Andrew McNeil (born 19 January 1987 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

) is a Scottish retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 ...

who is the goalkeeping coach at

Hong Kong Premier League The Hong Kong Premier League () is a Hong Kong professional football league organised by the Football Association of Hong Kong, China. It is currently sponsored by BOC Life and officially known as BOC Life Hong Kong Premier League (). The inau ...

club R&F (Hong Kong). McNeil was previously with Hibernian, for whom he played in the 2007 Scottish League Cup Final win. He has also played in Scottish league football for Montrose,

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club has won f ...

, Livingston,

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in the . They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United Football Club ...

and

Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They compete in as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. According to the official club hist ...

. McNeil represented Scotland at three youth international levels.

Career

Club

A former student at

Leith Academy Leith Academy is a state school in Leith, Edinburgh. It currently educates around 1000 pupils and around 2,800 part-time adult learners. Mike Irving has been head teacher since August 2017. History It is one of the oldest schools in Scotland, wi ...

, McNeil drew early inspiration towards goalkeeping from watching

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 ...

play for his local side, Hibs. He opted to start his career in England, however, joining

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

in August 2003 through the Southampton Academy system, earning a professional contract in 2004. He was a member of the Southampton youth team that reached the 2005 FA Youth Cup Final, losing on aggregate to

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

. McNeil agreed to be released from his contract when new ''Saints'' manager

George Burley George Elder Burley (born 3 June 1956) is a Scottish former football player and manager. He had a professional career spanning 21 years as a player, making 628 league appearances and earning 11 Scotland caps. His most successful spell came whi ...

signed a rival young goalkeeper,

Bartosz Białkowski Bartosz Marek Białkowski (; born 6 July 1987) is a Polish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (football), goalkeeper. He began his career playing in his native Poland, before moving to Southampton F. ...

, in January 2006. Despite occasionally appearing on the substitute's bench, he did not make a competitive appearance during his time with Southampton. Two days after his departure from the

St Mary's Stadium St Mary's Stadium is a seated but also safe-standing football stadium in Southampton, Hampshire, England, which has been the home stadium of club Southampton since 2001. The stadium has a capacity of 32,384 and is currently the largest footbal ...

, McNeil returned to

to sign for Hibernian. McNeil made his debut for Hibs in a 2–0 victory over

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently compete in the after winning the 2022–23 Scottish League One title. Dunfermline play at ...

on 30 December 2006 after

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

John Collins had dropped

Zbigniew Małkowski Zbigniew "Zibi" Małkowski (born 19 January 1978) is a Polish professional football coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper. He works as a goalkeeping coach for Stomil Olsztyn. Club career Hibernian 'Zibi' first appeared for Hiber ...

. He played in most of the games between then and the end of the season, including the 2007 Scottish League Cup Final, for which he received a winner's medal. He lost his place in the team at the start of the 2007–08 season after Collins signed Yves Ma-Kalambay. He regained his place, however, later in the season after Ma-Kalambay sustained an injury. McNeil produced some good performances in this second period in the team, but lost his place early in the 2008–09 season after Ma-Kalambay returned. McNeil publicly stated that he couldn't understand why he had lost his place and that he expected to leave Hibs during 2009. One of

Mixu Paatelainen Mika-Matti Petteri "Mixu" Paatelainen (born 3 February 1967) is a Finnish former professional football player and manager who is currently serving as the sporting director of Scottish club The Spartans. He scored 18 goals in 70 appearances for ...

's last acts as Hibs manager was to release McNeil. McNeil signed a one-year contract with Third Division club Montrose in September 2009. McNeil played 29 times in the Third Division for Montrose before his contract expired at the end of the season. He helped the club to their best ever Scottish Cup run, which ended with a fifth round defeat against his former club Hibs. McNeil signed a pre-contract agreement to join

First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

club

at the official end of the 2009–10 season on 16 May. This deal was confirmed by the regulating body on 20 May. McNeil played regularly in a Raith side that challenged for promotion to the SPL, but the club were overhauled by

Fife derby The Fife derby is a football rivalry that is based in Fife, Scotland. Matches are contested between any two SPFL clubs from Dunfermline Athletic, Raith Rovers (based in Kirkcaldy), East Fife (representing the Levenmouth area) and Cowdenbeath. A ...

rivals

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

in the final weeks of the season. McNeil was one of 15 players who were released by Raith at the end of the season due to financial cut-backs. McNeil signed a one-year contract with Livingston in July 2011. McNeil left Livingston at the end of season 2012–13 after two years with the club. McNeil signed for New Zealand

ASB Premiership The New Zealand Football Championship () was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a myriad of short-lived football leagues in ...

side

Waibop United WaiBOP United (known as Waikato FC until 2013) was a football club based in Hamilton, New Zealand. The club was founded in 2004 and disbanded in 2016 and played in the ASB Premiership. WaiBOP United played their home fixtures at John Kerkhof ...

in July 2013. He returned to Scottish football in June 2014, signing for

. In May 2015 McNeil signed for

, and was also working as goalkeeping coach at Edusport Academy. He left Alloa in 2016 and soon afterwards went on trial with

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the . The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greenock Morton in 1994 to celebr ...

. McNeil signed full-time with Morton on a short-term deal until the end of the season. He agreed a year's contract extension in May 2016.

International

McNeil was selected

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 ...

squad for the 2006 UEFA U–19 Championships. He was the first choice goalkeeper as the young Scots reached the final, only to lose 2–1 to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Due to their performance in that competition, Scotland qualified for the 2007 FIFA U–20 World Cup hosted in Canada. McNeil was selected for all Scotland's matches as they were knocked out in the group phase. After leaving Raith Rovers, McNeil was selected for the Great Britain team participating in the 2011 World University Games. McNeil was eligible for selection as he was studying at

Telford College Telford College is a further education college in Telford, Shropshire, England. It operates from one main site and many in-company training sites and community-based courses spread out across Shropshire and the whole of the United Kingdom. Dur ...

in Edinburgh for an HND in

sports coaching An athletic coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction, and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''Coach'' is that of a horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultimately from the ...

Coaching career

Whilst at Morton, McNeil coached at the Edusport Academy in Annan; until in January 2017 he moved to China to become reserve team goalkeeping coach at

Guangzhou R&F Guangzhou City Football Club () was a Chinese professional football club which last competed in the Chinese Super League. The team was based in Guangzhou, Guangdong. The club's name between 2011 and 2020 was Guangzhou R&F, which was short for ' ...

. In June 2017, he was appointed as the goalkeeping coach of Guangzhou R&F's satellite team R&F (Hong Kong) in the

References

External links

*
Andrew McNeil
www.ihibs.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:McNeil, Andrew 1987 births Living people Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Southampton F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Montrose F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Livingston F.C. players Airdrieonians F.C. players Alloa Athletic F.C. players Scotland men's under-21 international footballers Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players People educated at Leith Academy Scotland men's youth international footballers Scottish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's association footballers in New Zealand Greenock Morton F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in China Guangzhou City F.C. non-playing staff Association football goalkeeping coaches 21st-century Scottish sportsmen