Club 21/08/2026
Raith Rovers v Ayr United: Saturday’s Guests
The guest for Raith Rovers’ Championship match against Ayr United on Saturday 22nd of August 2026 will be Alan MacKenzie. Alan’s juvenile football was played with Hutcheson Vale in Edinburgh before he started his senior career with Cowdenbeath, signing in 1984. He went on to make 20 appearances before moving on to Berwick Rangers, two years later.
Alan then went on to play football in Finland for a side HPK, a side that no longer exists. They played in the southern Finnish city of Hämeenlinna. In the autumn of 1991, the city’s two teams HPK and Pallo-Kärpät decided to merge. The new team are FC Hämeenlinna.
While playing for HPK, Alan scored 45 goals over two seasons.
He then returned to Scotland; he played one game for East Stirlingshire before once again signing for Cowdenbeath. Over the next four years, he had a very successful period scoring 30 times in 90 games.
This goalscoring form prompted Jimmy Nicholl to spend £20,000 to bring him to Raith Rovers in August 1991. Alan went on to make 55 appearances scoring 9 goals. He made his first match-day squad on the bench in a 2-0 league home win over Forfar on Saturday 17th of August 1991.
With Gordon Dalziel missing injured, three days later, Alan started and scored in a great 4-1 win in the Scottish League Cup over the reigning Scottish Cup winners Motherwell. Alan opened the goalscoring in the seventh minute, before Stevie Kirk equalised for Motherwell in the 52nd minute.
Six minutes later, Martin Nelson scored a truly memorable goal to restore the Rovers lead. Nelson received the ball out near the touchline, on the main stand wing, he was 35-yards from goal and he chipped a sublime shot that sailed over Motherwell’s new Dutch 6 foot 5 inch goalkeeper Sieb Dijkstra and into the net. Dijkstra was making his Motherwell debut.
Craig Brewster scored two goals in the last fifteen minutes, to put a true reflection on Rovers’ dominance in the cup-tie against their Premier League opponents.
The reward for that win was a trip to Parkhead to play Celtic in the Third Round.
Once again Alan MacKenzie started. Rovers started the game well and then they shocked the crowd of over 21,000 by taking the lead, in the 22nd minute. A deep looping cross from Davie Sinclair evaded defenders Mike Galloway and Gary Gillespie and Alan MacKenzie timed his move perfectly to head past Pat Bonnar at his near post. The Rovers tenacious play kept Celtic out and frustrated the home crowd.
It took Celtic until twelve minutes before half time to get an equaliser through Joe Miller. In the second half, once again Rovers held out until eighteen minutes from the end when Gerry Creaney scored Celtic’s second and two minutes later Stevie Fulton added a third. In the last ten minutes only a great save from Bonnar stopped Ian Ferguson pulling back a goal for the Rovers.
A few weeks later, Alan MacKenzie scored the only goal of the game in a home win over Stirling Albion. He went on to make 25 appearances scoring 5 goals in season 1991-92.
The following season, as Raith Rovers won promotion to the Scottish Premier League for the first time, Alan found it difficult to get a regular start as the two starters Craig Brewster and Gordon Dalziel were so prolific scorers. Brewster scored 22 goals and Dalziel 33 goals. When he was called into action Alan scored 3 times in his 23 appearances for the Raith Rovers’ championship winning team
Alan MacKenzie left Raith Rovers on the 3rd of December 1993, signing for Clyde. Alan holds the record of being the first Clyde player to score a goal at Broadwood.
After another spell with Cowdenbeath, Alan emigrated to Australia where he played for Perth Glory, Bayswater City and Ingelwood United.
Alan currently lives in Bassendean, a suburb of Perth. Alan is home in Scotland to celebrate his 60th birthday which was on the 8th of August.
Alan MacKenzie 55 appearances 9 goals
