Billy McLaren (born 7 June 1948 in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

) is a Scottish former

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 ...

player and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Player

McLaren was well-travelled as a player, serving eight different

Scottish 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 sout ...

clubs. His longest service was to Dumfries club, Queen of the South. In a subsequent interview, teammate

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 ...

named McLaren in what he felt was the eleven best players at the club in the 1970s.

Iain McChesney Iain McChesney is a former professional association footballer with Scottish Football League club Queen of the South from Dumfries. McChesney is the longest serving player in the club's history, playing with them from 1960 to 1981. McChesney ...

was another to name McLaren in the best players at Palmerston Park at the time. He helped Hibernian F.C., Hibernian gain promotion back to the Scottish Premier Division in 1981 after signing for the club in December 1980.Jeffrey, pp110. McLaren trained with Hibs part-time while retaining a job as a civil servant. His last club was Partick Thistle F.C., Partick Thistle, where head coach, manager Benny Rooney had intended McLaren to coach, but he was pressed into service due to injuries to other players.

Management

McLaren managed Hamilton Academical from 1990 to 1992 in a spell that most Accies fans consider to be one of their best ever. In season 1991/1992 Accies won the B&Q Cup, defeating Partick Thistle, East Fife, and Meadowbank Thistle on the way to the final at Fir Park v Ayr United in November 1991. Colin Harris scored the winning goal. Billy McLaren’s Accies team came back from behind to win 13 times in season 91/92 and lost out on promotion to the Scottish Premier League by two goals. The team played with a style of football that the fans appreciated, and to this day, that team is credited with giving the fans belief that the club was capable of achieving SPL status. Notably, McLaren brought Billy Reid to Accies, the man would eventually bring them success, with promotion back into Scottish Football’s top flight in season 2007/2008. Billy McLaren is still given great respect by the Accies fans when spotted scouting at New Douglas Park. McLaren managed both Queen of the South and Albion Rovers F.C., Albion Rovers in two different spells, resigning from the Albion job to retake the Queen of the South job in 1993. McChesney was among his back room staff in both managerial spells at Queens. It was in McLaren's first spell at Queens that he signed the teenage Andy Thomson (Scottish footballer), Andy Thomson. He is included in the hall of fame at Palmerston. He was Stranraer F.C., Stranraer manager during the 2002–03 season, when the club began a remarkable run of being either promotion and relegation, promoted or relegated every season. This brought an unsuccessful end to a spell during which he had won manager of the month awards in December 1999 and October 2002. The club had pushed for promotion in the 2000–01 season and reached the quarter-final stage of the Scottish Cup for the first time in their history, in the 2002–03 season. McLaren is currently employed in the senior scouting group for Rangers F.C., Rangers.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McLaren, Billy 1948 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Scottish men's footballers Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players East Fife F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Queen of the South F.C. players Greenock Morton F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Clyde F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Kirkintilloch Rob Roy F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Football League players Scottish football managers Queen of the South F.C. managers Hamilton Academical F.C. managers Albion Rovers F.C. managers Stranraer F.C. managers Rangers F.C. non-playing staff Scottish Football League managers Men's association football defenders