Andrew "Andy" Robert Aitken (born 2 February 1978, in Dumfries) is a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 professional footballer who made over 300 appearances for Queen of the South. A left sided central defender, he also played for Gretna and Ayr United. He is currently with Annan Athletic

Annan Athletic F.C.

Annan Athletic Football Club are an association football club who compete in the Scottish Third Division. They are based in the town of Annan, Dumfries and Galloway...

.

Queen of the South

Aitken joined a Queen of the South in 1996 with new chairman Norman Blount

Norman Blount

Norman Blount is the Scottish former chairman of Queen of the South football club. Blount was instrumental as the new broom that swept through the Dumfries club in the mid and late 90s replacing the previous regime under which the club had gone into stagnation and decline from the late 1960s...

 getting the wheels moving on the club's revival. In 1997 Queen of the South reached the Scottish Challenge Cup final for the first time. Second Division Queens lost 1–0 to 1st Division Falkirk despite a rousing Queens display at Motherwell's Fir Park; a performance that included the man of the match award going to Queens veteran central midfield playmaker Tommy Bryce

Tommy Bryce

Tommy Bryce is a Scottish former association football player. Bryce had a playing career spanning 21 seasons from 1980-81 with Scottish Football League clubs Kilmarnock, Stranraer, Queen of the South of Dumfries, Clydebank, Ayr United and Arbroath. Bryce also served as player-manager of Partick...

 and an early career appearance for Jamie McAllister

Jamie McAllister

James Reynolds "Jamie" McAllister is a Scottish international professional Association footballer currently playing for Bristol City. He plays usually as a left back.-Early career:...

. A late chance for a Derek Townsley

Derek Townsley

Derek Johnstone Townsley is an English former professional footballer. His clubs included Gretna, Queen of the South, Motherwell, Hibernian and Oxford United...

 equaliser went agonisingly over for Queens.

Queen of the South (2nd spell)

Aitken returned to Palmerston Park

Palmerston Park

Palmerston Park is a multi-purpose stadium on Terregles Street in Dumfries, south west Scotland. The site of the ground was formerly a farm called Palmers Toun. This is on the Maxwelltown side of the River Nith in Dumfries. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of...

 & immediately brought some pace to the defence and helped make a back three work for the side for the first time in a number of years of trying. In combination with Stuart Lovell

Stuart Lovell

Stuart "Archie" Lovell is an Australian professional footballer, who played as a striker early in his career, before reverting to a midfield role later in his career....

 and Jim Thomson the Annan native managed to secure one of the tightest defences in the league over the last three months of last season.

In pre-season 2006, Aitken sustained a knee ligament injury in a friendly match 3–0 victory away against Coleraine

Coleraine F.C.

Coleraine F.C. is a semi-professional, Northern Irish football club, playing in the IFA Premiership. The club, founded in 1927, hails from Coleraine, County Londonderry and plays its home matches at the Showgrounds. Club colours are blue and white...

 on 22 July that meant a lengthy spell on the treatment table.

Andy Aitken was a mainstay of the Queens side that made it to final of the 2008

2007-08 in Scottish football

The 2007-08 season was the 111th season of competitive football in Scotland.-Overview:* Gretna were competing in the Scottish Premier League for the first time, their first ever season in the top-flight, after being promoted as First Division champions the previous season.* Dunfermline Athletic...

 Scottish Cup

Scottish Cup

The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,, commonly known as the Scottish Cup or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.The...

 Final, where they faced Rangers

Rangers F.C.

Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...

. The Doonhamers lost 3–2.

His appearances for Queen of the South have already placed him comfortably within the club's Top 20 record appearances list.

• Along with Jim Thomson they are the only Queens players to earn four senior Scottish football medals while playing for the club – (winners of the 2001/02 Second Division and 2002/03 Scottish Challenge Cup; runners up in the 1997/98 Scottish Challenge Cup and 2007/08 Scottish Cup).

• Andy Aitken is among only 18 players to have made more than 300 appearances for Queen of the South

Ayr United

Aitken joined Ayr United in the 2009 close season. His time there was impacted by an injury that was to keep him out for nine weeks ironically sustained against QoS at Palmerston.

Annan Athletic

At the end of the 2009-10 season rejoined Annan Athletic who had by now joined the Scottish Football League.

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