Soccer: Pipe dream coming true for All Whites' great Scot

Michael McGlinchey will almost certainly get game time. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The initiation ceremony for new All Whites can be an intimidating thing. New boys are expected to get up in front of their teammates and sing. Some can hold a tune, others struggle, but as an integral part of team building it is a winner.

Michael McGlinchey and Rory Fallon, the likely lads called in for the first leg of the Asia/Oceania World Cup playoff, helped alleviate some of the nerves by lining up as a duet.

And the rallying anthem the pair sang? Dancing Queen, by Abba.

That out of the way, the only dancing McGlinchey wants to do now is in football boots in taking on whatever opposition confronts him.

While there had been strong suggestions he might be in line for a start against Bahrain in tomorrow night's return leg at Westpac Stadium, coach Ricki Herbert, at this stage, is keen to stay with the team who kicked off the first leg in Manama.

McGlinchey did get his chance off the bench up there and turned in a more-than-useful effort as he has done in recent A-League outings for Central Coast Mariners. There is little doubt he will see game time tomorrow. How much - he even might be in the run on XI - depends on Simon Elliott's fitness and his recovery from a hip injury.

Asked what he felt chances of getting a start anyway were, McGlinchey said: "It is up to Ricki Herbert but if am selected I'll be more than ready. In the first leg I felt I did okay off the bench. I was fresh and the difference could have been that the other boys had been playing for 70 minutes ..."

Born in Wellington 22 years ago during the time his father was playing here, McGlinchey was living in Glasgow by the time he was nine months old. He did not return to his birthplace until a few weeks ago when the Mariners called to play the Wellington Phoenix. Now he is back for a second - and more important - visit.

He has packed plenty into his formative years. Dubbed a "wunderkind" in his early playing days, he turned his back on offers from Manchester United to become, at 15 years, the youngest debutant at famous Celtic.

His selection at youth [under-19] level for Scotland was a given but his subsequent criticism of coach Archie Gemmill's tactics at under-20 level - McGlinchey saw them as being "too defensive" - ended any hope of a long career in the blue of Scotland.

He found himself not only on the international scrapheap but on the outer at Celtic as well when earlier this year they "released him".

All along Herbert had kept an eye on developments - in much the same way he kept abreast of the Fallon situation - and when the rules changed and the pair became available, Herbert swooped.

McGlinchey now has the chance to become only the second player to play for one country at a Fifa Under-20 World Cup and at the senior World Cup for a different nation.

"Saturday's game is the biggest of my career," said McGlinchey. "The good thing is that it's about excitement more than nervousness. All the boys are the same. We are all really confident."