Kevin Paul McNaughton (born 28 August 1982) is a Scottish professional football player and coach. A versatile player able to play anywhere in defence, McNaughton was also used in a defensive midfield role. He began his career in the Scottish Premier League, playing for Aberdeen for six years. He joined Cardiff City in 2006, spending nine years at the Welsh side, making over 250 appearances. He had two loan spells at Bolton Wanderers before joining Wigan Athletic on a permanent basis in 2015. He retired from playing football in 2017, after a year with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, but reversed this decision in December 2017 after an injury crisis at Forfar Athletic, where he had joined as a coach the previous month.
Club career
Aberdeen
Beginning his career in the Scottish Premier League with Aberdeen after coming through the club's youth programme, where he won the Scottish Youth Cup in 2000–01, McNaughton was thrust into the first team at 18, making his debut on 5 October in a 2–1 win over St Mirren, and became a regular for the 2000–01 and 2001–02 seasons in a team containing lots of young players brought through the youth system like Darren Mackie, Russell Anderson and Darren Young. A knee injury sustained in 2002 kept him out for 12 weeks and on his return McNaughton struggled to return to form. It wasn't until new Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood arrived, that he managed to recover his previous form.
During the 2005–06 season, McNaughton was linked with moves to Celtic and Fulham, but nothing came of either and he remained at Pittodrie.
Cardiff City
On 26 May 2006, it was announced that he would be joining Football League Championship side Cardiff City on a free transfer. McNaughton quickly became an important part of manager Dave Jones's plans as he played in the left full-back position, and his form once again earned him a recall to the Scotland national team, although injury robbed him of the chance to take his place in the squad. During his second season at Cardiff, having switched to right-back, McNaughton played in all six matches of the club's run to the 2008 FA Cup Final, including scoring his first goal for the club on 27 January 2008 with a 20-yard volley in a 2–1 victory over Hereford United in the fourth round. His first league goal came just a few months later when he scored on the final day of the season against Barnsley in a 3–0 win.
The start of the 2008–09 season saw McNaughton his 100th appearance for the club when he played against Watford on 21 October.
During a pre-season friendly against Celtic on 22 July 2009 he suffered an ankle injury which kept him out for the opening two months of the season. After appearing for the club's reserve side, he returned to the first team on 17 October 2009 as an unused substitute during a 1–1 draw with Crystal Palace but suffered a recurrence of the injury kept him out until 17 November 2009 when he played 45 minutes of a reserve team game against Hereford United. He returned to the line-up on 21 November 2009 against Barnsley, but was taken off in the 21st minute for Paul Quinn with a back injury. On 23 November McNaughton was sent to have a scan on the back injury, which the club's medical staff believed to have caused the problem and resulted in him being out for two weeks. On 5 December 2009 McNaughton played his first 90 minutes of the season in a 1–0 win over Preston North End. The next season his injury worries ceded and he has played in every league up to and including the game against Barnsley. McNaughton was Cardiff's most consistent defender throughout the 2010–11 season, and won the Player of the Year award.
On 2 May 2011, McNaughton was involved in an incident where he collided with assistant referee Sian Massey. He was later cleared when the FA ruled the incident an accident though it attracted hits and comments on YouTube, with some suggesting the player had deliberately barged into the official. Also McNaughton had captained the side for the first time in their 3–0 loss to Reading in their play-off second leg, on 17 May.
In 2011–12, McNaughton was named as stand-in captain in Mark Hudson's absence starting on 22 November against Coventry City. He went on to make three further appearances as captain, during which time he made his two hundredth league appearance for Cardiff in a 1–0 win over Nottingham Forest on 26 November 2011. He also played a part in the club's League Cup run to their first ever final, which they lost 3–2 on penalties to Liverpool.