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The National (Scotland)

Sport

Matthew Lindsay

The brickie's labourer who got Scotland to France '98 on why a World Cup return is on

Scotland Craig Brown Bolton (Organization) George Hirst Steve Clarke Tartan Army Football SNS Group Millwall

IT was perhaps not surprising that John McGinlay was experiencing a few last-minute pangs of doubt about how his body would hold up as he prepared to set off on the “March of the Day II” from Wembley Stadium early yesterday morning.

McGinlay was subjected to a few industrial challenges from opposition centre-backs during his pre-VAR playing days back in the 1980s and 1990s and he still carries the scars to prove it.

“The legs aren’t getting any younger,” he said before he embarked on a 178 mile sponsored walk that will raise funds for the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation, the charity set up by former Liverpool, Bradford City and Bolton Wanderers defender Stephen Darby and the late RAF veteran Chris Rimmer. “It’s a fair hit.”

Do not, though, bet against the Scot being among those who cross the finishing line at Portman Road in Ipswich tomorrow evening.

His own professional football career certainly followed a circuitous route. But he rose to meet every challenge, recovered from every setback and overcame every obstacle he faced during his remarkable journey. Ultimately, he reached the very highest level of the game.

The pinnacle was unquestionably being called up by his country for the first time at the grand old age of 30 for a friendly match against the Netherlands at Hampden 31 years ago next week.

“I was a Tartan Army footsoldier,” said McGinlay. “I used to go to all the games as a supporter, as a fan. I never once contemplated playing for my country, not once. It came out of the blue, it really did.

“I probably only got my opportunity because we were a bit thin on the ground for strikers at the time. But I will be forever grateful to Craig Brown for giving me the opportunity. It was a time I never thought would come, if I'm totally honest with you.”

The Bolton centre-forward thought his lifelong dream had died before he had kicked a ball for Scotland. “I travelled up for the game,” he said. “But I got a terrible sickness and diarrhoea bug and had to go straight back home.

“Craig said to me, ‘Look, you’re not going to train, you’re not going to play, there’s no point in you being here, why don’t you just go home? We don’t want you spreading what you’ve got to the rest of the boys’.

“As I was heading back down south I was thinking to myself, ‘Was that my chance? Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be’. Thankfully, though, when the next squad came out the following month, I was in.”

McGinlay continued, “It was amazing being in a squad with players I had idolised and looked up to, guys like Ally McCoist, Gary McAllister and John Collins. I was a little bit in awe being in amongst them. I had to pinch myself and realise I was there for a reason. I made my debut in a friendly against Austria in Vienna and scored in the first half.

(Image: SNS Group) “It was an incredible moment. But, to be honest, it was nice for my mum and dad. I grew up just outside Fort William and they made a lot of sacrifices for me. We didn’t have much, but they always made sure I had enough pocket money to go and play football for the school. Pretty much every game we played was away. So I was pleased for them.”

Incredibly, improbably, wonderfully, McGinlay was replaced by Duncan Shearer, his childhood friend who he had grown up in Caol, a village with a population of around 3,000, that evening.

“Duncan was a couple of years older than me,” he said. “But I always played up an age group, always played against the older boys. We went to school together and were pals.

“To be substituted for him was absolutely amazing. I was as proud for him winning his first cap as I was chuffed for myself. Fort William was a shinty town as well, that was the main sport.”

Steve Clarke called up two home-grown strikers, Kevin Nisbet of Aberdeen and young James Wilson of Hearts, to his Scotland squad for the Nations League promotion-relegation play-off double header against Greece. But this country has struggled to produce the calibre of centre-forwards they used to in recent years. Why does McGinlay believe that is the case?

“Maybe they just aren’t fashionable in the game at this moment in time,” he said. “Some teams play with two No 10s, some teams play with withdrawn strikers, false No 9s, all that nonsense.

“Back in my day, I lived to score goals, played football to score goals. If my team won 4-0 and I didn’t score then I was delighted my team won, but I was unhappy I hadn’t got any goals. Maybe that isn’t the case so much with players any more.”

Like many Scotland fans, though, McGinlay is excited at what George Hirst, the Ipswich Town striker who Clarke has persuaded to switch allegiances and who made his international debut in the 1-0 win over Greece in Piraeus on Thursday night, has to offer going forward.

“Lyndon [Dykes] is at Birmingham in League One down here at the moment and he isn’t getting in the side,” he said. “Bolton played them recently and he was nowhere near the level he has been at in the past, nowhere near.(Image: SNS Group)

“Che [Adams] has had injuries so getting consistency has probably been tough. But he has been doing well for Torino in Italy. If you could get the two of them fit then it would be a good partnership.

“But it will be interesting seeing how George does. I played against his father David [the Sheffield Wednesday and England striker]. If George is half the footballer his dad was, we've got certainly a good player in our hands. David was exceptional, he had power, pace, he could finish, he was just fantastic.

“George is playing at a good level. We're not blessed with many choices up front at this moment in time. It's a great opportunity for him to play international football and it certainly bolsters us. I think he's a great acquisition.”

Maybe if a few aspiring Scotland internationalists followed the same path that McGinlay took then Clarke would have more quality strikers at his disposal.

He was never a member of a cossetted pro-youth set-up at a professional club when he was a teenager. The tough apprenticeship which he served in the lower reaches of the not-so-beautiful game proved absolutely invaluable to him.

The Inverness-born striker played for his home town team Fort William as well as Nairn County and Elgin City in the Highland League when he was starting out. Sandwiched in between those stints was a season with North Shore United in New Zealand and a spell with Yeovil Town in the English lower divisions.

He worked as a labourer on building sites and in cargo ships to supplement his meagre part-time income as he tried to make his way in the game. Those experiences proved character building and fuelled his desire.

“I just wanted to play football,” he said. “I would've gone anywhere in the world to play, it was as simple as that. I was a bit of a gypsy, a real nomad. But I realised quite quickly when I was growing up that I would have to move away from home if I was going to be a footballer.

“When I played for Yeovil I worked on a building site one of the club directors owned as a brickie’s labourer. The only perk was I got to finish at lunchtime if we had a midweek game.

“When I played for Elgin, I worked on the boats which came into Buckie, digging out all the barley and what have you out of the holds. So nothing came easy. But it was a means to play football. It definitely made me hungrier, that's for sure.”

When McGinlay finally got offered the chance to go professional with Shrewsbury Town in 1989 he did not look back. He quickly moved on to play for Bury, Millwall and then Bolton, the club where he enjoyed by far his most successful years, currently works as an ambassador and is still revered to this day.

“I wasn't going to let that opportunity slip by me,” he said. “I worked at my game, thankfully scored some goals and then it just went on from there. Bolton was the best time of my life. We had unbelievable success, beat big teams in the cups, moved to a new stadium, won promotion to the Premier League.

“When I speak to fans now, it was probably one of their favourite times. We were a good side, we were entertaining, we worked hard. It basically suited the town, if that makes sense. Money's hard to come by in Bolton, times can be tough. When they see their team rolling their sleeves up and fighting hard it makes them proud.”

McGinlay attributes the success that he enjoyed personally for club and country to Bruce Rioch, the former Scotland captain who he played under at first Millwall and then Bolton, and Brown respectively.

(Image: SNS Group) “Bruce helped me immensely,” he said. “He's the best manager I ever played for. He changed me in so many different ways. He improved me as a footballer. He made me more disciplined, he made me stronger mentally, he made me a better person as well. You knew where the bar was set, you knew what the standards were. If you didn’t meet them you were out.

“Craig was an absolute gentleman. He was just a good guy, he really was. He was brilliant to me. But he knew his stuff as well and got the best out of the team. He left no stone unturned. Everything was taken care of.”

McGinlay repaid the faith that Brown showed in him when he scored in the France ‘98 qualifier against a Sweden team that comprised Martin Dahlin, Jesper Blomquist, Stefan Schwarz and Henrik Larsson at Ibrox in 1996. His goal, one of four he netted in a dark blue jersey, was all that separated the rivals at the end of a tough 90 minutes.

Those three points would ultimately help the national team to book their place at the World Cup finals the following year. They finished two ahead of their opponents in the final Group 4 table.

“I scored the goal that won the game, but the credit for that result has to go to Jim Leighton,” he said. “Jim made so many saves and blocks that night. They were shooting at him from all angles. I think he saved a few with his face.

“The boys at the back, Colin Calderwood and Colin Henry, put their bodies on the line as well. They were both incredible. If those lads hadn’t been so switched on there would have been a different scoreline. Sweden were a good, good team at that time.

“But, yeah, scoring that goal was a proud moment. Tom Boyd played the initial pass through, Darren Jackson played a lovely dummy and it came through to me. Joachim Bjorkland, the Rangers centre-half, came across. But I held him off, took a touch and slotted past Thomas Ravelli as he came off his line.”

Scotland need one of their players - Adams, Hirst, John McGinn, Ryan Christie or Scott McTominay – to show the same sort of composure in the final third in the second leg of the Nations League play-off double header against Greece at Hampden tomorrow evening.

But McGinlay - who will miss the game as he will be, all being well, in the final straight of March of the Day II – likes the look of this side and thinks they can get the result they need and then go on and challenge for a place at the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States next year.

“We've got more of that club mentality now than we had before,” he said. “The lads look like they're a tight-knit dressing room. Steve and John [assistant Carver] have created that. The boys look like they enjoy playing with each other and it looks like it means something to them. We've got plenty of leaders on the pitch. Things are on the up.”

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