The A-League draw wasn't kind to McGlinchey and his teammates, forcing them to fly out of Wellington on Christmas Day for a Boxing Day clash with Adelaide United before travelling straight to the Central Coast because of the short turnaround.
But McGlinchey, a former Mariners player, still has good friends on the Central Coast, so he hatched a plan to make the Christmas-New Year period more enjoyable for his wife, Rachel, and their two children.
While McGlinchey is in camp with the team at Terrigal, his family are also staying on the coast with Central Coast captain Nick Montgomery and his family.
"It's great for my family that if the team is going to be away at this time of the year it's at the Central Coast," McGlinchey said.
"If it had been any other place I probably would have had to leave them at home.
"It would have been difficult leaving them behind on Christmas Day, but at least this way we can try to turn it into a bit of a positive and give the family a little bit of a holiday break.
"It would have been too cruel to come over to Australia on Christmas Day and leave my wife and kids behind without any other family back in Wellington."
Professional footballers are obviously prepared to keep training and playing through the holiday period. Some get lucky with the draw and are at least playing at home, but for those who have to hit the road it can obviously be tough to be away from their families.
"I'd trained on Christmas Day before, but I'd never had to leave on Christmas Day until now," McGlinchey said.
"When the draw comes out these are always the games you check first, to see where you're going to be at this time of year, and we drew the short straw and had to fly out, but luckily I still have friends on the Central Coast and I've taken my family over.
"They're staying with Nick Montgomery and his wife and kids, which is great. I'm staying in camp with the team, but I'm spending some spare time with my wife and kids.
"So we've made the best of a difficult situation and it has worked out pretty well."
Wellington will have a 10-day gap to their next game, against Brisbane Roar at Westpac Stadium on January 10.
Phoenix's 3-0 loss to Adelaide has left them vulnerable in sixth place heading into round 13. Seventh and eighth-placed Adelaide and Newcastle Jets are each only two points behind them and ninth-placed Perth Glory is only one point further adrift.
The tailenders in the competition are the Mariners, who are seven points behind Perth. The game against Central Coast is one Wellington badly need to win to get another kick-start.
"We're playing some good football, but to be honest we've been up -down a lot this season," McGlinchey said.
"I think we're getting there, we're creating a lot of chances, but after losing the other day we really need to get maximum points.”
