William Marshall Thomson (10 February 1958 – February 2023) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. Thomson played for

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

, St Mirren,

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

and

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

. He played for Dundee United in the 1987 UEFA Cup Final and two

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

between 1980 and 1983. Thomson was a goalkeeping coach with Dundee, Rangers,

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

and

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; ), also known as The Toon or The Cleyhole, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on Loch Ryan and the northern side of the isthmus joining the Rhins of Galloway to the mainland. Stranraer is Dumfries ...

Playing career

Partick Thistle

Thomson started his pro career at

. The youngster was highly regarded and given first team experience in League Cup and

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rule ...

games. He also collected his first two Scotland under 21 caps. In August 1978 a bid was made for him of £50,000Billy Thomson profile
at Stmirren.net that was considered remarkable for a 20-year-old reserve at a relatively unfashionable club at the time. Thistle accepted the bid. He played only once on league duty there as understudy to

Alan Rough Alan Roderick Rough (; born 25 November 1951) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He won 53 caps for Scotland and played in two FIFA World Cups. He also had a long club career, principally with Partick This ...

.Billy Thomson on scotlandepistles.com 25 February 2016
/ref>

St Mirren

Jim Clunie Jim Clunie (4 September 1933 – 12 May 2003) was a Scottish football player and manager. Clunie played in three cup finals for Aberdeen. These were the 1954 and 1959 Scottish Cup Finals, which they lost 2–1 to Celtic and 3–1 to St Mirre ...

signed the 20-year-old for St Mirren for £50,000 in August 1978. He played for the Paisley club for six seasons, making 317 first team appearances. His debut was against Dumbarton in the League Cup. He broke through to the Scotland squad and was to collect seven full caps, all while with the ''Saints''. Thomson enjoyed good form at club level, being well remembered particularly for

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

saves from

AS Saint-Étienne Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire (), abbreviated as A.S.S.E. () and commonly known as Saint-Étienne, is a French professional football club based in Saint-Étienne, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The club was founded in 1933 and competes ...

Johnny Rep John Nicholaas Rep (born 25 November 1951) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a right winger. He holds the all-time record for FIFA World Cup goals for the Netherlands with 7. Playing career Rep played as a right-footed ...

and Laurent Roussey. In season 1983–84 he was fined by St Mirren for critical remarks regarding wages and conditions.

Alex Miller Alex Miller (born 4 July 1949) is a Scottish football manager and former player. As a player, he had a 15-year career with Rangers, winning several trophies. As a manager, he won the 1991–92 Scottish League Cup with Hibernian. He subsequen ...

was manager and said Thomson would never play for Saints again. Thomson was sold for £75,000 in June 1984.

Dundee United

Thomson signed for

Jim McLean James Yuille McLean (2 August 1937 – 26 December 2020) was a Scottish football player, manager and director. He managed Dundee United between 1971 and 1993, becoming the longest-serving and most successful manager in the club's history, winni ...

in 1984 and spent the first season as cover for

Hamish McAlpine Hamish Robert McAlpine (born 21 January 1948) is a Scottish retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played for Dundee United for twenty years, between 1966 and 1986. Whilst with the club, he won the Scottish Football League title once ...

. Thomson began the 1984–85 season as first choice. However McAlpine had re-established himself in the team by the end of September. After injury to McAlpine in October 1985, Thomson took over in goal in October 1985 and was first choice until the early 1990s. United made it to the final of the

1986–87 UEFA Cup The 1986–87 UEFA Cup was the 16th season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The final was played over two legs at the Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden, and at ...

. En route they defeated

Terry Venables Terence Frederick Venables (6 January 1943 – 25 November 2023), often referred to as El Tel, was an English football player and manager who played for clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers and won two caps for E ...

' F.C. Barcelona side featuring

Gary Lineker Gary Winston Lineker ( ; born 30 November 1960) is an English Sports broadcasting, sports broadcaster and former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Lineker is the only player t ...

and

Mark Hughes Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh association football, football coach and former player who is the head coach of club Carlisle United F.C., Carlisle United. During his playing career he usually operated as a Forward (asso ...

home and away in the quarter-final, and in the return leg of the semi-final against

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

they inflicted a first home defeat on the opposition in Europe in 55 games, going back to 1970. In the final against Göteborg, Thomson was injured after five minutes of the first leg diving at the feet of Lennart Nilsson and needed five stitches for a blow just behind his left ear. Some reports said Thomson almost lost his ear. Thomson though repelled attack after attack and was beaten only once when Stefan Pettersson scored. McLean described Thomson's performance as "magnificent". Despite Clark scoring in the final in the 1–1 second leg draw at

Tannadice Tannadice Park, officially known as The CalForth Construction Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Du ...

, United lost 2–1 on aggregate.Remembering Dundee United in 1986–87: 70 matches, two finals, no silverware

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, 5 June 2017The forgotten story of ... Dundee United's glory years under Jim McLean

, 19 April 2017 Thomson also played in two consecutive

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

and

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

, though both resulted in narrow defeats (the first to former club St Mirren). In the 1987 semi-final 3–2 win against Dundee, Thomson pulled off numerous saves in a display described in

as "fantastic". Thomson eventually lost his place to Alan Main who played in goals in the

1991 Scottish Cup Final The 1991 Scottish Cup Final was the 106th final of the Scottish Cup, Football in Scotland, Scottish football's most prestigious knockout association football competition. The match took place at Hampden Park on 18 May 1991 and was contested by S ...

4–3 defeat to Motherwell.

Later playing career

Thomson left Dundee United for

in 1991 for a £50,000 fee, spending three years with the ''Steelmen'' in which he replaced Ally Maxwell but then lost his place to

Sieb Dijkstra Sybrandus Johannes Andreas Dijkstra (born 20 October 1966) is a Dutch football coach and former professional footballer, who is goalkeeping coach at Fortuna Sittard. As a player, he was a goalkeeper who notably played in the Premier League for ...

. Aged 36, he moved to

where the experienced keeper spent two years as backup to

Andy Goram Andrew Lewis Goram (13 April 1964 – 2 July 2022) was a Scottish footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in Bury, Lancashire, England, he started his career with Oldham Athletic and Hibernian, but he is best remembered for playing for ...

. His final club was

International

Thomson made his full international debut for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

in Belfast on 16 May 1980. Scotland lost 1–0 to a goal from Billy Hamilton. Thomson was mainly second choice goalkeeper, to

, during this period. His next two caps were also against Northern Ireland (the middle of the three was a

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national footbal ...

qualifier and not the Home Internationals). Hamilton gave the Irish the lead in the 70th minute.

John Wark John Wark (born 4 August 1957) is a Scottish former footballer who spent most of his playing time with Ipswich Town. He won a record four Player of the Year awards before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the club's Hall of Fame. ...

equalised in a 1–1 draw.Billy Thomson
at the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

With Scotland already qualified for the

, Thomson played in the last qualifier against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. Scotland lost 2–1 despite

Paul Sturrock Paul Whitehead Sturrock (born 10 October 1956) is a Scottish former football coach and former player. As a player, Sturrock spent his entire senior career with Dundee United, making more than five hundred appearances between 1974 and 1989. He w ...

scoring the opening goal. Thomson didn't make the squad for the finals, with

Jock Stein John Stein (5 October 1922 – 10 September 1985) was a Scottish association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. He was the first manager of a club from a Northern European country to win the European Champio ...

selecting Rough, George Wood and a then uncapped

Jim Leighton James Leighton (born 24 July 1958) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Leighton started his career with Aberdeen, where he won seven domestic trophies and the 1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup under the m ...

. His fifth cap was another Home International match against Northern Ireland, which ended goalless. He also played in a 2–0 win in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. His seventh and last cap was in another dead rubber when Scotland finished their poor

UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying The qualifying round for the 1984 European Football Championship consisted of 32 teams divided into seven groups; three of four teams and four of five teams. The qualifying round was played at various times between May 1982 and December 1983, wi ...

campaign. They lost 2–1 to

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

in Halle, with

Eamonn Bannon Eamonn John Bannon (born 18 April 1958) is a Scottish former international footballer who played in midfield. His most successful seasons were with Dundee United where he won two league cups and the 1983 League Championship. Numerous runs with ...

scoring the Scottish goal.

Coaching and later life

After retiring, Thomson joined Dundee's coaching staff before returning to Rangers as goalkeeping coach in May 2001, remaining there until his departure in August 2007. Two months later, Thomson took up a similar, part-time role with Kilmarnock. Thomson became goalkeeping coach of

in June 2021, shortly after leaving Kilmarnock. Thomson died on 6 February 2023, at the age of 64.

Career statistics

Honours

Dundee United *

: runner-up 1986–87 *