Peter McCloy (born 26 November 1946) is a Scottish retired football

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

who played for Motherwell and Rangers. He was a member of the team which won the

European Cup Winners Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourna ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

, and was Rangers' first-choice goalkeeper for most of his 16-year spell at the club despite competition from players such as Gerhardt Neef,

Stewart Kennedy Stewart Kennedy (born 31 August 1949 in Stirling) is a Scottish former professional football goalkeeper, who played for Stenhousemuir, Rangers, Forfar Athletic and St Johnstone. Kennedy played in five full international matches for Scotla ...

and Jim Stewart.

Career

McCloy joined Motherwell from Crosshill Thistle on his 17th birthday in 1963 and made his senior debut the following year. He stayed at

Fir Park Fir Park Stadium is a football stadium situated in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Premiership club Motherwell and was the temporary home of Gretna for the 2007–08 SPL season. M ...

for six seasons before joining Rangers in a player exchange deal in 1970, with

Bobby Watson Robert Michael Watson Jr. (born August 23, 1953), known professionally as Bobby Watson, is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator. Music career Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He ...

and Brian Heron moving in the opposite direction. At Ibrox he was nicknamed "The

Girvan Girvan ( gd, Inbhir Gharbhain, "mouth of the River Girvan") is a burgh and harbour town in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Girvan is situated on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde, with a population of about 6,450. It lies south of Ay ...

Lighthouse", due to his birthplace and the fact he stood tall. He played under three different Rangers managers: Willie Waddell,

Jock Wallace John Martin Bokas Wallace (6 September 1935 – 24 July 1996) was a Scottish professional footballer and manager. Wallace played as a goalkeeper, and has the unique distinction of being the only player ever to play in the English, Welsh and Sco ...

(in both of his spells as manager), and

John Greig John Greig (born 11 September 1942) is a Scottish former professional footballer, who played as a defender. He spent his entire career with Rangers, as a player, manager and director. Greig was voted "The Greatest Ever Ranger" in 1999 by the ...

. He won multiple honours in his Rangers career: two

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 ...

titles, four

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

s, four

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1971–72 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1971–72 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup football club tournament was won by Rangers, who defeated Dynamo Moscow in the final. Preliminary round First leg ---- Second leg ''4–4 on aggregate; Austria Wien won on away goal ...

. He was one of only five players who featured in every match of the latter campaign, alongside

Sandy Jardine William "Sandy" Pullar Jardine (31 December 1948 – 24 April 2014) was a Scottish professional footballer who played for Rangers, Hearts and represented Scotland. He played over 1000 professional games and twice won the Scottish Football Wri ...

Willie Mathieson Willie Mathieson (born 20 July 1943) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played in the left-back position for Rangers, amongst other clubs. He was included in the Rangers F.C. Hall of Fame on 5 February 2007. Mathieson spent fif ...

, Alex MacDonald and

Colin Stein Colin Anderson Stein (born 10 May 1947) is a Scottish former footballer, who played for Hibernian, Rangers (two spells), Coventry City and Kilmarnock. Stein was part of the Rangers team that won the 1971–72 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and he ...

. He made 545 appearances in all competitions for Rangers, and played for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

on four occasions. After retiring as a player in 1986, McCloy went into coaching, firstly during

Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit. A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...

' spell as Rangers manager, until 1988. He went on to work with a number of clubs and goalkeepers including

Andy Goram Andrew Lewis Goram (13 April 1964 – 2 July 2022) was a Scottish footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in Bury, Lancashire, England, he started his career with Oldham Athletic and Hibernian, but he is best remembered for playing for Ra ...

and

Jim Leighton James Leighton (born 24 July 1958) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Leighton started his career with Aberdeen, where he won seven domestic trophies and the 1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup under the m ...

. He was on the bench for Hearts for both legs of their

1988–89 UEFA Cup The 1988–89 UEFA Cup was won by Napoli over Stuttgart. It was the fourth season that English clubs were banned from European competitions. The English league clubs who otherwise would have qualified were Manchester United and Luton Town. R ...

tie against Bayern Munich.

Personal life

His father Jimmy was also a footballer and a goalkeeper. In retirement, he worked at Turnberry Golf Resort.

References

External links

* * Living people Association football goalkeepers Association football coaches Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers Motherwell F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Rangers F.C. non-playing staff People from Girvan 1946 births Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Footballers from South Ayrshire {{Scotland-footy-goalkeeper-stub