Archie Gourlay
Scottish footballer
Archibald Murdoch Gourlay (born 29 June 1969) is a Scottish retired footballer.
Career
Gourlay started his career with Morton, where he was touted to have a successful career.
In 1988, Gourlay signed for Newcastle United in the English top flight. Despite earning Man of the Match in his second appearance, a 0-2 League Cup loss to Middlesbrough, he never established himself in the first team, only making 5 appearances for the club. After that, Gourlay returned to Scotland with Motherwell before playing for English lower league sides Preston North End as well as Hartlepool United, where he only made 1 appearance.
“Archie Gourlay” enters the record as scottish footballer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Archie, Gourlay and Scottish can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Archie Gourlay” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Archie, Gourlay and Scottish provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q102122550. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1969 and 1988.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Archie Gourlay”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Archie Gourlay primary sources, Archie Gourlay archive and Archie research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Archie Gourlay”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Archie Gourlay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.