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Born in Glasgow on February 5th 1951, Keith MacRae was signed by
Manchester City manager John Hart for a fee of £100, 000 from Scottish
club Motherwell in October 1973, and came with a glowing reputation. The
flame-haired stopper had been a firm favourite with the 'The Well'
supporters and their manager Ian St John, having been club Player of the
Year in 1970, and had even featured as an outfield player when he
played at right-back in a Scottish League Cup tie. He made his League
debut for the Blues on October 20th 1973 in a 2-1 away victory at
Sheffield United, replacing the out of form Joe Corrigan whose days at
the club looked to be numbered after having suffered the brunt of fierce
criticism by the supporters. Manager Hart, who had been suffering from
ill health, was replaced shortly afterwards by ex-Norwich boss Ron
Saunders and MacRae kept his place in the side, going on to make 25
appearances with 8 clean sheets in the remaining league games, despite
City finishing in a lowly 14th position. A 4-1 defeat by Nottingham
Forest in the fourth round of the FA Cup left the League Cup as the only
option of picking up any silverware, and having disposed of Plymouth
Argyle in a 3-1 aggregate semi-final victory they faced Wolves on March
2nd in the final at Wembley.
The biggest game of his career ended in
disappointment for both the Blues and MacRae as they slipped to a 2-1
defeat, Colin Bell netting for City. The 1974/75 season opened with
Keith once again in possession of the number one jersey, but although
City went to the top of the league in September with a 2-0 defeat of
Liverpool they gradually slipped down the table, and by the middle of
December MacRae had lost his place to back-in-favour Corrigan. The
team's inconsistency, however, was summed up in the space of two games
in January, a 5-1 hammering of Newcastle United being followed by a 4-0
defeat at Stoke. Amazingly Corrigan played in the win over Newcastle but
was dropped for the Stoke game in favour of MacRae, who then proceeded
to let in four goals but subsequently kept his place. When Keith
unfortunately got injured in the warm up before a 1-0 away defeat at
Leicester on March 8th it effectively signalled the end of his
first-team career with City as he never played again that season.
Early
exits in the cup competitions to Manchester United and Newcastle meant
the league season had petered out and City eventually finished eighth
with MacRae making 27 league starts. The following season, with Corrigan
now installed as first choice keeper by new boss Tony Book and in the
form of his life, MacRae only managed one outing in the whole campaign
in a 2-2 draw with Sheffield United on November 1st. This incredibly was
his only league appearance until August 30th 1980, a gap of almost five
years, when injury to Corrigan gave him a run of three games in the
side before losing his place once again. Interestingly enough during
this time, when he was permanent second choice keeper, Keith had taken a
part-time job as a journalist for the Manchester Evening News. After
making a total of 72 league and cup appearances for City in his eight
years with the club MacRae was transferred to American side Portland
Timbers in 1981. He returned to England shortly afterwards in January
1982, signing for Leeds United, but failed to make a first team
appearance. (David Redshaw)
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