Playing Career
McInally began his career with Celtic in 1982 as a full back; while there he won youth caps and spent a period on loan with Dundee. Jim was transferred to Nottingham Forest in 1984 and joined Coventry City for £80,000 18 months later. McInally then joined Dundee United from Coventry in the summer of 1986 in a joint transfer with Dave Bowman after just five games for the Sky Blues and it was here where the pair of them both excelled and played the best football of what would become a glittering career.
At Tannadice, he quickly became an effective defensive midfielder and played an important part in Dundee United's run to the UEFA Cup Final in his first season. This brought him international recognition and he won the first of ten Scotland caps the next year. An outstanding and consistent performer over the following seven seasons, in 1994, in his fourth final with the club, he won a Scottish Cup winner's medal, playing as a left wing-back, a position in which he often appeared later in his career.
In 1995, following United's relegation to the Scottish Football League First Division, McInally remained in the Premier Division by joining newly-promoted Raith Rovers as player/coach. In early 1996, McInally was due to join Aberdeen in a swap deal for former Rover Peter Hetherston, and was paraded at a Pittodrie news conference. Hetherston failed a medical, however, and the move failed to proceed. A few weeks into the following season, McInally moved back to Tannadice and made sixteen appearances before moving back to Dundee as a player-coach at Dens Park.
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