Gillespie still game-ball

THERE was a time, maybe 15 or more years ago, when if you’d imagined Keith Gillespie playing in red and black stripes, the club you’d have had in mind would have been AC Milan.

But the life of a professional footballer can move in mysterious ways and now, at 36, it turns out that his debut in that famous strip will be with the Rossoneri of the Irish midlands, Longford Town, who play Athlone Town in the Airtricity League First Division at Flancare Park tomorrow evening.

For the former Manchester United, Newcastle United and Blackburn Roves star, who also won 86 caps for Northern Ireland, it could be the last stop in the last leg of a long career which has recently seen him playing for Glentoran and Darlington before spending the last three months without a club in Belfast.