ARCHIVE: John McGinlay – A Living Legend
After being written off by many people, including his own national boss Craig Brown, John McGinlay is back. His CV now reads goalpoacher AND goalkeeper, whilst his many hobbies include scoring goals against the Wolves, beating Premiership opposition and having his face splashed across the back of the country’s newspapers. ARMITAGE SHANKS casts an eye over the wee Scot.
It’s only when you come to travel around the country and talk to fans of other football teams that you come to realise just how hated John McGinlay is. ‘Fat bastard’ and ‘cheat’ are two of the accusations often levelled at him by the froth mouthed antagonists who see the super Jock as the Anti-Christ. It’s all total and complete drivel of course... they hate him for no other reason than the fact that he always scores against the bloody lot of ‘em. Think about it, just about every crucial goal in the Bruce Rioch era was scored by Supa... and the trend has continued. Lots of hearts have been broken by the cool finishing of our super-marksman and he has been the very embodiment of the post Phil Neal revival.
Yet at the start of the year certain sections of the 13-14,000 regulars had written him off. They had said he was too old, that he’d shot his bolt and that he’d lost a couple of yards of pace. Now, they are all eating a very large slice of humble pie. McGinlay is back, in fact he never went away. The goals are going in with monotonous regularity and all those people who have been slagging him off ought to hang their heads in shame.
It was the Wolves episode back in early October that summed it all up for me. What a sad bunch of twats Wolves fans are and how McGinlay made fools out of every single bloody one of them. There they were, 23,000 examples of Barry off ‘Auf Wiedersehn Pet’ screaming abuse at our centre forward. Why? Well of course it was that glorious night when he secured our place in the Wembley Play Off two years ago and twatted David Kelly for good measure, right in front of the Old Gold arseholes. It’s happened loads of times... Liverpool, Arsenal, Preston, Hull, Swindon and many more. Get in the way of progress for the Wanderers and you’ll have McGinlay to deal with... that seems to be the moral of the story. Wolves couldn’t deal with him and stayed in Division One. Two years they stored up their hate, peeved that we had denied them, their big ground and big crowds, their ‘divine right’ of a place in the Premiership. Then they get the chance to vent their spleens at us... and in particular McGinlay... and what does he do, scores twice and shits on them in great lumpy dollops. What an absolute fucking scream! Supa John McGinlay and those incredibly intelligent people from woeful Wolverhampton, how comical.
“They had said he was too old, that he’d shot his bolt and that he’d lost a couple of yards of pace. Now, they are all eating a very large slice of humble pie. McGinlay is back, in fact he never went away.”
Looking at the wider picture however, there was of course an added significance to that glorious night at Molineux. It was roughly McGinlay’s fifth anniversary in a Bolton shirt. When he came to Bolton we were sh*t and near the bottom of Division Two. Now look where we are. Ok, he didn’t quite make it in the Premiership, but not many did, did they? And throughout the ill fated ‘95/96 season he wore the White shirt with only slightly less pride than when he gets to wear Tartan colours. Even if we go up again I hope we keep him as a good luck charm! He may like the odd ale... as well as other indiscretions, but that is all part and parcel of the legend that is Supa John McGinlay.
So there we are, McGinlay the Bolton legend. I reckon he’s done enough now to have the title bestowed upon his broad shoulders. This time in twenty years you can be sure people will be talking about him with a similar reverence to the way players from the Ian Greaves era and before are spoken of now. Perhaps McGinlay is even close to ranking in the hall of fame that is headed by such illustrious names as Lofthouse and Worthington. Am I going to far? Well I don’t think so, McGinlay’s achievements speak for themselves and they compare favourably with most people’s in the annals of BWFC history. A lot of fans talk about Andy Walker and what a star player he was. Well in my book McGinlay has surpassed Walker in the pecking order by some considerable margin now.
What will the next chapter in the McGinlay/Bolton love affair be? Who knows. But I wouldn’t mind betting his final act in a White shirt will involve scoring a vital goal. And didn’t it just sum the guy up when he went in goal after Branagan was sent off against Reading at the end of October? Pity it wasn’t against Wolves –- he’d probably have pulled off six brilliant saves and then scored the winner from a goal kick. Supa John McGinlay a legend! What a fucking star!
First appeared in White Love Issue 11, Autumn 1996.