Stewart Kennedy (born 31 August 1949) 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

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 ...

for

Stenhousemuir Stenhousemuir (; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies within the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town is north-northwest of Falkirk and directly adjoins to Larbert in the west, where the nearest rail access is located ...

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 ...

Forfar Athletic Forfar Athletic Football Club are a Scottish semi-professional football club from the town of Forfar, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League and currently play in . They play their home games at Station Park, in t ...

and

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

. Kennedy also played in five full international matches 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 ...

, all in 1975.

Career

Kennedy joined

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 ...

as an 18-year-old in 1967 from local

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

side

Camelon Camelon (; , ) is a large settlement within the Falkirk council area, Scotland. The village is in the Forth Valley, west of Falkirk, south of Larbert and east of Bonnybridge. The main road through Camelon is the A803 road which links th ...

, before returning to junior football in 1969 with Linlithgow Rose. Two years later he returned to the senior game, signing for

. It was from here, after another two-year stint, he was signed by

for £10,000. He mainly served as back-up for their established goalkeeper

Peter McCloy Peter McCloy (born 26 November 1946) is a Scottish retired football goalkeeper who played for Motherwell and Rangers. He was a member of the team which won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1972, and was Rangers' first-choice goalkeeper for most ...

. A number of goalkeepers came and left Rangers during McCloy's long career as number one, but Kennedy was the most successful, amassing 131 appearances and 45

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usually seen as a result of ...

s. Standing tall and weighing , he made a major contribution to Rangers

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

league win, their first in eleven years, playing in every match. From then until 1978 Kennedy and McCloy exchanged the position, both playing regularly. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

five times by

in the 1974–75 season, his last appearance coming in a 5–1 defeat to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

. Kennedy received two league championship winner's medals, in 1975 and 1978, and two for the League Cup, in 1976 and 1978. He left Ibrox in 1980, moving to Forfar on a free transfer. He continued playing there until the age of 40, and had a

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

against Rangers in 1985. He then came out of retirement to play one match for

in the 1991–92 season, when the club suffered an injury crisis.

References

External links

* * 1949 births Scottish men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Stenhousemuir F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Forfar Athletic F.C. players St Johnstone F.C. players Scotland men's international footballers Living people Scottish Junior Football Association players Footballers from Stirling Linlithgow Rose F.C. players Scotland men's under-23 international footballers Camelon Juniors F.C. players Scottish Football League players {{Scotland-footy-goalkeeper-stub