Stewart Kennedy

Stewart Kennedy (born 31 August 1949 in Stirling) is a retired Scottish professional football goalkeeper who played for clubs including Dunfermline, Stenhousemuir, Rangers and Forfar.

Career

Kennedy joined Dunfermline as an 18-year-old in 1967 from local junior side Camelon, before returning to junior football in 1969 with Linlithgow Rose. Two years later he returned to the senior game, signing for Stenhousemuir. It was from here, after another two-year stint, he was signed by Rangers for £10,000, mainly as back-up for established goalkeeper Peter McCloy. A number of goalkeepers came to and left Rangers during McCloy's long career as number one, but Kennedy was the most successful, amassing 131 appearances and 45 clean sheets.

Standing 6 ft 1 in tall and weighing 11 st 5 lb, he made a major contribution to Rangers 1975 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 five times by Scotland in the 1974-75 season, his last appearance coming in a 5–1 defeat to England at Wembley.

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 against Rangers in 1985. He then came out of retirement to play one match for St Johnstone in the 1991–92 season, when the club suffered an injury crisis.