Simpson Johnny Image 1 Partick Thistle 1929

Description

Glasgow born centre forward Johnny Simpson played for Maryhill Juniors, and his first senior football came at Queen’s Park in 1926, from where joined Scottish League Partick Thistle in June 1927. His debut was against his former club Queen’s Parkon 1st May 1928, thereafter becoming a prolific scorer for Partick Thistle. After 6 goals in 1928-29 he scored a hat-trick against Ayr United in a 4-2 Scottish League victory at Somerset Park in August 1929, the start of a period of prolific scoring on his part. In August 1930 he scored 3 in the SFL First Division fixture against East Fife, following this up in October by scoring 4 in a 5-1 League fixture against Queen’s Park but his greatest feat was 9 goals in Thistle’s 1931 16-0 Scottish Cup win over Royal Albert, Simpson scoring in total 95 goals in 105 matches for The Jags through to April 1932.

Simpson moved to Second Division club Plymouth Argyle with Jimmy Rae in the summer of 1932 after impressing while playing against Argyle for Partick during a benefit match for fellow Scot and Pilgrim, Alec Hardie, making his Football League debut at Oldham Athletic in August, scoring in a 3-1 defeat. Whilst Rae went on to unbridled success as a player at Home Park, and later as manager, Simpson found chances far harder to come by and dogged by a knee injury made just five appearances and 2 goals in the 1932-33 season. After leaving Home Park he returned to Scotland to play for Ayr United and joined Stranraer in 1935, where he was player-coach, before crossing the Irish Sea to play for Sligo Rovers, returning to Stranraer in 1936 where he finished his career.

NB not the greatest image, blown up from a tiny image printed on poor quality paper.