I have learned from the school of hard knocks

PUNCHED. Spat on. Kicked. And that’s before James McKeown even thinks about donning his gloves and keeping goal for Cleethorpes Town!

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Now 34, the former Grimsby stopper works as a teaching assistant in a non-mainstream school for children with special educational needs.

“I absolutely love it,” laughs McKeown. “But it wouldn’t be for everyone. I’ve been spat at. I’ve been punched. I’ve seen things that I never could have imagined.

“I’ve come home a couple of times cut and bruised. My wife just goes ‘What are you doing this for?’ But I absolutely love it. And the truth is, I get more satisfaction out of helping those kids than I ever did from football.”

Which is certainly saying something. A legendary figure in Grimsby, McKeown played over 500 games in 11 seasons at Blundell Park and twice won promotion from the National League under Paul Hurst.

His release in June 2022, on the eve of Grimsby’s return to the EFL, was shattering. “It was just so abrupt,” he recalls. “I was like ‘Oh my God, what now?”

For someone who left school without a single GCSE, the prospect of life after football was particularly traumatic. But McKeown and his wife Chloe live by a simple maxim.

“Everyone goes through crap times, don’t they?” says McKeown. “But we have a saying in our house: you say yes and make it work.”

Which is exactly what he did. McKeown signed for Irish part-timers Finn Harps and, to make ends meet, applied for a job as a teaching assistant in Grimsby on his days off. It proved revelatory, in more ways than one.

Non-mainstream schools cater for a wide variety of needs, ranging from children with autism and behavioural issues to victims of abuse and neglect.