| Willie Murray |
 William Murray was probably born in Scotland, although his place and date of birth remain unknown to us. * The midfielder was a guest player for George Easton's Thistle in April, 1915. He made his only appearance on Tuesday, 13th April, 1915, in a 2-2 draw at home to Rangers in a Benefit match. There were no goals for Willie in his one-off appearance for Thistle. His club-list included Loanhead Mayflower, Partick Thistle, Falkirk and St Bernard's. We don't know where or when Willie died. *
|
 Willie was a left-half specialist who gave several years of great service to his local team, Loanhead Mayflower, and was once capped as a junior internationalist for Scotland. Under their column "Doings Of The Juveniles" the Edinburgh Evening News of 17th April 1915 reported: “Partick Thistle were assisted by McLean and Murray of Loanhead Mayflower, in their evening game with Rangers last week. In all likeliehood, both these Edinburgh lads will be fixed up at Firhill next season. Raith Rovers will probably have a "deal" in the arrangements.” It was a strange old evening at Firhill on Tuesday, 13th April, 1915. 3,000 were there for the 6.15pm kick-off between Thistle and Rangers, the raising of funds for the Orange Lodge being the purpose of the occasion. Willie Hamilton of Thistle guested for Rangers, who gave a trial to Jimmy Lister, the son of Thistle's trainer at the time. Sandy Lister had to endure the quandary of his son netting a brace against the Jags on the night! Jimmy's goals were sandwiched between two from Neil Harris, the equaliser coming at the death, thereby making Sandy's life that little bit easier behind the scenes. Thistle had 4 from the juniors playing on the night. As well as Willie (left half), there was McAllister (right back), Malcolm McLean (inside right) and Robertson (inside left). All four played their one and only game for the club. Falkirk, under manager William Nicol, were struggling in the SFL at the turn of 1919, and were looking to rebuild in the post-war period. Brewster (Aberdeen) and Murray (Loanhead Mayflower) were brought in to toughen up their half-back line. Willie appeared several times for the Bairns, before moving on to St Bernard's in December 1919, who were competing in the first re-formed season of the Central Football League, a body which was acting independently after being snubbed by the SFL. The Central League, won by Bo'ness in successive seasons, was a great success and, by 1921, it was formally absorbed by the Scottish Football League as the Second Division. |
| (WS/JK) |
