John McGinlay (born 8 April 1964) is a Scottish football manager, former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

and scout who is the club ambassador of Bolton Wanderers. As a player, he was a striker over a 26-year career that saw him notably play in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

for Bolton Wanderers. He also played in the Football League for

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

, Bury,

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. ...

and

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

. He also played non-league football in both Scotland and England for Fort William, Nairn County,

Elgin City Elgin City Football Club (also known as City or The Black and Whites) is a professional senior football club based in Elgin, Moray. Elgin was founded in 1893 and originally played their football in the Highland Football League. The club was g ...

and

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

, as well as a spell in

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and the

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with

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Cincinnati Riverhawks The Cincinnati Riverhawks were a professional soccer team that debuted in the USISL Premier Development League in 1997 and joined the A-League from 1998 to 2003. They played their games at Galbreath Field in Kings Mills, Ohio and later at the ...

and Cincinnati Kings. He was capped 13 times by

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, scoring four goals. Following retirement, McGinlay had brief spells as manager of both Gresley Rovers and Ilkeston Town. He also returned to the USA as director of coaching for Cincinnati Kings. He later had spells as a scout for the Scottish Football Association,

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

, Blackpool and

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

Playing career

Early years

A supporter of Celtic in childhood, McGinlay's first senior game was as a 16-year-old for his hometown club Fort William, in a Highland Football League game in August 1980 against

. Following a year playing in

either side of two seasons with Nairn County, and a three-year spell with English

Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...

club

, McGinlay returned to the Highland League with Elgin City in 1988. He then progressed through English League football, initially playing with

then with Bury. After a successful loan spell with

, in which he scored during their unsuccessful participation in the 1991 Football League play-offs, McGinlay moved to

The Den The Den (previously The New Den) is a football stadium in New Cross, south-east London, and the home of Millwall Football Club. The Den is adjacent to the South London railway originating at , and a quarter of a mile from the Old Den, which i ...

permanently for the 1991–92 season. He scored 27 goals in 52 league matches for the London club.

Bolton Wanderers

McGinlay is perhaps best known for his five-year spell with Bolton Wanderers between 1992 and 1997, where his scoring exploits led to him being nicknamed 'Super John'. After his goals eliminated

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

holders

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

from the competition, he successfully partnered fellow Scot Andy Walker as the '' Trotters'' gained promotion from the third tier in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

, with McGinlay scoring the match winning penalty in the last fixture against local rivals Preston North End. Further cup 'giant killings' over teams such as Everton and Arsenal followed the next year, with McGinlay featuring prominently – he scored 33 goals across all competitions during the campaign, and the team became known in local media as 'white hot' due to the performances. In the 1995 he was in the side which gained promotion to the

via the play-offs, playing all 120 minutes of the dramatic 4–3 victory over

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

(they were relegated in the subsequent campaign), and also started in the League Cup Final (lost 2–1 to Liverpool) in the same season. In April 1997, he scored the last goals at

Burnden Park Burnden Park was the home of English football club Bolton Wanderers who played home games there between 1895 and 1997. As well as hosting the 1901 FA Cup Final replay, it was the scene in 1946 of one of the greatest disasters in English footba ...

, finishing as the club and the division's top scorer with 24 goals from 43 games as Bolton returned to the top level, this time as

champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, a ...

. He scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 6–1 cup win over

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

. He made seven further league appearances for the club at the outset of the next season before joining second-tier

in November 1997 for £625,000 in what would be an injury-hit move. He later had the Bolton club crest

tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing ...

ed on his arm.

Later years

McGinlay had short spells with

and American team

before moving into management with non-league sides Ilkeston Town and Gresley Rovers. In 2013, he was also employed as a

chief scout A Chief Scout is the principal or head scout for an organization such as the military, colonial administration or expedition or a talent scout in performing, entertainment or creative arts, particularly sport. In sport, a Chief Scout can be the prin ...

, appointed by former Bolton teammate

Owen Coyle Owen Columba Coyle (born 14 July 1966) is a professional football manager and former player who is currently the manager of Scottish Championship club Queen's Park. He played as a striker for several clubs in England and Scotland, and made one ...

during his spell as manager, after spending time working in similar roles in the US with Cincinnati Kings (where he had also finished his playing career after serving as a manager), and with the Scottish Football Association. In 2014, McGinlay took over the 240-year old Horwich pub the Original Bay Horse. He rejoined Bolton Wanderers in an official ambassadorial role in 2020, in an attempt by the club to strengthen their ties with the sports courses held at the

University of Bolton , established = 2004 – gained University Status 1982 – Bolton Institute of Higher Education , type = Public , endowment = £160,000 (2009) , administrative_staff = 700+ , chancellor ...

, and to bring former players back into contact with the club. On November 14, 2021, McGinlay played in a charity match as part of a team of Bolton Wanderers Legends against the current Bolton first team with the match helping to raise money for the Mother of Bolton player

Gethin Jones Gethin Clifford Jones (born 12 February 1978) is a Welsh television presenter. He was an active rugby union player while at Manchester Metropolitan University and, after graduation, he began his television career on Welsh language channel S4C a ...

, who had been diagnosed with

Motor neuron disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

. The Bolton first team won 7–4, with McGinlay scoring a penalty for the Legends team.

International career

During his time with Bolton, McGinlay earned 13 international

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for

, scoring four goals; his last and most important strike was the only goal of a 1–0 victory over Sweden (which featured a memorable goalkeeping display by

Jim Leighton James Leighton (born 24 July 1958) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Leighton started his career with Aberdeen, where he won seven domestic trophies and the 1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup under the m ...

) and helped the national side qualify for 1998 FIFA World Cup, although he did not make the squad for that tournament, nor for the

Euro 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

competition. McGinlay lined up for Scotland alongside his childhood friend from Fort William,

Duncan Shearer Duncan Nichol Shearer (born 28 August 1962) is a Scottish former footballer, currently coaching the 'Development squad' at Inverness Caledonian Thistle. During his playing career, Shearer predominantly played for Huddersfield Town, Swindon Town, ...

, who also spent much of his career in England – the two never played in the same team at club level. He also featured in the infamous '3-second match' in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

and its replay in

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, and missed the birth of his daughter in order to travel to

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

for another qualification game the following year.

Coaching career

Following retirement, McGinlay had brief spells as manager of both Gresley Rovers and Ilkeston Town. He also returned to the USA as director of coaching for Cincinnati Kings. He later had spells as a scout for the Scottish Football Association,

, Blackpool and

.https://uk.linkedin.com/in/john-mcginlay-24a9b774

Honours

Bolton Wanderers * Football League First Division: 1996–97 Individual * First Division PFA Team of the Year: 1996–97

References

External links

* * *

Cincinnati United Soccer Club * {{DEFAULTSORT:McGinlay, John 1964 births Living people People from Fort William, Highland Sportspeople from Highland (council area) Association football forwards Scottish footballers Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Bury F.C. players Elgin City F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Cincinnati Riverhawks players Cincinnati Kings players Scottish football managers Gresley F.C. managers Ilkeston Town F.C. managers Scotland international footballers Scotland B international footballers Scottish expatriate footballers Expatriate association footballers in New Zealand Expatriate soccer players in the United States Premier League players English Football League players USL Second Division players Nairn County F.C. players Highland Football League players Wigan Athletic F.C. non-playing staff Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Scottish expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Fort William F.C. players Outfield association footballers who played in goal