Iain McChesney is a former professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

er with

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a 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 km south ...

club Queen of the South from

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

. McChesney is the longest serving player in the club's history, playing with them from 1960 to 1981. McChesney was a utility player.

Playing career

McChesney showed great dedication and commitment to the club. The defender played his first game at 16 years old and is the club's longest serving player. McChesney made 615 appearances between 1960 and 1981. McChesney is second in the club's record appearances list behind

Allan Ball Allan Ball (26 February 1943 – 21 July 2018) was an English footballer. Born in Hetton-le-Hole in County Durham, Ball played as a goalkeeper, spending most of his professional career with Scottish club Queen of the South in Dumfries. Ball ma ...

.Iain McChesney career profile on "Queens legends" on the Queen of the South website
/ref> McChesney is also 13th highest in Queens all-time goalscoring charts with 79 goals, one ahead of

Rowan Alexander Rowan Samuel Alexander (born 28 January 1961) is a Scottish former football player and manager. Alexander was a prolific goal-scoring striker for Queen of the South and Greenock Morton. Alexander also played for St Mirren, Brentford and Gr ...

. McChesney was signed for the

Palmerston Park Palmerston Park is a football stadium on Terregles Street in Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish League One club Queen of the South, who have played there since 1919. South of Scotland League club He ...

club by manager Jimmy McKinnell, Jr. in July 1960 from

Kello Rovers Kello Rovers Football Club are a Scottish football club, based in the town of Kirkconnel, Dumfries and Galloway. Nicknamed ''Super K'', they were formed in 1903, and they play at Nithside Park. Currently playing in the , they wear black and whi ...

. Others on the playing staff already were Jim Patterson,Jim Patterson profile on "Queens Legends" on the official Queen of the South FC website
/ref>

Ivor Broadis Ivan Arthur "Ivor" Broadis (18 December 1922 – 12 April 2019) was an English professional footballer. During a career spanning nineteen years from 1942 to 1961, Broadis represented Carlisle United, Sunderland, Manchester City, Newcastle Unite ...

,Ivor Broadis profile on "Queens Legends" on the official Queen of the South FC website
/ref>

George Farm George Neil Farm (13 July 1924 – 18 July 2004) was a Scottish professional football goalkeeper and manager. Born in Slateford, a suburb of Edinburgh, Farm represented his country on ten occasions, the last three of which occurred after a ga ...

George Farm profile on "Queens Legends" on the official Queen of the South FC website
/ref> and Jim Kerr. Others to soon join were future Scotland centre forward

Neil Martin Neil Martin (born 20 October 1940) is a Scottish former football player, who scored 100 league goals in both Scotland and England and won three full international caps for Scotland in the 1960s and 1970s. Known for his strength, power, bravery ...

,Neil Martin profile on "Queens Legends" on the official Queen of the South FC website
/ref> right winger

Ernie Hannigan Ernest 'Ernie' Hannigan (23 January 1943 – 21 May 2015) was a Scottish footballer. Hannigan was a fast, tricky, right winger. He is perhaps best known for his games at 3 clubs and the partnership he forged with Scotland international centre fo ...

''like Martin, Hannigan went on to play in England's top division'' and goalkeeper Allan Ball.Allan Ball profile on "Queens Legends" on the official Queen of the South FC website
/ref> This was the best side of McChesney's two decades at the club winning promotion to Scotland's top flight and playing there for two seasons. Queens notched a league victory at

Celtic Park Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is also ...

during season 1962-63. McChesney scored for Queens on 26 March 1970 in the first ever game when Queens played overseas opposition at Palmerston.

FC Metalist Kharkiv Football Club Metalist Kharkiv ( uk, Футбо́льний Клуб Металі́ст Ха́рків ) is a Ukrainian football club based in Kharkiv that plays in the Ukrainian First League during the 2021–22 season. It was revived 5 years ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

''at the time part of the

U.S.S.R. The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

'' were the opponents with Queens winning the challenge game 2–0. This was Queens first game versus overseas opposition since the club's 1936 Overseas tour. McChesney was awarded a testimonial versus

Ayr United Ayr United Football Club are a football club in Ayr, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. Formed in 1910 by the merger of Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr F.C., their nickname is ...

in 1971 for his loyalty. Joining McChesney and Ball to play at Palmerston through most of the 1970s was

Jocky Dempster John 'Jocky' Dempster (born 8 October 1948) is a former Scottish professional footballer who played as a right winger, mainly for Queen of the South and also St Mirren and Clyde. Career Dempster played with junior outfit Muirkirk before sig ...

. Queens were promoted to the First Division at the end of the 1980-81 season with McChesney in their ranks. Also in the side were fellow long servants Allan Ball,

Crawford Boyd Crawford Boyd from Kilwinning is a Scottish former professional footballer. Crawford Boyd is best known for his time at Dumfries club, Queen of the South The defensive cornerstone of the 1970s returned to Queens during the promotion campaign ...

and Jimmy Robertson and future manager Rowan Alexander.

After playing

McChesney retired from playing in 1981 but continued his association with the club as spongeman for a spell and also trainer for the local-based players and was also assistant manager to Billy McLaren. McChesney became an electrician. As part of maintenance work on the floodlights at

, he was the one who climbed up to change the lightbulbs. McChesney was inducted into the Queen of the South Hall of Fame on 19 January 2013.

External links

Iain McChesney career profile at Queen of the South website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McChesney, Iain Scottish footballers Queen of the South F.C. players Scottish Football League players Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Footballers from Dumfries Association football defenders