William Hay
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William Hay
William Hay
● William Hay, 1896 (VIF)

born in Scotland

William Hay was born on Tuesday, 4th August, 1868, in Maryhill, Glasgow.

The 6' 1½ (13st 1lbs) defender signed for Thistle in December 1888, having most recently been with Maryhill.

Aged 20, he made his first known appearance on Saturday, 15th December, 1888, in a 2-0 friendly defeat at home to Cowlairs.

There were no known goals for William during his time with Thistle.

He played his last known game for the club on Saturday, 15th February, 1890, in a 4-1 friendly win away to St Mirren, having appeared for the Thistle on at least 19 occasions.

His club-list included Maryhill, Partick Thistle, Rangers, Queen's Park, Millwall Athletic, London Caledonians and Tottenham Hotspur.

We don't know where or when William died. *

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Bio Extra

William’s stint at Inchview was a relatively short one, almost all of his known appearances coming between December 1888 and May 1889, the undoubted highlight of which was a 4-2 victory at Old Ibrox in February. Perhaps he played too well on that occasion – by season’s end the mob from Govan had coaxed him over to the dark side. For years, the Govanites had never managed to win even a single match at Inchview – their desperate response was to start poaching the talent! To be fair to Rangers and William, he was allowed to return to help Thistle out as a guest the following season.

Thanks to Andy Mitchell at the Scottish Sports history blog having digitised it, we can get a little more insight into William via The Story of the London Caledonians Football Club (1924) external-link.png
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Wm. Hay who captained the team for some years was a veritable giant with a pair of extraordinary legs and feet. He had a tremendous stride and was a good deal faster than his huge size suggested. There was terrific power behind his kicks and when particularly hard-pressed a well meant but misdirected effort would occasionally land the ball out of the ground altogether. This feat never failed to produce from a certain irate cockney element the loudly-shrieked jibe "kick it at 'ay". It is almost unnecessary to remark that that subsequent players in similar circumstances have suffered and will continue to suffer very much in the same way.

(WS)



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