Northampton Town defender Aaron McGowan tells BBC Sport how playing just hours after the death of his father was his way of dealing with grief and loss.
"I knew the day was coming," says Aaron McGowan. "As a family, we'd been preparing for it for months. Things had got really bad for dad."
In a park in Kirkby, near Liverpool, is a bench with a plaque in memory of Joe, who was grandad to McGowan's baby daughter Amelie. "We're a family of Reds and he took me everywhere," he says. "We had a Liverpool season ticket together. We didn't talk about much else other than football."Joe was at the Globe Arena to witness his son's proud moment. He was also at Ibrox on 4 March 2020 when McGowan helped"He came to all my matches. He just wanted to watch football," added McGowan.
"He was such a funny character," McGowan says. "He was full of life and somebody who lit up a room. He was hard-working and old school in many ways. He'd have told me to get on with it."Later that day, he played in Northampton's 2-2 draw with Chelsea Under-21s in the EFL Trophy."Looking back, I can't believe I did it, but I knew I was the sort of person who could get through something like that.
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