In the following season, McInroy missed only one game and his agility and intelligent football mind made him a first team regular, as he went on to make over 200 appearances for Sunderland over six years.
As McInroy was at the other end of the pitch, he didn't see the incident clearly but related in an interview with Paul Jannou (Newcastle United's official club historian) that sitting afterwards in an after-game dinner at the Café Royal, David Jack and Frank Moss, two of the Arsenal stars "had no complaints about the goal".
His place was taken by Bill McPhillips, but Newcastle's form then declined and they ended the 1933–34 season being relegated to the Second Division.
At the end of the season he left the club after getting involved in a dispute with the directors over benefit payments and returned to Sunderland.
At Leeds, newly appointed manager Billy Hampson immediately opted for experience with former England internationals like 34-year-old McInroy in goal and 32-year-old George Brown from Burnley in attack.