McIntosh started his football career as a junior at Tottenham Hotspur in 1988 before joining St Mirren, where he made four appearances in three seasons. Spells with Clydebank, where he made 75 league and cup appearances, and Hamilton Academical, for whom he started 114 games, followed before he moved to Stockport County in August 1997 for a transfer fee of £80,000. He made over 100 appearances for Stockport before a £250,000 transfer took him back to Scotland with Scottish Premier League club Hibernian in February 2000. Injury and competition for places restricted his opportunities at Hibernian to 18 appearances and he joined Rotherham United on a three-month loan in August 2001. He joined Rotherham on a permanent basis in November 2001 for a fee of £125,000. He made over 130 appearances in total in four years at Rotherham and was made club captain. After Rotherham were relegated at the end of the 2004–05 season, McIntosh was released by manager Mick Harford, who was trying to reduce the average age of the squad, and joined Huddersfield Town on a two-year contract. A knee injury suffered in August 2005, which required surgery, ruled him out of four months of the 2005–06 season. He returned to the side in December 2005 and made a total of 26 appearances as Huddersfield reached the Football League One play-offs in May 2006. At the beginning of the 2006–07 season, McIntosh was loaned to Football League Two side Grimsby Town for one month. A request by Grimsby to extend the loan was turned down and McIntosh returned to Huddersfield in September 2006. He fell out of favour with manager Peter Jackson but returned to the side in March 2007 after Jackson was sacked. McIntosh was released by Huddersfield and joined Mansfield Town in June 2007. He made eleven appearances for Mansfield and was released in March 2008. He joined Conference North club Alfreton Town in May 2008. McIntosh signed for NPL Premier Division side Guiseley on a one-year contract in August 2009, but he retired as a player one month later and decided to go into coaching.
Managerial career
On 25 September 2009, Martin was named new first team coach at Rotherham United, working for manager Ronnie Moore. He was appointed manager of Worksop Town in October 2010. He temporarily came out of playing retirement in 2011 and played for Worksop to cover for injuries. McIntosh was sacked as Worksop manager in September 2011 following a run of one win from ten games and elimination from the FA Cup. On 4 February 2012, McIntosh was appointed manager of Northern Premier League club Buxton. He left Buxton in February 2018. On 6 September 2018, McIntosh was appointed manager of Midland League Premier Division club Ilkeston Town. He left the club by mutual consent after three months in the job. Although Ilkeston were top of the league at the time of McIntosh's departure, the club had been knocked out of the FA Vase by lower league opposition in the form of Eastwood Community. In December 2018, McIntosh was appointed manager of Frickley Athletic. He left the club in April the following year. In March 2020 he was appointed manager of Grantham Town.
