The Thistle Archive

This centre back started his career at Ayr United, debuting for the Honest Men on 8 July 2012 in the first round of the Scottish Challenge Cup, playing the full match of a 3–1 defeat, away to East Stirlingshire. Two weeks later, Brownlie made his first Scottish Football League appearance, playing the full match in a 1–1 Scottish Division Two draw with Stenhousemuir at Somerset Park. In the last of his 16 league games that season, a 2–1 loss at Forfar Athletic, Brownlie was sent off after two bookings, the first for conceding a penalty kick, with a foul on Chris Templeman and the second for dissent after the referee's decision to award the spot kick.

In August 2013, Brownlie joined Partick Thistle. Brownlie scored in a 4–0 win over Falkirk for the Firhill club's under-20's that month, but did not make a senior appearance and was loaned out to Scottish Championship club Cowdenbeath on 17 January 2014 for the remainder of that season. Brownlie made 11 league appearances for the Blue Brazil and also played their four play-off matches as they retained their status in the second tier of Scottish football, with victories over former club Ayr United and Dunfermline Athletic respectively. At that end of the season Brownlie joined Cowdenbeath on a permanent deal. Brownlie played 23 league games in a season which ended in relegation, although Brownlie did manage to score his first senior career goal on 14 February 2015, away to Dumbarton in a match the Blue Brazil won 2–1.

On 17 June 2015, Brownlie returned to the Scottish Championship, after signing for Queen of the South. The Queens manager at that time, James Fowler, had been a team-mate of Brownlie's at Central Park, in a loan spell in Fife in 2014 from parent club Kilmarnock. On 28 April 2018, Brownlie extended his contract to remain with the Doonhamers until the end of the 2018-19 season. Before the start of the 2018-19 season, Brownlie picked up an injury that kept him out of the first-team squad at Palmerston until February 2019. On 26 February 2019, Brownlie started his first match of the 2018-19 season, in a 1-0 defeat at Cappielow versus Greenock Morton. On 23 May 2019, Brownlie extended his contract with Queens until the end of the 2019-20 season. On 5 October 2019, Brownlie scored the winning goal in the Doonhamers 1-0 win versus Partick Thistle at Firhill Stadium in the 60th minute.

During December 2019, Brownlie signed a pre-contract to join Partick Thistle during the 2020 close season, although on 27 January 2020, Brownlie departed the Doonhamers and signed a two-and-a-half year contract with Thistle for an undisclosed fee before the end of the January 2020 transfer window. Topped the Thistle appearances chart in 2020-21 and played a pivotal role in the title-winning campaign. Returned 15 clean-sheets in his 27 appearances that season, for a phenomemal 55.6% ratio. During the course of a pre-season friendly against Kelty Hearts, Brownlie sustained a knee injury which saw him substituted at half time. Following further consultation and scans, Darren required surgery which ruled him out of the entire 2021/22 campaign. In July 2022, almost 15 months after his last competitive game, Brownlie appeared as a second half substitute in a 2-1 League Cup win at Stenhousemuir.

Although popular with the Thistle support - he had his own song - the general consensus was that Brownlie was never as solid and reliable after his return from injury, and he was prone to costly errors, exemplified in his final match at Dingwall, and his contract was not renewed a few days later. Worth noting that, without his goal at Stark's Park, Thistle would not have had a crack at the play-off finals. Darren joined Dundalk in July 2023 and experienced the UEFA Conference League, although they were eliminated by Icelandic outfit KA in the second qualifying round.