Peter Stewart McKennan (16 July 1918 – 28 September 1991) was a Scottish 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 an inside forward in the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

leagues, most notably for

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

, for whom he scored 113 goals in 198 appearances in all competitions. McKennan represented the Scottish and Irish League representative teams and is a member of the Partick Thistle Hall of Fame. He was nicknamed "Ma Ba" ("my ball"), due to his desire to receive the ball into feet and dictate play.

Club career

An inside forward, McKennan began his senior career with

Scottish League 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 ...

club

in 1934 and though his career was interrupted by

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he remained with the club through the war. He made nearly 200 appearances for the club in all competitions, scoring 113 goals and was posthumously inducted into the club's Hall of Fame. McKennan moved south of the border to join

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 ...

club

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

(for whom he had guested during the war) for a £10,650 fee in October 1947. McKennan went on to play for

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

clubs Leicester City,

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and Oldham Athletic and scored 63 goals in 171 appearances, before moving to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

in 1954, where he played out two injury-ravaged seasons 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 ...

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...

. As of December 2018, McKennan is the third of three Brentford players to register five goals in a single league match.

International career

After making appearances for the

and Irish League representative teams, McKennan scored on his solitary appearance for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in a 3–2 win over an Irish XI on 28 April 1940.

Personal life

McKennan served in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

during the

and saw action as a Command Sergeant-Major on

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

Honours

As a player

Oldham Athletic *

Football League Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated In sports leagues, promotion and ...

: 1952–53

As a manager

Coleraine *

North West Senior Cup The North West Senior Cup or North West Cup is a senior football competition in Northern Ireland run by the North West of Ireland Football Association. Senior and intermediate teams from the North West FA's jurisdiction (which covers County Lon ...

: 1954–55, 1955–56

As an individual

Hall of Fame

Career statistics

References

External links

*
Peter McKennan
at ptfc.co.uk 1918 births 1991 deaths Scottish men's footballers Partick Thistle F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Men's association football inside forwards Men's association football player-managers Footballers from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire Whitburn F.C. players Brentford F.C. wartime guest players Chelsea F.C. wartime guest players Raith Rovers F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. wartime guest players Coleraine F.C. players Coleraine F.C. managers NIFL Premiership managers Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish football managers Scotland men's wartime international footballers British Army personnel of World War II Linfield F.C. wartime guest players Glentoran F.C. wartime guest players British Army soldiers {{Scotland-footy-forward-1910s-stub