His playing career also included spells with Dundee, Falkirk, Hamilton Academical, Happy Valley in Hong Kong and Partick Thistle back in Scotland.

He made 85 league appearances for Dunfermline broken over two separate periods with the Fife club.

A spell, at Falkirk,[3] with the best win rate of his managerial career, led to McCall twice being offered the manager's job at Dundee United, which he finally accepted in January 2003.

In November 2005, Ian McCall returned to management with his home town club Queen of the South.

After a less than auspicious start to his reign as Queens manager, the Palmerston outfit enjoyed somewhat of a resurgence in the early months of 2006, finally securing eight position in the league and thus avoiding having to play-off to maintain first division status.

Allan Jenkins scored the Stranraer winner on a 2 January South West relegation derby leaving Queens firmly in the play off spot that was ninth place.

[4] Despite narrowly avoiding relegation, Ian McCall was sacked by Queen of the South, with his assistant Gordon Chisholm taking over.

McCall fielded an ineligible player in Jamie Adams in a Scottish Cup run early in 2007.

In his first season in charge, McCall largely rebuilt the squad, bringing in players such as Marc Twaddle, Gary Harkins and Liam Buchanan, each of whom would go on to serve with distinction at the club.

McCall then led an instant promotion back to the second tier in the following season by winning the Scottish League One title.

[12] In October, amid a winless run of seven matches which left the Bully Wee second bottom of the league, McCall departed the club by mutual consent.