Ian McKechnie
Encyclopedia
Ian Hector McKechnie is a Scottish
former football
er, who played as a goalkeeper
.
Ian McKechnie was born at a maternity unit in Bellshill but was raised in the village of Lenzie
in Dunbartonshire
and later in Chryston
in Lanarkshire
, near Glasgow
. Ian signed for Arsenal
in September 1958 after being invited to play for a Glasgow amateur side Letham Thistle (a Glasgow club with associations with the Arsenal scouting system). He was signed as an outside-left
, but George Swindin
, the then Arsenal manager, saw his potential as a goalkeeper. McKechnie went on to make 25 appearances between 1961 and 1964 for Arsenal.
He was the first Scot to be chosen to play for the London Youth XI, playing in the same team as Terry Venables
. His first game in goal for Arsenal was a closed-door match against England
prior to their Home International Championship campaign. He then played a friendly in Gothenburg
against a Swedish
Select XI in 1961, in which he pulled off a succession of acrobatic saves, and he was known henceforth as 'Yuri', after the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin
.
McKechnie made his competitive debut against Blackburn Rovers
on October 14, 1961 and went on to feature in some of Arsenal's major matches of the 1960s. These include the 1962 visit of Real Madrid
to Highbury and he also played in goal against Rangers
in the testimonial match
for Jack Kelsey
. The competition at Arsenal for the goalkeeping position was fierce, with not only Kelsey (before his retirement in 1962) but also Northern Irish international
Jack McClelland, Jim Furnell and the young Bob Wilson. McKechnie played thirteen of Arsenal's first fifteen matches of 1963-64
, but was dropped after Arsenal's first competitive match in Europe at Highbury, against Staevnet in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
, on October 22, 1963, which Arsenal lost 3-2.
He never played for the Arsenal first team again, and was given a free transfer in March 1964. He joined Southend United
two months later and made 62 appearances, before joining Hull City
in August 1966 where he racked up 255 league appearances until the end of the 1973-74 season. During his stay at Hull the home fans would throw orange
s onto the goalmouth as a gesture to the fact that he had been spotted eating an orange after training, many included contact telephone numbers and various messages of good luck. On one occasion a Tigers fan was arrested at Sheffield United
's ground for throwing an orange to Ian; the Sheffield police were not aware of the ritual and Ian had to write to the court in defence of the arrested fan.
During his time at Hull, McKechnie was the first goalkeeper ever to save a penalty in the a competitive penalty shootout
, against Manchester United
in the semi-finals of the Watney Cup
in August 1970; he saved from Denis Law
. He subsequently took the deciding kick to take the penalty shootout to further five kicks from each side, but his kick flew over the bar and put Hull City out of the competition. He therefore was the first goalkeeper to concede a kick in a shootout (to George Best
), the first goalkeeper to save a kick in a shootout (from Denis Law
), the first goalkeeper to take a kick in a shootout, and the first player to miss the deciding kick.
Ian then signed for the Boston Minutemen
in the North American Soccer League
in May 1974, where he was rated one of the top goalkeepers for that season. There was a suggestion of him signing for a season as a goal kicker for an American football
team, but due to a strike this did not take place. Returning to England, he played for Goole Town and Scarborough
, before retiring in 1977. Occasionally in friendly and testimonial games, McKechnie would play in the outside left position and indeed scored in such matches.
After retiring McKechnie had a spell in charge of Sligo Rovers
in the Republic of Ireland
. He now lives in Brantingham
near Brough
and can be found working in Corporate Hospitality at the KC Stadium
, the new home of Hull City A.F.C.
, on matchdays.
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...
former football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
er, who played as a goalkeeper
Goalkeeper (football)
In association football, the goalkeeper occupies a position that represents the last line of defence between the opponent's offence and his own team's goal. The primary role of the goalkeeper is to defend his team's goal and prevent the opposition from scoring a goal...
.
Ian McKechnie was born at a maternity unit in Bellshill but was raised in the village of Lenzie
Lenzie
Lenzie is a small town by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in the East Dunbartonshire council area of Scotland. It is about six miles north-east of Glasgow city centre and one mile south of Kirkintilloch. It has a population of about 10,000.-Name:...
in Dunbartonshire
Dunbartonshire
Dunbartonshire or the County of Dumbarton is a lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Until 1975 it was a county used as a primary unit of local government with its county town and administrative centre at the town...
and later in Chryston
Chryston
Chryston is a village in the central belt of Scotland in the county of North Lanarkshire. Founded by James Burns Pollock, It is north of the main trunk road between Glasgow and Stirling ....
in Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...
, near Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. Ian signed for Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
in September 1958 after being invited to play for a Glasgow amateur side Letham Thistle (a Glasgow club with associations with the Arsenal scouting system). He was signed as an outside-left
Outside forward
Outside forward is a position in association football which refers to a footballer who plays as an advanced forward on the right or left wing - as an outside right or outside left. Typically as part of a 2-3-5 formation or one of its variants...
, but George Swindin
George Swindin
George Hedley Swindin was an English football player and manager.-Playing career:A goalkeeper, Swindin was born in Campsall, Doncaster, Yorkshire. He played as an amateur for various local clubs, including Rotherham United, before turning professional in 1934 with Bradford City...
, the then Arsenal manager, saw his potential as a goalkeeper. McKechnie went on to make 25 appearances between 1961 and 1964 for Arsenal.
He was the first Scot to be chosen to play for the London Youth XI, playing in the same team as Terry Venables
Terry Venables
Terence Frederick "Terry" Venables , often referred to as "El Tel", is a former football player and manager, as well as being a media pundit. During the 1960s and 70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers, and gained two caps for England...
. His first game in goal for Arsenal was a closed-door match against England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
prior to their Home International Championship campaign. He then played a friendly in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
against a Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Select XI in 1961, in which he pulled off a succession of acrobatic saves, and he was known henceforth as 'Yuri', after the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....
.
McKechnie made his competitive debut against Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers F.C.
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. The team currently competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football....
on October 14, 1961 and went on to feature in some of Arsenal's major matches of the 1960s. These include the 1962 visit of Real Madrid
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...
to Highbury and he also played in goal against 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...
in the testimonial match
Testimonial match
A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, notably football and especially in the United Kingdom, where a club puts on a match in honour of a player for service to the club....
for Jack Kelsey
Jack Kelsey
Alfred John "Jack" Kelsey was a Welsh international football goalkeeper, who also played for Arsenal. He is regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers to play for Wales.- Early career :...
. The competition at Arsenal for the goalkeeping position was fierce, with not only Kelsey (before his retirement in 1962) but also Northern Irish international
Northern Ireland national football team
The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. Before 1921 all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Football Association...
Jack McClelland, Jim Furnell and the young Bob Wilson. McKechnie played thirteen of Arsenal's first fifteen matches of 1963-64
1963-64 in English football
The 1963–1964 season was the 84th season of competitive football in England, from August 1963 to May 1964:-Overview:* Liverpool won the League Championship.* West Ham United won the FA Cup.* Leicester City won the League Cup.-Diary of the season:...
, but was dropped after Arsenal's first competitive match in Europe at Highbury, against Staevnet in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The competition was the idea of Swiss pools supremo Ernst Thommen, Ottorino Barassi from Italy, and the English Football Association general secretary Stanley Rous, all of whom later became senior officials...
, on October 22, 1963, which Arsenal lost 3-2.
He never played for the Arsenal first team again, and was given a free transfer in March 1964. He joined Southend United
Southend United F.C.
Southend United Football Club is an English football club based at Roots Hall Stadium, Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, who play in Football League Two. Their home ground is Roots Hall, and the club plan to move into a new 22,000-seater stadium located at Fossetts Farm.-Stadium:The club has had...
two months later and made 62 appearances, before joining Hull City
Hull City A.F.C.
Hull City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. The club participates in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football...
in August 1966 where he racked up 255 league appearances until the end of the 1973-74 season. During his stay at Hull the home fans would throw orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
s onto the goalmouth as a gesture to the fact that he had been spotted eating an orange after training, many included contact telephone numbers and various messages of good luck. On one occasion a Tigers fan was arrested at Sheffield United
Sheffield United F.C.
Sheffield United Football Club is a professional English football club based in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire.They were the first sporting team to use the name 'United' and are nicknamed 'The Blades', thanks to Sheffield's worldwide reputation for steel production...
's ground for throwing an orange to Ian; the Sheffield police were not aware of the ritual and Ian had to write to the court in defence of the arrested fan.
During his time at Hull, McKechnie was the first goalkeeper ever to save a penalty in the a competitive penalty shootout
Penalty shootout (football)
A penalty shoot-out, referred to as kicks from the penalty mark in the Laws of the Game, is the FIFA official term for a method used in association football to decide which team progresses to the next stage of a tournament following a tied game...
, against Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
in the semi-finals of the Watney Cup
Watney Cup
The Watney Mann Invitation Cup was a short-lived English football tournament held in the early 1970s....
in August 1970; he saved from Denis Law
Denis Law
Denis Law is a retired Scottish football player, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a striker from the 1950s to the 1970s....
. He subsequently took the deciding kick to take the penalty shootout to further five kicks from each side, but his kick flew over the bar and put Hull City out of the competition. He therefore was the first goalkeeper to concede a kick in a shootout (to George Best
George Best
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...
), the first goalkeeper to save a kick in a shootout (from Denis Law
Denis Law
Denis Law is a retired Scottish football player, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a striker from the 1950s to the 1970s....
), the first goalkeeper to take a kick in a shootout, and the first player to miss the deciding kick.
Ian then signed for the Boston Minutemen
Boston Minutemen
The Boston Minutemen were a soccer team based out of Boston that played in the NASL. They played from 1974 to 1976. Their home fields included Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, Veterans Memorial Stadium in Quincy and Sargent Field in New Bedford.Portuguese legend...
in the North American Soccer League
North American Soccer League
North American Soccer League was a professional soccer league with teams in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984.-History:...
in May 1974, where he was rated one of the top goalkeepers for that season. There was a suggestion of him signing for a season as a goal kicker for an American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team, but due to a strike this did not take place. Returning to England, he played for Goole Town and Scarborough
Scarborough F.C.
Scarborough Football Club was an English football club based in the seaside resort of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. They were one of the oldest football clubs in England, formed in 1879, before they were wound up on 20 June 2007, with debts of £2.5 million.In the 2006–07 season...
, before retiring in 1977. Occasionally in friendly and testimonial games, McKechnie would play in the outside left position and indeed scored in such matches.
After retiring McKechnie had a spell in charge of Sligo Rovers
Sligo Rovers F.C.
Sligo Rovers Football Club is a professional Irish football club playing in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. The club was founded in 1928 and have been in the League of Ireland since 1934. The club is a co-operative venture, owned by the people of Sligo. Sligo Rovers have played at...
in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. He now lives in Brantingham
Brantingham
Brantingham is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated about north of Brough, and west of Kingston upon Hull. It lies to the north of the A63 road...
near Brough
Brough, East Riding of Yorkshire
Brough , or Brough-on-Humber, is a small town in the civil parish of Elloughton-cum-Brough in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town has a population of around 7,000.-Location:...
and can be found working in Corporate Hospitality at the KC Stadium
KC Stadium
The KC Stadium, often shortened to the KC, is a multi-purpose facility in the city of Kingston upon Hull , England. Conceived as early as the late 1990s, it was completed in 2002 at a cost of approximately £44 million. It is named after the stadium's sponsors, telecommunications provider KC,...
, the new home of Hull City A.F.C.
Hull City A.F.C.
Hull City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. The club participates in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football...
, on matchdays.