10th Apr 1944 Rangers 3 Partick Thistle 3 (Southern League - game 30)

matches:1943-44: ← 37game 3839 →

Match Information

			Bill Struth		Donald Turner			63y, 2m, 10d
					Maurice Candlin; John Hammill; Andrew Wilson; Willie Peat
					Peter Curran; Austin Collier; Willie Newall; Stewart McLean
Adam Little (3-1, 37 mins); Charlie Johnston (3-2, 2nd half); William Neil (3-3, 62 mins)					Willie Peat (1-0, 17 mins); Bill Shankly (2-0, 30 mins); James Colgan (3-0, 35 mins)
			Jerry Dawson		Bobby Henderson			26y, 6m, 6d
			Dougie Gray		Maurice Candlin			22y, 4m, 30d
			Jack Lindsay		Jackie Husband			25y, 10m, 13d
			Adam Little		Bill Shankly			30y, 7m, 8d
			future Jag George Young		Bobby Parker			20y, 1m, 25d
			Scot Symon		John Hammill			20y, 3m, 2d
			Robert McMorran		Alex Glover			22y, 1m, 13d
			Jimmy Duncanson		James Colgan			19y, 7m, 14d
			William Neil		Andrew Wilson
			David Kinnear		Willie Sharp			21y, 10m, 16d
			Charlie Johnston		Willie Peat			24y, 3m, 2d
								23y, 4m, 13d

notes

The DR lists “Newman” (#6) and “Junior” (#11) for Thistle, respectively translated as John Hammill and Willie Peat by the OH. The appearance of Peat is backed up by a post-match piece in the ET which gives overall confidence. OH (by process of elimination) credits Willie Peat with Thistle's opener and this is backed up by both the DC & ET. Willie Sharp is credited in both the DR and DET, but the ET report carries greater detail and is further emphasised in a follow up piece the day after.

Match Report

TTA report

The Easter Monday crowd was entertained with a good game. Both teams had youngsters playing. Thistle scored 3 (17, 30 and 35) through Peat, Shankly (deflected free-kick) and Colgan (low drive) but Rangers hit back (37). It was 3-3 just after the hour mark and the result was in doubt right up to the end.

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Evening Times, 10th April, 1944

Who put the ball in the Rangers net?

Bill featured at #25 in our Top 25 countdown here on The Thistle Archive →

BILL SHANKLY

10.04.1944 Rangers [a] D3-3 (Southern League - game 30)
Willie Sharp (1-0, 17 mins); Bill Shankly (2-0, 30 mins); James Colgan (3-0, 35 mins)

The great Bill Shankly scored for Thistle against Rangers at Ibrox, and that seems like a mighty fine way to open our countdown.

The hardy lad from East Ayrshire had made a bit of a name for himself in the 1930s, and with his hard-but-fair brand of tackling in the half-back role, he was an integral part of the Preston North End side which was re-establishing itself as a top-flight force in the English game, famously winning the FA Cup in 1938.

It came as no surprise to observers that he achieved the ultimate accolade for a Scottish footballer when he captained his country against the Auld Enemy in 1941, and perhaps his very finest hour came at Hampden on 18th April 1942 when Scotland upset the odds to beat a very successful English side by 5 goals to 4, Bill notching Scotland’s 5th with an audacious lob from distance.

It was a real coup for the Thistle when Shankly’s services were procured in the autumn of ’43, our North West Glasgow location placing us ideally as the local club to the Bishopbriggs RAF base where he was stationed. With the unpredictability of life during wartime, no-one knew for sure how long the arrangement would last, and it’s doubtful that anyone foreseen a 69 game stint in which Bill would score 11 goals for the Jags (2 of which came against Rangers), a terrific ratio for a half-back, and one which suggests he was comfortable at Firhill. Winning the Summer Cup with Thistle in 1945 was a major highlight – as was his goal at Ibrox the year before…

With the citizens of the country on blackout orders between 9.45pm and 6.50am, weekday games, if they were played at all, were usually in the afternoon. Such was the case on Monday, 10th April, 1944, when Thistle made the short journey to Govan to fulfil our 30th and final engagement of that season’s Southern League campaign. Rangers were runaway winners of the League, and were renowned for their "iron curtain" defence at the time, so to secure a 3-3 draw at Ibrox was a very good result, albeit tainted by the fact that a 3 goal lead was squandered.

Bill struck a free-kick in the 30th minute, which took a deflection off the man who would later emulate Shankly’s captaincy of the national team, George Young, en route to goal, putting Jags 2 nil in front. Cue manly handshakes all round – with none of that cuddly-toy apology nonsense to big Geordie I hope!

Stats Watch

● Andrew Wilson makes his Thistle debut.

● 24-year-old Willie Peat plays his last game for Thistle and joins our scoring finale club.

ongoing sequences:

● 77 consecutive competitive appearances for Bobby Henderson, 22nd Aug 1942 to date, a new personal best. (Longest run since the Club-record: Johnny Jackson - 313 games, 28th Aug 1926 to 25th Mar 1933.)

Stats Watch adheres to our stated definitions of League, League Max, Major Competitive, Competitive or All Games. Where there is no written qualification, you should presume that the Stat in question is compiled from the All Games criteria.

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