Liam’s glove affair with former Ibrox team-mate Allan
Motherwell loan keeper, Liam Kelly, learned his trade playing in Allan Mcgregor’s gloves. But that does not stop him wanting to help give his old mentor a bloody nose this afternoon.
Brought up on loan from QPR until the end of the season, the keeper will be reunited with Mcgregor and other former Rangers club-mates when the league leaders visit Fir Park.
“When I first went fulltime at Rangers, he was the goalkeeper for the first team. He was really good with all the young goalies then,” said the 24-year-old.
“It was just small things he did, stuff he would probably never mention himself.
“For instance, if you had an old pair of gloves on – and he looked at them and didn’t like them – he’d tell you to go and take a pair out of his locker.
“It doesn’t seem much, but it’s massive when you’re so young. It was probably nothing to him, he’s probably got hundreds of gloves. But to be wearing a pair of Allan Mcgregor’s gloves back then was unbelievable.
“I have played against him before. I did so at Livingston and we managed to beat them! That was the game Dolly Menga scored in.
“To have trained with Greegsy when I was so young ,and then to win a game against him, was an unbelievable experience.
“But he is the best. I don’t think anyone could argue with that.
“It’s just how he conducts himself as well. He’s first in the gym every single morning, and it’s just wee things like that you maybe wouldn’t expect of Allan Mcgregor. But that maybe shows why he’s still there.
“To have half, or even a third, of the career that he has had would be fantastic. I still have two-and-a-half years on my QPR deal, so I am not finished there.”
As Kelly points out, today his attention is more likely to be taken up with the efforts of Alfredo Morelos than it is on the keeping of Allan Mcgregor.
The Colombian internationalist gave notice of his well-being at Pittodrie last week where he hit both goals in the Light Blues’ win, and generally impressed with his sharpness.
“Aye, that is perfect timing from Alfredo. He must have known I was coming back!” Kelly laughed.
“Obviously I was at Ibrox pretty much all my life, so I know a lot of the faces and have got a lot of friends there.
“It is nice to see them all doing really well, and it is nice to see them all happy. But I want us to win the game on Sunday.
“The new manager has his own ideas about how he wants to do things, and we will turn up expecting all three points.
“It is going to be difficult, the hardest of tasks, we know that. They are the best team in the country, the league table shows that but we are going to do our best to try to win the game.”