| Neilly Gibson |
 Neil Gibson was born on Sunday, 23rd February, 1873, in Larkhall, South Lanarkshire. The 5' 7 (10st 0lbs) midfielder signed for George Easton's Thistle on Friday, 9th September, 1904, having most recently been with Rangers. Aged 31, he made his debut appearance on Saturday, 10th September, 1904, in a 2-0 win at home to Clyde in the Glasgow Cup. Neilly scored his first goal for Thistle on Saturday, 12th November, 1904, in a 3-0 win at home to Port Glasgow Athletic in the SFL First Division. He scored the last of his 8 goals on Saturday, 31st October, 1908, in a 5-2 defeat away to Queen's Park in the SFL First Division. He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 27th March, 1909, in a 4-2 defeat at home to Hamilton Academical in the SFL First Division, having clocked up 138 appearances as a Jag. His club-list included Larkhall Thistle, Royal Albert, Rangers, Partick Thistle and Wishaw Thistle. Neilly died on Thursday, 30th January, 1947, in Larkhall, South Lanarkshire, aged 73. |
 Neilly Gibson is regarded as one of Rangers greatest-ever players, and was a member of their 1898-99 “Invincibles” team. Former Hibernian manager Willie McCartney stated that Gibson was “the greatest of my, and any generation following, in Scottish football”. Steve Bloomer of Derby County and England described him as “the greatest footballer I ever saw”, whilst Harry Wood dubbed him “Pavlova in football boots”, such was his artistry. During his time at Ibrox, the half-back won four consecutive league titles from 1899 to 1902, as well as the Scottish Cup in 1897, 1898 and 1903. His medal collection was bolstered with five Glasgow Cups and three Glasgow Merchants Charity Cups. He was capped 14 times by Scotland between 1895 and 1905, scoring one goal, and also represented the Scottish League XI 11 times. Two of his greatest career highlights were the victories over England in 1896 (2-1 at Celtic Park) and 1900 (4-1 at Celtic Park), both of which secured British Championship titles for Scotland. The inspirational right-half was 31-year-old by the time George Easton enticed him to Thistle in September 1904, but it turned out he still had a lot to offer. Jags finished 5th in each of Neilly's first two seasons - the club-record highs at the time - and, in an interesting sub-plot, the Partick men were only 1 point behind Rangers in 1905-06. His performance levels were such that he unexpectedly added a 14th international cap to his collection during that period and, on 18th March 1905, Thistle had a double milestone to celebrate. Jags captain Neilly Gibson became the first Partick Thistle player to captain his country and Willie Howden became the latest in a long line of Thistle goalies to get the call up and thus, for the first time ever, Thistle had two players in the first eleven of the national team. Both lads did us proud as the Scots romped to a 4-0 British Championship victory over the Irish at Celtic Park. Neilly's final three seasons weren't so succesful and it all finished in a bit of a downer in the famously horrendous season of 1908-09 when Thistle were homeless. Neilly had three sons – Neil, Willie and Jimmy – all of whom went on to follow in their father’s footsteps in the beautiful game. Two of them - Neil and Jimmy - did so as Jagsmen too! Neilly is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists → |
| (WS) |
14 caps, 1 goal
d. Larkhall, 1947 (73)
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