Kevin Johnston Bremner (born 7 October 1957) is a Scottish former professional

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 striker. He made nearly 450 appearances in

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and

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

s, representing ten different clubs.

Football career

Bremner was born in Banff, which is now in

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...

. He began his senior career as an 18-year-old with home-town club Deveronvale of the Highland League; he had been with the club since he was 14 years of age. In the 1977–78 season, he was part of the team which defeated

Huntly Huntly ( or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlements include Keith ...

to win the Bell's Cup; he finished the season as leading scorer with 27 goals and won the club's player of the year award.

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

manager

Billy McNeill William McNeill (2 March 1940 – 22 April 2019) was a Scottish association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. He had a long association with Celtic F.C., Celtic, spanning more than sixty years as a player, m ...

had invited him for a two-week trial, but no contract offer ensued and Bremner left Deveronvale for fellow Highland League club Keith. In October 1980 he moved to England to join

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its ea ...

of the Third Division for a fee of £40,000; that season Colchester were

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

to the Fourth Division. Bremner played more than 100 matches for the club in all competitions, and during the 1982–83 season he spent short periods

on loan In sports, a loan involves a particular player being able to temporarily play for a club other than the one to which they are currently contracted. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to a full season, sometimes persisting for multiple seasons ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

and

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. The club has played ...

, scoring a goal for each. In February 1983 he joined

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

for £25,000. His first goal for the club gave him the distinction of having played and scored in the Football League for five different clubs in the same season. Bremner played more than 100 games in all competitions for Millwall, helping them gain

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to the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

as Third Division runners-up. At the beginning of the 1985–86 season he joined

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; as the clubs were unable to agree on a transfer fee, the Football League tribunal valued his services at £35,000. In his second season at the club, he contributed to Reading winning the Third Division title, before joining

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

, where for the third time in four seasons he played his part in his club gaining promotion from the Third Division. He finished the season as the club's leading scorer, with 12 goals in all competitions. He spent a season at

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Peterborough United formed in ...

before returning to Scotland where he signed for

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 ...

, contributing to their

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 ...

title in 1991–92. A short spell on loan at

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1886, the club were inaugur ...

preceded his first foray into management, as

player-manager A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

of Highland League club

Brora Rangers Brora Rangers Football Club are a Scottish football club from the village of Brora, Sutherland, in the Highland council area of Scotland. They play in the , of which they have been champions five times, having won their first title in 2013–1 ...

. He then rejoined Deveronvale as player-manager for one season, in which he was leading goalscorer with 17 goals and managed them to victory in the Aberdeenshire Shield. Bremner returned to England to take up a coaching role at Gillingham, where he became youth team manager, but was made redundant in April 2003 along with other staff as a cost-cutting measure. He made one playing appearance for the club in 1995 in a

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

match. His older brother Des was also a prominent professional footballer, with

Hibernian Hibernian may refer to: * Of Hibernia, Latin name for Ireland; hence ** Irish (disambiguation) Hibernian, Hibernians or The Hibernian may refer to: Sports clubs * Hibernian F.C., a Scottish football club, founded 1875 * Hibernian W.F.C., a Sc ...

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and Birmingham City.

Honours

Player

Deveronvale * Bell's Cup winners: 1977–78 * Player of the Year: 1977–78 * Club's leading scorer: 1977–78, 1994–95 * Aberdeenshire Shield winners: 1995 Millwall * Third Division runners-up: 1984–85 Reading * Third Division champions: 1985–86 Brighton & Hove Albion * Third Division runners-up: 1987–88 * Club's leading scorer: 1987–88 Peterborough United * Fourth Division promoted: 1990–91 Dundee *

Scottish First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. It was replaced by the Scottish Championship. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 in Scottish footb ...

champions: 1991–92

Manager

Deveronvale * Aberdeenshire Shield winners: 1995

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bremner, Kevin 1957 births Living people Sportspeople from Banff, Aberdeenshire Footballers from Aberdeenshire Scottish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Deveronvale F.C. players Keith F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Reading F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Highland Football League players English Football League players Scottish Football League players Scottish football managers Brora Rangers F.C. managers Deveronvale F.C. managers Highland Football League managers Men's association football player-managers Gillingham F.C. non-playing staff