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Personal
Fullname: James Edward McInally
aka: Jim McInally, James McInally
Born: 19 February 1964
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
Signed: 9 Oct 1980
Left: 18 May 1984 (to Notts Forest)
Position: Defender Left-back / Midfield
Debut: Dunfermline 1-7 Celtic, League Cup, 28 Aug 1982
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps: 10
International Goals: 0
Biog
Left-back Jim McInally would spend the majority of his Celtic career as understudy to Mark Reid before finally moving on and making a name for himself with other clubs.
A product of Celtic Boys Club, Jim McInally signed professional forms for Celtic in October 1980. But he was unable to force his way into the first team, making only three appearances, one in each of the cup competitions against Dunfermline, in the 1982/83 season, and one league appearance against Kilmarnock, with Celtic scoring an incredible 14 goals with just one conceded in those three matches.
After a successful loan spell at Dundee he turned down a new Celtic contract in favour of a move to Nottingham Forest where he was again used as cover.
Celtic did make an attempt to re-sign Jim McInally from Nottingham Forest at least on loan in the early weeks of the 1985/86 season but apparently the two clubs could not come to mutually agreeable terms.
Instead he went on loan to Coventry City. This is mentioned in the Celtic View of 13th November 1985 at the same time that the signing of Mark McGhee was announced and is an indication of the uncertainty they felt about the left back position having been pressed to convert Tommy Burns into a make-shift left back.
He eventually made his way to Dundee United via Coventry City and while at Tannadice was moved into midfield and became a Scotland international.
He had a successful period with Dundee Utd and as he became older and longer in the tooth he expressed more interest in coaching. When Dundee Utd were demoted at the end of the 1994-95 season he moved to newly promoted Raith Rovers and gradually took on more coaching duties there. He missed out on a swap move to Aberdeen and in October 1996 he was back at Dundee Utd. He made the short move to Dens Park for two seasons as a player coach between 1997 and 1999 and retired from playing full time in July 1999.
His first management position was with Sligo Rovers though this ended less than favourably and he resigned in November 1999 citing differences with a very large Board, lack of resources and separation from his young family in Scotland.
He rejoined the Youth coaching staff at Celtic and was a very successful and respected coach at the club between 2000 and 2004.
In October 2004 he was named manager of Morton leading them to second place in the Second Division in 2005-06 season narrowly missing out on promotion. However he won the Division the following season taking Morton into the First Division for the 2007-08 season. Poor performance in the higher division led to his resignation from the Greenock based club in February 2008.
He was appointed Manager of East Stirlingshire in March 2008 and continued till resigning in 2011, then moved on to be manager at Peterhead. He stayed at Peterhead for 11 years, making him upto his departure, the longest running manager in the SPFL amongst his peers.
Despite the lack of success as a player at Celtic, he still has a deep love for the club and is still seen regularly following the club as a supporter both home & away.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES App (Sub) |
LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1980-84 |
0 (1) |
1 (0) |
1 (0) |
0 (0) |
2 (1) |
| Goals |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Honours with Celtic
none