FOOTBALL runs in the McGinn family, with Stephen, Paul and of course Scotland hero John all pro players.
But the brothers have a cousin who also plays, and he has a storied history of his own in the game.
John McGinn is one of the Scotland nation team’s biggest heroes and has represented his country at two European Championships[/caption]
Paul McGinn plays for Motherwell, whilst eldest brother Stephen is currently unattached after leaving Falkirk[/caption]
The McGinns have a cousin who also plays and has hit the footballing headlines himself[/caption]
Kieran Gibbons had spells with Cowdenbeath, Stenhousemuir and Peterhead after leaving Aberdeen as a youngster, and now plies his trade for Lowland League Broomhill.
But it was at his first club after departing the Dons, Livingston, where Gibbons hit the headlines during a cup clash with then-Championship Rangers in 2015.
The midfielder put in a crunching tackle on Tottenham Hotspur loanee Nathan Oduwa after just 12 seconds, and despite not seeming a big deal to Gibbons, he quickly found out what the wider public thought about it.
Describing the tackle, Oduwa said: “Kick off happened, it went wide, [Oduwa] skinned the winger, skinned the full-back and then has taken a heavy touch inside.
“My childhood getting brought up was watching Scott Brown and Kevin Thomson, they went in on tackles where you won the ball and take the man, the ball goes 50 yards and you’ve set the tone for the game.
“As I went to kick the ball he’s just been a bit quicker than me and moved the ball, and I’ve caught his ankle.
“The game was on BBC Alba and it was 0-0, boring and drab, we’d sat in our shape, been organised and they couldn’t break us down.
“Obviously I didn’t think anything of it at the time, then my phone blows up.
“Social media can be a brilliant thing or a terrible thing, but if you’re on there then you need to take the good with the bad.
“You need to be prepared, you can’t just read good things.
“I had Celtic fans message me saying I was a legend and a hero, I had Rangers fans saying ‘you’re an idiot, if I see you out then I’ll hurt you’ – there were things that were going a bit too far.”
And the 30-year-old, then 20, thought the Gers boss at the time had had an influence on the abuse coming his way.
Gibbons continued: “Mark Warburton‘s post-match interview was all about my tackle.
“I understand why he does it, it’s obviously a bit of deflection, and the tackle wasn’t great, but it wasn’t like I went in maliciously to hurt him.
“They were really poor that day and the BBC Alba coverage just kept going back to this tackle, back to this tackle and back to this tackle.
“We played them again about six weeks later and I knew the spotlight was going to be on me in that game, so every time I got the ball Davie Hopkin, who was a coach at the time, would boo me in training.
“He’d boo me to try and get me used to it, so it didn’t bother me, I was always quite thick skinned.
“I said to my mum not to come to the game because I thought it would be so hostile, but it wasn’t too bad and the Livingston fans were brilliant.
“They were singing about me and I can’t thank them enough for that, I needed it at the time.”
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