Billy McKinlay targeting West Ham Euro glory as Dundee United hero admits 'I've been waiting for this since GOTHENBURG'

Billy McKinlay was just a teenager at Dundee United when Jim McLean’s heroes jousted in a showpiece UEFA Cup Final.

At that stage way back in 1987, the kid thought those big nights would just keep coming. Now, 36 years after the Taysiders took on Gothenburg, McKinlay knows it’s not that simple. Which is why the Glaswegian fully understands the significance of being involved in Wednesday night’s showpiece Europa League Conference Final.

David Moyes’ West Ham assistant is part of the Scottish managerial team aiming to floor Fiorentina and write their names into Irons folklore. It’s come full circle for McKinlay since those first playing days at United after signing from Hamilton as he said: “I made my debut in 1986 and 1987 was the year we got to the Final. I think it was on the Saturday against Hibs and then I played against Hajduk Split on the Wednesday. We won 2-0. Jim McInally and John Clark scored. I think that was the only game I probably played. I was in the squad for the rest of the tournament, but I was only young. I definitely didn’t go to Gothenburg.

“Everyone tells you how the time just goes. When you are young, you think you’ll get another and it just doesn’t happen, does it? This season there’s been a lot of Dundee United stuff.

"It’s 40 years since winning the league and all the pictures all started coming back. Then about the Gothenburg team. We lost the Scottish Cup Final to St Mirren as well. That was a disaster. The worst week in history, wasn’t it!”

McKinlay is hard-working, humble and modest. As a player, he represented Scotland at the 1996 Euros and the 1998 World Cup. He won 29 “priceless” caps under Craig Brown, but laughed: “Not enough! I tell Broon that when I see him!”

In terms of the club game,