Mckeown puts opportunity to guide lowly Blues to another shock result at Ibrox in perspective

Stranraer coach Frank Mckeown has no need for any platitudes about football being secondary to the priorities of life.

The 33-year-old combines his coaching shifts at the League One side with a firefighting job, a position that placed Mckeown at the Clutha

Vaults pub in Glasgow in the aftermath of the 2013 tragedy.

Ten people were killed when a police helicopter crashed into the pub with Mckeown part of the emergency response unit at the scene.

Despite the harrowing nature of his shift that night he reported as Stranraer captain for a Scottish Cup tie against Clyde the following afternoon.

“I do still get asked about it,” he said. “What are my memories? I don’t like talking about it because of what happened. People lost their lives and it’s not about me.

“Sadly, that’s what happened that night and I just happened to be working and then the following day I had a Cup tie against Clyde. I can’t remember if I got an hour’s sleep but it was not a lot.

“I’m still in the fire service and I combine that with football. When you’ve been involved in something like that, football gets put in its real perspective, definitely.” Stranraer’s place in the football chain is brought into sharp focus with Mckeown’s claim that the Stair Park side have thesecondlowestbudget in the entire country. It means there is no win bonus on the table in the improbable event of an upset at Ibrox on Friday night but having experienced the thrill of a late draw against Rangers on Boxing Day in 2013 when both sides were in League One, Mckeown, pictured, believes any result would bring its own rewards.

“We don’t get a win bonus,” explained Mckeown. “As coaching staff we obviously don’t get anything but as players you don’t get any win bonus at Stranraer. That tells you where we are. Even for a game of this size. The club might turn around after the game but, on Friday night, the players are going out under the impression that we don’t get bonuses for league games.

“People still talk about the 1-1 game where we drew with Rangers at Ibrox.

“Guys like Jamie Hamill and Ryan Stevenson have played at a top level and experienced it. But there are probably guys in our dressing room who will never experience it again, unfortunately.”