John McGinlay
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John McGinlay (born April 8, 1964 in Inverness, Scotland) is a former Scottish football player who is perhaps best known for his spell at Bolton Wanderers in the mid to late 1990s.
Bolton Legend McGinlay worked part time as a builder whilst playing in the Highland League for teams such as Nairn County and Elgin City. In between, he also had spells in England with Yeovil Town, then a non-league club playing in the Gola League and New Zealand club Hanimex Sports.
In 1989 he received his big break in football when the Shrewsbury Town manager Ian McNeill acted on the recommendation of his son, to bring the then 25-year old McGinlay back to English football, and this proved to be a very wise move indeed as the striker scored a number of goals in his first full season at Gay Meadow.
Bury then paid out a club record fee to take him to Gigg Lane, but he could not settle in his new surroundings, scoring just 9 goals for the Division 3 side. Ironically three of those goals were to come when McGinlay scored a hat-trick against Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park, a club where he was later to become a cult hero.
In 1991 he moved south to link up with Millwall, and it was here where he first linked up with the much-respected former Scotland star Bruce Rioch, a manager whom he was later to link up with at Bolton. His short time with the Lions mirrored his spell with Bury in many ways, as people such as Malcolm Allen, Chris Armstrong, Mark Falco and Teddy Sheringham all competed for places in the Millwall forward line with McGinlay.
Early in 1992, Rioch left his post as the Millwall manager and was replaced by Mick McCarthy. First team opportunities for McGinlay became even rarer under the new regime. Bolton, by this time, had looked for an experienced manager to replace the departing Phil Neal and saw Rioch as the ideal candidate. Rioch in turn brought Keith Branagan, David Lee and McGinlay to Bolton as his first signings and they proved to be signings that would shape the future of Bolton Wanderers.
McGinlay formed a useful goalscoring partnership with Andy Walker as Bolton finished runners up to Stoke City in the old Division 2. Walker sustained a serious knee injury against Swansea City, so the goalscoring responsibilities fell very much firmly the way of McGinlay who did not disappoint.
Whilst scoring in the FA Cup games against higher opposition such as Liverpool, Everton and Arsenal, McGinlay also proved he could be consistent at league level. In 1993-94 he scored 25 goals in a mid-table Bolton team thus resulting in the first of 14 caps for Scotland.
The following year he helped Bolton get to the League Cup final where they lost out to Liverpool, but the anguish felt was soon quelled with an enthralling Play-Off Final win over Reading at Wembley Stadium. Bolton had been 2-0 down but came back to win 4-3 thanks to a penalty save by Keith Branagan and goals from Owen Coyle, Mixu Paatelainen and Fabian De Freitas.
McGinlay suffered from injuries in Bolton's first crack at Premiership football, but was still Bolton's top league goalscorer that season with six goals to his credit. Sadly this could not keep the club in the top division and they were relegated after just one disappointing season.
McGinlay, a determined and passionate character, was one of the key Bolton players in 1996-1997 season who ensured that Bolton regained their place in the Premiership. He shared 54 goals with strike partner Nathan Blake which helped send the Wanderers up as First Division champions with a record 98 points and 100 goals tally.
Two of these goals in April 1997, a penalty and one from open-play against Charlton Athletic, proved to be the last goals scored at the old Burnden Park stadium prior to re-location to the Reebok Stadium.
The move away from Burnden Park was to spell the beginning of the end as far as McGinlay's relationship with Bolton was concerned. Bolton manager Colin Todd had added Dean Holdsworth and Peter Beardsley to his squad for the 1997-98 season and it was clear that McGinlay would no longer be an automatic choice.
In November 1997 he moved to Bradford City for a then record £625,000 fee for the Bantams. However, injury and loss of form disrupted his spell in Yorkshire and he was never able to reach the heights of his Bolton days.
He later had short spells with Oldham Athletic and American team Cincinnati Riverhawks before moving into management with non-league sides Ilkeston Town and Gresley Rovers.
In 2004 he represented Bolton Wanderers on local radio station Tower FM but moved back to America later that year.
Currently assistant coach at Cincinnati Kings USL Div 2 team
