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 le ...

who played as a striker. He made nearly 450 appearances in

the English The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...

and

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 ...

s, representing ten different clubs.

Football career

Bremner was born in Banff, which is now in

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

. He began his senior career as an 18-year-old with home-town club

Deveronvale Deveronvale Football Club are a senior association football club currently playing the Highland Football League in Scotland. They were founded in 1938 and play their football at the Princess Royal Park in the town of Banff, (formerly Banffs ...

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 ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh 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 settlemen ...

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 Fo ...

manager

Billy McNeill William McNeill (2 March 1940 – 22 April 2019) was a Scottish football player and manager. He had a long association with Celtic, spanning more than sixty years as a player, manager and club ambassador. McNeill captained Celtic's 'Lisbon Lio ...

had invited him for a two-week trial, but no contract offer ensued and Bremner left Deveronvale for fellow Highland League club

Keith Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Keith (surname) * Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949) * Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...

. 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 tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

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

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

to the

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

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

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. Since 2011, the first te ...

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

and

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

, 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 Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

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

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

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 1984–85 season he joined

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

; 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 simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

, 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 an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

before returning to Scotland where he signed for

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

, contributing to their First Division 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 competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

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. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

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 Highland Football League, of which they have been champions four times, having won their ...

. 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, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

match. His older brother

Des Des is a masculine given name, mostly a short form (hypocorism) of Desmond. People named Des include: People * Des Buckingham, English football manager * Des Corcoran, (1928–2004), Australian politician * Des Dillon (disambiguation), sever ...

was also a prominent professional footballer, with Hibernian,

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

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 *

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. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as t ...

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