Gifford was probably born in Scotland, although his place and date of birth remain unknown to us. * The forward signed for George Easton's Thistle on Thursday, 30th April, 1914, having most recently been with Bedlay. He made his debut appearance on Saturday, 2nd May, 1914, in a 2-1 neutral-venue defeat against Third Lanark in the Glasgow Charity Cup. There were no goals for James during his time with Thistle. He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 10th April, 1915, in a 4-1 defeat at home to Hamilton Academical in the SFL First Division, having appeared as a Jag on 11 occasions. His club-list included Bedlay, Partick Thistle, Albion Rovers and Airdrieonians. We don't know where or when James died. *
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 James joined Thistle from Bedlay (a club close to Glenboig, which became defunct in 1952) at the end of April 1914. He played on 11 occasions and took the outside left or outside right position. He got his first top team opportunity in an end-of-season Glasgow Charity Cup tie that ended 2-1 to Third Lanark. Curiously, it was played at Hampden Park, despite being a Quarter-Final tie. James played in a 1-1 draw against Celtic in the War Fund Shield Quarter-Final at Firhill. Frank Branscombe was back for the replay at Celtic Park, in which James did not feature. Celtic won 2-1. He would have enjoyed the 1-0 League victory over Rangers at Ibrox in April 1915, with Willie Whittle “scoring in a rare breakaway.” James left the Jags and played for Albion Rovers and Airdrieonians. A report in the Daily Record of 10 January 1916 states that Airdrie had received permission from Thistle for James to play for them, but the player was ill. The report also stated that the player had enlisted, but further details are, at the moment, unknown. On account of his service during WWI, James is included in our feature piece, The Partick Thistle Returned →. |
| (DMAC/JK) |
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