Ally grew up in Newburgh, just a stone’s throw north of Scotland's Granite City, Aberdeen. A sporting soul from the outset he excelled at his favourite pastime football. As a teenager Ally had trials with Blackpool and Burnley and trained with his local team Aberdeen FC.  Ally captained the north of Scotland under 15 and 16 teams and played for a host of semi-pro sides well into his late teens. A career as a professional never came to fruition so a different path beckoned.

 

Leaving the comforts of home behind him at the age of 18, Ally moved to London to sign a contract with top modelling agency Models 1. For eighteen months Ally worked for Littlewoods Catalogue, Just Seventeen magazine, My Guy and a host of others but it was the 1992 Athena Autumn/Winter poster campaign that Ally is most proud of.

 

It was during this time that Ally was asked to become an integral member of boy band “Bad Boys Inc”, signed to A&M Records. Visit this page dedicated to the band for more info.

After the unexpected split of the band in the spring of 1995 Ally took time away from the spotlight and became a qualified Scottish Football Association Coach and fitness instructor. It was during this time that he focused his attention on a career in Broadcasting. True to form, things moved swiftly for Ally and in September 1999, after a short spell with Granada Television, Ally made the move to Manchester United's own TV station MUTV. During his five year stint as one of the faces of the channel, Ally interviewed the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, David Beckham and Roy Keane. In addition, Ally quickly expanded his repertoire and worked as a freelance presenter for Sky News, Sky Sports News, Talksport Radio, Thomas Cook TV and ITV Digital.

 

Having earned his spurs as a freelancer Ally moved back north of the border in the summer of 2004, accepting a full-time position with Setanta Sports to become the lead presenter of new club channel, Celtic TV. As well as hosting the channel's flagship programme "The Daily Huddle" Ally was involved in a host of projects including documentary and feature material, and during his time with Celtic he developed a special relationship with both fans and fraternity.

 

After three years at Celtic however, the opportunity to live and work in Asia arose and with heavy heart Ally made the move to Asian broadcasting giants ESPN Star Sports in Singapore. During his brief but productive spell with ESS Ally hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup and currently presents the network's premiership football coverage, the FA Cup, full England internationals, England U21, FIFA Club World Cup and the Champions League. Ally also hosts Golf Focus and the ever popular Score Tonight.

 

Ally also writes several columns. You can view some pdf samples of these below:

 

Aberdeen FC matchday programme - sample 1

Aberdeen FC matchday programme - sample 2

Aberdeen FC matchday programme - sample 3
GolfPunk Magazine Asia - sample