This weekend is shaping up as a big one for Fire Fighter and Stranraer skipper Frank McKeown as not only does he celebrate his birthday on Sunday he is leading out the Blues when Rangers visit Stranraer’s Stair Park this weekend.
McKeown, who turns 27 at the weekend said: “My family will be there and they will be supporting Stranraer which will be strange as they normally support Rangers. My mum comes to all my games now and my sister is coming to this one from Belfast so it is a great way to start my birthday celebrations.”
“I was a Rangers fan when I was younger and it was always my dream to lead them out at Ibrox. I am leading a different Blues out against Rangers this weekend at Stair Park and hopefully I will then lead the Blues out at Ibrox later in the season.”
“My dream will almost be coming true.”
McKeown who combines saving lives with stopping goals added: “If we were to win against Rangers then it would be a great birthday. I already have plans to go out on Saturday but what a double celebration it would be if we could pick up the 3 points.”
“I have been at Stranraer for a couple of seasons after joining them from Arthurlie. I had played with St Mirren, Raith Rovers and Partick Thistle when I was younger but never made much of a first team impact. When I was at Rovers I played in the top team in a pre-season friendly against Dundee and also got an outing against a Bradford City side that had Dean Windass and Andy Gray in it. I thought I had made it then but I never got involved again after that.”
McKeown then moved back closer to his Barrhead home as he said: “I joined Partick Thistle after Rovers for a season and basically just played away in the reserves, Grant Murray who is now the boss at Raith Rovers as well as Adrian Madaschi kept me out of the team.”
“I decided at 19 that it was not going to happen for me at a full time level so I took an opportunity to join the fire service and I am glad I did. It has been a great career for me and I enjoy both my roles.”
McKeown kept his football going as he built his new career as he explained: “I went junior with Arthurlie and despite a fair amount of interest over 4 or 5 seasons I never took the opportunity to go back senior until Stranraer spoke to me a couple of years ago.”
“Sean Winter and Craig Malcolm who I played with at Arthurlie had enjoyed good first seasons there and of course Stephen Aitken who I also played junior with was the assistant manager. I enjoyed playing at Arthurlie however I always got the impression the manager didn’t and it was no surprise when he went back to playing for Stranraer.”
Aitken is McKeown’s boss at football and the defender remembers seeing an early indication that his midfield team-mate would become a gaffer as he explained: “I never saw him as a manager when I first played with him but I do remember one night when the manager and assistant manager at Arthurlie were late for a training session Stephen stepped in. It was his first time of doing it but he delivered a quality training session that night and all the boys were impressed with how well he had done it. He had been developing his coaching experience and it is great that he has built on it so well since that night.”
There was some success at Dunterlie with McKeown saying: “Arthurlie finished in second place for 3 seasons in a row and we won a fair few cups also. We won the West of Scotland Cup and a couple of sectional league Cups and the highlight was probably beating Pollok in front of 1800 fans in a game I scored in.”
I was eventually happy to combine both my roles and make the step back up to Stranraer with Stephen playing a big part in persuading me to go senior.”
There was almost success in McKeown’s first season as a Stranraer Blue as he said: “We were unlucky not to get promoted in my first season behind Alloa when we lost in the Play-off Final to Albion Rovers on penalties.
Because of the Rangers situation last summer we did get moved up late on but we had a Third Division budget in the Second Division and it took a while to settle down.”
That period of settling down saw a management change with McKeown advising: “The previous manager Keith Knox left and Stephen stepped up and did really well. He brought in another well-known face from the juniors in Stevie Farrell to assist him. They got our heads up and had us flying in training.”
“We were bottom of the table 3 points adrift when they took over and turned things around and we not only avoided relegation we avoided being in the play-offs as well.”
As for facing his boy-hood heroes this weekend McKeown said: “This is huge game for the town of Stranraer and for the club and it just a pity we could not find a way to have the capacity increased higher than it is. This is the biggest game of my career, perhaps the games at Ibrox will be bigger and it is massive to think we are facing Rangers 4 times.”
Aitken’s plan for the season involves turning Stair Park into a fortress and so far it has worked with McKeown advising: “We want to be really solid at home and started the season with great wins over Dumbarton and then Brechin. Hopefully we can build on those 2 wins as getting a good start in the League is crucial. It is an awkward trip down here and some teams just do not fancy it. The park is tight and fans are right on top of you.”
“We also want to bounce back from playing poorly at Stenhousemuir where we did not play well. However that game highlighted a positive change as last season we would have went there hoping for a point and we were actually disappointed at losing.”
McKeown finished by saying: “Getting something from the Rangers game would be great as it gets us off and running in terms of points in the League as well as setting up my birthday celebrations for later on.”
Craig Stewart
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