Full name William McGhie 1981-87 Clydebank !Clydebank Current team Clydebank F.C. Years Team Position Defender | Playing position Role Footballer Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland Name Billy McGhie | |
Date of birth (1961-11-13) 13 November 1961 (age 54) | ||
William "Billy" McGhie (born 13 November 1961), is a Scottish former footballer who played as a defender for three clubs in the Scottish Football League. He is currently the manager of Kilbirnie Ladeside.
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Career
McGhie joined Clydebank from Clydebank Boys Club in 1981 and went on to make 177 league appearances for the club in the Scottish Football League and Premier Division. Nicknamed "Budgie", he moved to Partick Thistle in 1987 before joining Queen of the South where he made a further 164 league appearances.
McGhie stepped down to Junior level in 1994, playing for Arthurlie, Shettleston and Petershill. He returned to Shettleston as a coach until the end of 2002-2003 season.
Managerial career
McGhie was appointed manager of Clydebank when the club returned to the Junior grade in July 2003. He resigned after a mainly successful 13 and a half years in December 2016 having lifted four trophies as well as four runners up spots
Some say his biggest accolade as manager ger was the unearthing of dynamic midfielder Nikky Cairney. Budgers plucked Nikky out of youth football and molded him into the perfect 'gaffers boy'. A wonderful season saw Cairney crowned Bankies Babe of the year however controversy surrounded the award as many say the Budge rigged the votes in favour of his young protege. This is not a footballing fairytale however as their relationship came to an abrupt end after Nik forgot to put brown sauce on Budgies breakfast roll. He was subsequently dropped from the squad and shortly after moved on. No rigging of votes was ever proven in the Bankies Babe award 2011.
Television work
He has also worked as a television pundit for BBC ALBA's Junior football coverage.