JANUARY 30 was a special day for Glentoran captain Marcus Kane, when he made his 300th appearance for the club.
Yet that date held even greater significance, as it's when his son Bowie was expected to come into the world.
Instead he emerged early, very early, back in November, weighing less than 3lb. "It's been a tough couple of months," acknowledges Kane. "He was 29 weeks, five days when he was born, very premature, but he's now two weeks corrected, so he's technically a new-born.
"He was due on the 30th of January. We've a long way to go after his wee surprise visit."
Christmas 2020 was never going to be easy for the Kanes, having had the funeral of their first son, Harrie Marcus, on Christmas Eve 2019, after his stillbirth.
Marcus, his wife Aimee, and daughter Mollie will always keep his memory alive, as will Bowie's name. It's not an homage to a musical icon, though, as Marcus explains:
"He's known as a 'rainbow baby' after Harrie passed the previous December, and we really like 'ie' names, so we took 'bow' and put 'ie' on it and got 'Bowie'. We do get 'David Bowie' a lot…, " he says with a wry laugh.
Kane has a remarkable facility for looking on the positive side, despite all that life throws at him, including plenty of time spent going to hospital: "We were in the NICU [Neo-natal intensive care unit] at the Royal for eight weeks, so we spent Christmas and all there. It was lovely, the staff are lovely and do a really good job, they really look after the babies. We're very grateful."
Indeed he's almost appreciative of the Covid-related restrictions on society, saying: "This current scenario is a lot easier than what we went through. I tell people we were in our own mini-lockdown before the first lockdown happened.
"It's been nothing that we weren't used to – and we can keep him away from everybody, obviously germs are dangerous to him, so lockdown's a lot handier for us."
Many in his circumstances might have found it easier to put football on hold, but Kane says: "It was fine. I was able to go [to the hospital] at a certain part of the day and my wife at another, it worked well for me being full-time. I was thankful I could go to the Glentoran sessions and see Bowie.
"Football is a good distraction, to get out of the house for couple of hours, although my wife won't like me saying that. You get to forget about stuff and just focus on football. It's good for the head to get that mental break once in a while."
His switch to becoming a full-timer at the Oval only came last autumn, and he did find that tough at first: "I wasn't expecting the physical demands. You were training three times a week when you were working. But now you're doing extra gym work, putting your body through a lot more.
"It was like starting a new job, I was coming home tired – and getting a lot of stick from my wife, saying 'Sure you're only going out and kicking a ball about'.
"It was a lot more involved, it did surprise me. It did take me a couple of months to get a hold of it. I think I have now and my performances are getting better because of it – new lease of life at 29!"
He certainly deserves a boost more than most, although there's no self-pity even though the Glens' season did go on to the end of July, winning the Irish Cup in exceptional circumstances. "We hadn't really stopped, it's hard on us – I've yet to get a holiday," he dead-pans."
Glentoran started this season slowly but Kane remains upbeat about their chances in this campaign: "I wouldn't put that [the Irish Cup] down as an excuse. We've a lot of new faces, taking time to learn things, but I feel we're getting into our stride now.
"We're looking forward to getting these games played, we have the squad to do it, we've strength in depth.
"This team is good at playing catch-up. We know we can match the best teams in the league so I don't see why we can't finish in the top four."
He's optimistic too that the season can be completed safely, with further Covid testing helped by funding contributions from champions Linfield and today's opponents at the Oval, Coleraine:
"It got to the point when the 'R' rate was that high… There's a risk factor of being in a football team, playing sport, maybe even of passing it on to someone else. You wouldn't forgive yourself if you did that.
"The concerns were more to do with family members, although even though players are fit and healthy that doesn't mean you couldn't get it and suffer badly from it.
"We're glad of the testing, it's regular, and if someone does test positive there are rules and regulations they go through. We do feel a later safer and the League has taken care of what the players felt was a problem; it's nice to see the League listen to the players for once."
