Ian McKechnie

Who is Ian McKechnie?

Ian Hector McKechnie is a Scottish former footballer, who played as a goalkeeper.

Ian McKechnie was born at a maternity unit in Bellshill but was raised in the village of Lenzie in Dunbartonshire and later in Chryston in Lanarkshire, near Glasgow. Ian signed for Arsenal in September 1958 after being invited to play for a Glasgow amateur side Letham Thistle. He was signed as an outside-left, but George Swindin, the then Arsenal manager, saw his potential as a goalkeeper. McKechnie went on to make 25 appearances between 1961 and 1964 for Arsenal.

He was the first Scot to be chosen to play for the London Youth XI, playing in the same team as Terry Venables. His first game in goal for Arsenal was a closed-door match against England prior to their Home International Championship campaign. He then played a friendly in Gothenburg against a Swedish Select XI in 1961, in which he pulled off a succession of acrobatic saves, and he was known henceforth as 'Yuri', after the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin.

McKechnie made his competitive debut against Blackburn Rovers on 14 October 1961 and went on to feature in some of Arsenal's major matches of the 1960s. These include the 1962 visit of Real Madrid to Highbury and he also played in goal against Rangers in the testimonial match for Jack Kelsey. The competition at Arsenal for the goalkeeping position was fierce, with not only Kelsey but also Northern Irish international Jack McClelland, Jim Furnell and the young Bob Wilson. McKechnie played thirteen of Arsenal's first fifteen matches of 1963–64, but was dropped after Arsenal's first competitive match in Europe at Highbury, against Staevnet in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, on 22 October 1963, which Arsenal lost 3–2.