Career
A fullback or wingback, he spent most of his career in Scotland playing for Celtic, Dundee, Heart of Midlothian and Kilmarnock. He also played for English side Stoke City and Swiss side Grasshopper Club Zürich. McKinlay was an outstanding schoolboy football player winning trophies with Street Peter"s Boys Primary in Partick and Street Thomas Aquinas, Jordanhill, Glasgow.
As a schoolboy, McKinlay played left wing and was a regular goalscorer with a deadly left foot shot.
He only moved to fullback when he turned professional and surprisingly never scored many goals as a professional. He represented Scotland at schoolboy level
McKinlay began his professional career with Dundee, whom he joined from Celtic Boys Club in 1981. He became a first-team regular while still a teenager and spent over seven years at Dens Park before being sold to Heart of Midlothian for £300,000 in December 1988.
He stayed with the Tynecastle club until 1994.
McKinlay provide an assist for the only goal of the final, crossing for Pierre Van Hooijdonk to head in. He was a regular player for Celtic until he was displaced by Stéphane Mahé in the 1997-1998 season, during which time he went on loan to Stoke City. He played three times for Stoke in 1997-1998.
After leaving Celtic permanently in 1999, McKinlay spent a year in Switzerland with Grasshopper Club Zürich before returning to Scotland to finish his career with a short spell at Kilmarnock.
On retiring he took up a post as an internet sports journalist with a Norwegian media company. He now works as an agent for Celtic Media.