James "Jim" Leighton MBE (born 24 July 1958 in Johnstone, Renfrewshire) is a Scottish former football goalkeeper. Among the clubs he played for are Aberdeen (two spells), Manchester United, Arsenal, Dundee and Hibernian.

Career[link]

Club[link]

Leighton joined Aberdeen from non-league Dalry Thistle in 1978. Leighton achieved his greatest success under the management of Alex Ferguson in the early to mid 1980s. Ferguson's Aberdeen side won the Scottish Cup four times, the Scottish League Cup twice, as well as the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1983 and three Premier Division titles in 1980, 1984 and 1985.

Leighton's reliability and terrific will to win gained respect from players and pundits everywhere. English keeper Peter Shilton said of him: "Scotland have solved their goalkeeper problem." Even the outspoken Brian Clough said: "Jim Leighton is a rare bird – a Scottish goalkeeper that can be relied on."

Alex Ferguson had departed to Manchester United in 1986, and two years later Ferguson brought him from Pittodrie to Old Trafford for £500,000. His first season at Old Trafford was relatively successful, even though United finished 11th in the league, as he conceded just 35 league goals and kept 14 clean sheets. However, lack of confidence in the 1989–90 let his team mates down and let himself down as United finished 13th in the league, although they did reach the FA Cup final – their first major final in five years.

His erratic form in the league was particularly evident when United suffered a 5–1 demolition to neighbours City (then newly promoted), a 3–0 hammering by Aston Villa on Boxing Day and were crushed 4–0 by Nottingham Forest in the penultimate league game of the season. And there were plenty of blunders in one and two goal defeats in other games which were very disappointing for Leighton.

This culminated in him being dropped in favour of Les Sealey for the 1990 FA Cup Final replay against Crystal Palace. Leighton had conceded three goals in the first match as United drew 3–3, and Sealey made a series of spectacular saves as United won the replay 1–0.

Sealey retained the position of first choice goalkeeper for the following season and Leighton faded from view, eventually returning to Scottish football with Dundee in March 1992, after loan spells with Arsenal, Reading and Sheffield United. After the 1990 FA Cup Final, Leighton made just one appearance for United, against Halifax Town in the Football League Cup on 26 September 1990.

A move to Hibernian led to a hugely successful spell where he played over 150 games, missing only one league game in four seasons. The revival in his fortunes included a return to the Scottish national team. During his spell with Hibernian he collected 23 of his 91 Scotland caps.

Finally Leighton returned to Aberdeen, retiring from club football after the 2000 Scottish Cup Final defeat against Rangers. This match marked a sad end to a distinguished career, as he was substituted due to injury after just three minutes. With no substitute goalkeeper available, forward Robbie Winters took over in goal and Aberdeen lost 4–0. Leighton's final league appearance that season meant that he set the record for the oldest player in the Scottish Premier League at 41 years and 302 days, a record which was broken by Andy Millen in 2007.^[1]

International[link]

Leighton's international career lasted for 16 years, from 1982 to 1998. He was an uncapped squad member for the 1982 World Cup, before making his debut against East Germany on 13 October 1982. Within two years he was his country's No. 1, and he played in all of his country's matches at the 1986, 1990 and 1998 World Cups, despite stiff competition for the keeper's jersey from Andy Goram during the 1990s. He retired from international football in October 1998, at the age of 40. Leighton set a new record as the oldest player to play for Scotland.^[2]

Leighton is a member of the Scotland Football Hall of Fame, having won his 50th cap for Scotland in 1989. He won 91 international caps for Scotland and is second only to Kenny Dalglish in the appearance records.

Coach[link]

Leighton became Aberdeen's goalkeeping coach after retiring as a player. He parted company with Aberdeen in August 2009 when the then manager Mark McGhee chose to replace him with Colin Meldrum.^[3]

In February 2010 he was appointed as goalkeeping coach for Huntly in the Highland League.^[4] Leighton was reappointed as the goalkeeping coach at Aberdeen on 13 December 2010, the first act of the new management team of Craig Brown and Archie Knox.^[5]

Career statistics[link]

[1] [2]

Honours[link]

Club[link]

Aberdeen

• Scottish Premier League (3): 1979–80, 1983–84, 1984–85
• Scottish Cup (4): 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86
• Scottish League Cup (1): 1984–85
• European Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1982–83
• European Super Cup (1): 1983

Manchester United

• FA Cup (1): 1989–90

Dundee

• Scottish Football League First Division (1): 1991–92

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Jim Leighton career stats at Soccerbase
• Jim Leighton at scottishfa.co.uk
• London Hearts profile
• www.sporting-heroes.net

v t e Scotland squad – 1982 FIFA World Cup 1 Rough 2 McGrain 3 Gray 4 Souness (c) 5 Hansen 6 Miller 7 Strachan 8 Dalglish 9 Brazil 10 Wark 11 Robertson 12 Wood 13 McLeish 14 Narey 15 Jordan 16 Hartford 17 Evans 18 Archibald 19 Sturrock 20 Provan 21 Burley 22 Leighton Coach: Stein

v t e Scotland squad – 1986 FIFA World Cup 1 Leighton 2 Gough 3 Malpas 4 Souness (c) 5 McLeish 6 Miller 7 Strachan 8 Aitken 9 Bannon 10 Bett 11 McStay 12 Goram 13 Nicol 14 Narey 15 Albiston 16 McAvennie 17 Archibald 18 Sharp 19 Nicholas 20 Sturrock 21 Cooper 22 Rough Coach: Ferguson

v t e Scotland squad – 1990 FIFA World Cup 1 Leighton 2 McLeish 3 Aitken (c) 4 Gough 5 McStay 6 Malpas 7 Johnston 8 Bett 9 McCoist 10 MacLeod 11 Gillespie 12 Goram 13 Durie 14 McInally 15 Levein 16 McCall 17 McKimmie 18 Collins 19 McPherson 20 McAllister 21 Fleck 22 Gunn Coach: Roxburgh

v t e Scotland squad – UEFA Euro 1996 1 Leighton 2 McKimmie 3 Boyd 4 Calderwood 5 Hendry 6 Whyte 7 Spencer 8 McCall 9 McCoist 10 McAllister (c) 11 Collins 12 Goram 13 T. McKinlay 14 Durie 15 Jess 16 Burley 17 B. McKinlay 18 Gallacher 19 Jackson 20 Booth 21 Gemmill 22 Walker Coach: Brown

v t e Scotland squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Leighton 2 McNamara 3 Boyd 4 Calderwood 5 Hendry (c) 6 T. McKinlay 7 Gallacher 8 Burley 9 Durie 10 Jackson 11 Collins 12 Sullivan 13 Donnelly 14 Lambert 15 Gemmill 16 Weir 17 B. McKinlay 18 Elliott 19 Whyte 20 Booth 21 Gould 22 Dailly Coach: Brown

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Alan Bruce McInally (born 10 February 1963, Ayr) is a former professional footballer in Scotland, England and Germany.^[1] Since retiring from football, he is best known for his work at Sky Sports as a football analyst.

Early life[link]

Ayr-born McInally variously went by the nicknames of Rambo and Big Mac and he is the son of Jackie McInally, who played in Kilmarnock's title-winning side of 1965. He was educated in Ayr at Heathfield Primary School and Mainholm Academy. On leaving school he served an apprenticeship as an Aircraft Fitter with British Aerospace at nearby Prestwick.

Club career[link]

Ayr United[link]

He began his career with his local side Ayr United, making his debut in the 1980–81 season in the Scottish League Division One. His early style was as a bustling "up and at 'em" type centre forward, and during his time at Ayr, he had the more than respectable goal ratio of almost exactly one in three. A great season in 1983–84, when McInally got his best haul to date of 15 goals in 35 games, earned him a move to Glasgow giants Celtic in the Scottish Premier Division. Strangely, McInally had his best personal season here, while Ayr only survived relegation by one point.

Celtic[link]

With Celtic, he was mainly used as a reserve, but was a respected member of the squad, weighing in with important goals when called upon. He also experienced European football for the first time with Celtic, and even then the continentals found the raw McInally's rough and tumble style hard to counter – indeed, McInally was sent off against Rapid Vienna in the first leg of this soon to be notorious tie, in the European Cup Winners Cup 1984–85. Celtic won the Scottish Cup in 1985, but McInally wasn't involved on the day. He did play in the Scottish League Cup Final in 1986, but was on the losing side as Celtic lost against Rangers.

He won his first medal in the 1985–86 season, when Celtic won the title on goal difference from Heart of Midlothian. Although he played only 16 games (with one goal scored), he was a valued member of the team, getting a more regular place the following season. McInally really came into his own in his third season at the club in 1986–87, scoring 15 goals in his 38 league games. This was his last season at the club, as the new manager Billy McNeil decided to make a clean sweep of the playing staff, and the three main strikers all went abroad – Mo Johnston to Nantes in France, Brian McClair to Manchester United and McInally followed him to England, ending up at Aston Villa, in the Second Division.

Aston Villa[link]

In his first season at Villa, McInally helped them to get promoted back to the top flight, scoring four goals in his 26 league games as Villa finished second behind Millwall, McInally, now used to the rigours of English football, took his game up a level as he added technical finesse to his tough style. He helped Villa survive by netting 14 league goals in his 33 games, scoring 23 goals in all competitions.

Bayern Munich[link]

McInally's form for Aston Villa and Scotland caught the eye of German giants Bayern Munich, who were sufficiently impressed by McInally's overall season to bid a record fee for them at the time of £1.2 Million to take McInally to the Bundesliga. The Bayern attack was revamped for the 1989–90 season, with the Yugoslav Radmilo Mihajlović also bought in expensively as Bayern went to defend their Bundesliga crown and make headway in the European Cup.

McInally – now nicknamed Big Mac by the Bayern fans – began well in the Bundesliga, proving a handful for the defences, but then the referees clamped down on his style and his disciplinary record suffered. He was a regular throughout this season, but halfway through, the Bayern management decided that this strikeforce was not what they wanted and began to look for replacements for McInally and Mihajlović. At the end of his first season, McInally helped Bayern to the league title, and scored ten goals in his 31 league games, a respectable tally in his first season abroad. He also helped Bayern to the semi finals of the European Cup, where they fell to AC Milan, despite McInally's goal in the second leg in Munich.

In the 1990–91 season, McInally was now deemed a reserve at Bayern (Mihailjovic had now been sold), but he was regularly given a run out in Europe, where he scored some goals in the early rounds of the European Cup. Bayern were willing to let him go, and Chelsea came in for him, but McInally turned them down, preferring to fight on in Munich. This season, he only played seven goalless games in the league, and was unable to help Bayern to get past Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup semi final, despite a battering ram cameo performance in the first leg in Munich. This season was effectively McInally's last as a top level professional, as he began to succumb to injury.

McInally only managed two league games for Bayern in the 1991–92 season, before suffering a long term knee injury. This injury ended his time with the German giants, who supported McInally until his contract ran out with them at the end of the 1992–93 season.

Kilmarnock[link]

On the expiry of this contract, and back to a semblance of fitness, McInally returned to Scotland in 1994 and signed for Kilmarnock, a club at which his father Jackie had become a hero by helping them to win the Scottish title in 1965. McInally managed to turn out for Kilmarnock eight times in the 1993–94 season, but failed to score and retired at the end of the season, aged 31, due to an injury.

International career[link]

McInally made his debut in the Scottish national team, in February 1989 in a World Cup qualifier against Cyprus as a substitute, which the Scots won 3–2.

McInally's second cap – his full debut – against Chile in May 1989 resulted in his first goal (the Scots won 2–0).

McInally was still playing well enough to warrant further selections with Scotland on their way to the 1990 World Cup, playing against Yugoslavia and France.

A couple of McInally goals against Malta in a friendly in May 1990 effectively earned McInally a place in the Scotland squad for the 1990 World Cup in Italy. He started the first game against Costa Rica, which was a humiliating 1–0 defeat, McInally failing to make his height and power work against the Costa Rican defence during the 90 minutes. That was the end of McInally's international career. He didn't play in any more of the Scottish games in the World Cup (they went out in the first phase), and indeed never played for Scotland again, finishing with three goals in his eight caps.

Post-retirement[link]

He currently works on Soccer Saturday as a pundit, alongside the likes of Phil Thompson and Jeff Stelling, and contributes to the BETDAQ Exchange Views blog. On 10 February 2007, Jeff Stelling revealed the middle name of Alan McInally, live on Soccer Saturday which prompted Alan to ring in during the commercial break (from home on his birthday) and jokingly vowed to get even with Jeff.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Alan McInally at scottishfa.co.uk
• Alan McInally at the Internet Movie Database
• Alan McInally career stats at Soccerbase

v t e Scotland squad – 1990 FIFA World Cup 1 Leighton 2 McLeish 3 Aitken (c) 4 Gough 5 McStay 6 Malpas 7 Johnston 8 Bett 9 McCoist 10 MacLeod 11 Gillespie 12 Goram 13 Durie 14 McInally 15 Levein 16 McCall 17 McKimmie 18 Collins 19 McPherson 20 McAllister 21 Fleck 22 Gunn Coach: Roxburgh