| Jimmy Smith |
 James Aloysius Smith was born on Wednesday, 9th September, 1925, in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire. The forward signed for Donald Turner's Thistle on Monday, 10th June, 1946, having most recently been with Alva Albion Rangers. Aged 21, he made his debut appearance on Wednesday, 11th September, 1946, in a 3-2 defeat at home to Third Lanark in the Glasgow Cup. That day, Jimmy became a member of our scoring debutant's club. He scored the last of his 3 goals on Saturday, 5th April, 1947, in a 2-2 friendly draw away to Ayr United. He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 15th November, 1947, in a 5-3 defeat at home to Celtic in the SFL First Division, having appeared as a Jag on 11 occasions. His club-list included Alva Albion Rangers, Partick Thistle, Alloa Athletic, Albion Rovers, Coatdyke, Walsall, Dunfermline Athletic, Arbroath and Brechin City. Jimmy died in 2006, in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, aged 81. *
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 This left winger stepped up from Alva Albion Rangers in the close season of 1946, just as football was getting back to normal. However, his opportunities at Firhill were limited with Kenny Chisholm and then Jimmy Walker vying for the #11 shirt. By March 1948, he had moved on to Alloa Athletic but shortly, before that season was over, had switched again to Albion Rovers. He had very short loan or guest spells with Coatdyke and Wallsall in 1948, but finally settled down to play consistently at Rovers as the decade turned. His qualities were noted elsewhere, and Second Division Dunfermline Athletic thought him the man to hoist them out of the bottom tier. That dream remained unfulfilled in Jimmy's time at East End Park, but he made almost 100 competitive appearances for the Pars, scoring around 1 in 4 over the course of his three seasons there. In March 1953, Jimmy moved up the coast to Arbroath, but his first-team game-time was on the wane everywhere from hereon, another spell at Alloa from October 1954 being followed by a final fling at Brechin City in the final months of 1955. |
| (WS) |
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