WHEN anyone in football is asked if they feel under pressure, the stock answer goes: ‘Only the pressure I put myself under’.
In this field, Grimsby goalkeeper James McKeown is some form of masochist. We’ll get onto the subject of his error in last season’s Conference play-off semi-final against Gateshead, and his view that he “cost” the Mariners promotion and has “unfinished business with the play-offs”, later.
Firstly, let’s address the family situation, and the unnecessary pressure he’s poured down on his own broad shoulders ahead of next Sunday’s Vanarama Conference promotion final at Wembley against Bristol Rovers.
“I did promise her that if we get promoted, I’ll have no excuse – I’ll have the money to buy her a ring!” laughs McKeown to my enquiry as to whether Chloe, the mother of his seven-year-old stepdaughter Izzy and his two-year-old girl Summer, was his wife, fiancée or girlfriend.
“I know full well that if we win, as soon as I come off the pitch, I’m going to be expected to pull a ring out of my gloves!”
Maturity
The reason we get onto the subject is because McKeown apologises for the sound of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the background as we speak on the phone. Having children young must have helped with his mature approach to the game, I suggest, bearing in mind his record of appearing in three successive play-offs in his virtually ever-present four-year spell since signing for joint-managers, as they were then, Paul Hurst and Rob Scott in the summer of 2011.
“I met Chloe when I was at Peterborough, just before I went on loan to Boston to play under the gaffer for the first time,” says the 25-year-old.
“She already had Izzy, but I went to play in Holland for six months for RKSV Leonidas, so we didn’t get together.
“I could have stayed out there in Rotterdam. It was part-time but I loved it and they’d sent me on trial at Willem III.
“The gaffers had got this job, though, so I decided to come back to sign for Grimsby and within a few months I found myself with a child, and then one on the way, so I had to grow up quite quickly!
“The gaffer and my old goalkeeper coach here, Steve Croudson, have always worked on me being a mature goalie – as in not having that rush of blood to the head. All goalies have it, especially when you’re younger.
“You try to influence the game a bit more, whereas when you get older, you’re quite happy for noone to notice you.
“Nowadays I’m more than happy to pick up The Non-League Paper and find I’ve got a rating of 6 out of ten because I’ve had nothing to do.
“You realise that as a goalie, you might get the odd game where you get praise. But in general, you are probably better not to be noticed – a bit like a referee.
“Having kids young and settling down off the pitch has definitely made a difference to how I approach things.”
That maturity can also be translated as modesty, too. Throughout our 40-minute chat, McKeown constantly refers to himself as “lucky”. I don’t know why, because anyone you speak to on the Conference circuit will pick him out as one of the top, if not THE best keeper in the division. And that’s not by chance.
“I don’t know how many times this season I’ve come off and the gaffer’s said to me ‘You’ve not had much to do, have you?’,” says the Birmingham-born keeper.
Apologise
“The gaffer loves saying it to me anyway, but I’ve got to say I’ve been so lucky. Shaun Pearson’s been the centre-half in front of me that’s been here the whole time I’ve been here, and before that at Boston. But each season we seem to hit on a back four where you think ‘Jesus Christ, this is a good back four’.
“We had Andrew Boyce and Nathan Pond in the last couple of years, lost both of them when their loans ended, but we seem to replace them every time. This year Toto Nsiala, Carl Magnay and, in recent weeks, Josh Gowling have come in and done brilliantly.
“The gaffer must know what he’s looking for because we’ve had some really good defences and I’ve been really lucky. Our clean sheet record isn’t bad, and it’s probably a bit of a cliché, but we do defend as a team. I’ve had barely anything to do this year. I can’t remember any game where I’ve come off thinking ‘I’ve made a couple of saves there and won us a point’. I’ve been very lucky.”
Not so lucky up at the International Stadium last May when, having drawn the home leg 1-1, Grimsby had started well, but fell behind to a relatively tame 25-yard shot from James Marwood that McKeown uncharacteristically let through his hands.
The Mariners eventually lost 3-1 on the day, 4-2 on aggregate – a far cry from last week’s 5-1 aggregate win over Eastleigh, completed with a 3-0 home victory last Sunday.
“Regardless of what anyone says to me – that mistake will live with me forever, and I believe that if I hadn’t made it, we’d have gone on to win,” says McKeown.
“It is the life of a goalie. It’s what you sign up for and you know you are going to make mistakes. You just hope that you don’t make them on such a big occasion. Realistically at this level, there aren’t many times you’re on telly and in the very public eye.
“But a lot of people were at that game, a lot of others would have watched it; a lot of managers would have watched it, and I was out of contract, deciding what to do. It just couldn’t have been any worse for me. The gaffer rang me the next day and asked me how I was, and all I wanted to do was apologise. I felt like I’d cost everyone.
Pressure
“So when I was deciding whether to stay or not last summer, it played a part. The gaffer stuck by me again, and there was no blame aimed at me from any of the lads. But I did think I had a bit of unfinished business with Grimsby and the play-offs.
“My biggest thing this year going into the semis was ‘Just don’t make a mistake and cost us again’. After last year, a lot of people would have been thinking, ‘How is he going to do?’ And rightly so, because if you make a big mistake in a big game, instantly, people will think ‘He can’t handle pressure’.
“So getting through with a clean sheet on Sunday was a huge relief.”
Unbelievably, McKeown also blames himself for Grimsby losing the 2013 FA Trophy final on a penalty shoot-out to Wrexham – despite several spectacular saves during the match – on his last trip to Wembley.
“At the end of the game, the gaffer said something like ‘With him playing like this, you’re going to win – it’s your day – they’re not going to beat him’,” says McKeown.
“Steve and I had researched the penalties for hours and hours. At half-time of extra-time, I had someone write on the back of my gloves the player’s initials, and which way they would go. I dived the wrong way for every one!
“It’s that feeling of losing and that I could definitely have done something about it, once it had gone to penalties. It’s something I can’t go through again.”
Ditto defeat in the play-offs. With his family settled in Laceby, a short drive from Blundell Park, McKeown – who played four times in the Championship for Peterborough in 2009-10 – wants to return to the Football League with Grimsby.
“The only thing missing from a personal point of view is that we are not in the Football League,” he says. “I get on well with the gaffer, I play every week, I enjoy it, I’m happy, my missus and kids are happy. So it’s just that one last thing.”
And once that arrives, the missus will be even happier. No pressure, Macca!
