McKennan Peter Image 2 Partick Thistle 1938

Description

Airdrie, Lanarkshire born inside right Peter McKennan began his football career with Whitburn Juniors before joining Scottish League Partick Thistle in 1934, making his Scottish League debut aged 17 on 28th August, 1935, in a 1-1 draw at Dunfermline Athletic. In 1936 he scored in his only match on a brief loan to Raith Rovers. He was twice picked to represent The Scottish League Xl in 1937 and 1938, scoring once for The League.

His career was severely interrupted by the Second World War during which, having left Partick Thistle, he played in Ireland for Linfield in 1939 and Glentoran in 1940. Based initially in Ireland, where he played wartime football for both The Irish League and The League of Ireland, and in 1940 he scored for Scotland in his only (unofficial) wartime international. He also guested for West Bromwich Albion, Chelsea and Brentford between 1941 and 1944. McKennan served in The Royal Welsh Fusiliers during the Second World War and saw action as a Command Sergeant-Major on D-Day, and was mentioned in despatches.

In 1946 he returned to Partick Thistle from where he signed for Second Division West Bromwich Albion for £10,000 in October 1947 after 114 goals in 199 matches for The Jags, making his Football League debut at Bury on 1st November. However he only made 12 appearances for The Baggies, scoring 4 goals, before he was sold to Leicester City in March 1948. He scored 7 goals in 18 appearances for The Foxes before joining Brentford in September 1948, for whom he scored 5 goals in an 8-2 victory over Bury in February 1949. As of January 2015, McKennan is the third of only three Brentford players to register five goals in a single League match,

In total he scored 10 goals in 28 appearances for The Bees in 1948-49 but again moved on, this time joining First Division Middlesbrough in May 1949. This proved his only spell in the top flight during his career, and he top scored for the club with 16 goals in 1949-50 before joining Oldham Athletic in July 1951 having scored 19 goals in 43 appearances for ‘Boro. He then spent three seasons at Boundary Park, scoring 33 goals in 83 appearances for The Latics including 19 in his first season and 12 more in 1952-53 as Oldham won the Third Division (North) Championship. He finally had a brief spell as player-manager of Coleraine in Northern Ireland scoring 29 goals in 62 appearances for them before retiring from football in 1956.

In 2011 McKennan was posthumously inducted into the Partick Thistle’s Hall of Fame.