LIAM MACKEY: Gillespie prepares for end game

The dark hair, the chiselled cheekbones, the lean build — Keith Gillespie could still pass for the kid who wowed ’em on the wing at Old Trafford and St James’ Park back in the day.

But the one-time poster boy for Northern Ireland football actually turned 38 on Monday and has now made the decision that this coming season with Longford Town will be his last in the game.

“As you get older you struggle to get over games more than when you are younger,” he says. “And I thought that in another year the body will be aching even more. It’s different now than when I was playing full time and training every day. I don’t have that, so it’s difficult to stay in peak condition and that was part of the decision.”