SFL Focus: Grant looks to big brother Charlie for proof that there is life beyond Rangers

Grant Adam needn’t look far when seeking inspiration for life after Ibrox. The goalkeeper exited Rangers’ training ground for almost certainly the last time yesterday with his contract set to expire at the end of this month.

It is months since Adam formed part of the Rangers first-team squad, even if he took the sacrifice of a pay cut along with colleagues when the club entered administration.

Adam’s loan move to Airdrie United has proved mutually beneficial. The Scotland U21 international has claimed eight clean sheets in 15 appearances, the latest one arriving in the play-off semi-final first leg draw with Ayr United in midweek. “I was in a situation where I hadn’t been playing so it has obviously been nice to get out and play games,” Adam explains.

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“Airdrie have been helpful to me and I hope I have repaid that by being helpful to them, but hopefully my time at the club isn’t over yet. I had been at Forfar earlier in the season but only played one game because one of the goalkeepers at Rangers got injured and I was recalled.

“I was in that difficult situation of being too old for the U19s but there are no reserve games and I was the third goalkeeper in the first-team squad. I just wanted to get out and play football, so when Airdrie came in during the January window I was delighted. It has done me the world of good.”

Adam is, of course, the lesser known of his football family. Charlie, his older brother, left Rangers having found first-team opportunities scarce and the fairytale story of revival at Blackpool and a lucrative transfer to Liverpool followed.

“I speak to Charlie every day, just as I speak to my dad [Charlie Snr, also an ex-football player] every day,” Adam says.

“He left for Blackpool, got an opportunity and earned a move from there that he fully deserved. That gives me a boost instead of me believing it’s the end of the road when I leave Rangers.”

Adam’s next stop is as yet unknown but his name will at least be known as will the time spent training alongside Scotland’s No 1, Allan McGregor.

“I’ve had five years working alongside Allan and Neil Alexander, which has been an unbelievable opportunity,” Adam says. “You only have to look at the way Allan’s career kicked on after he went out on loan as a youngster.

“Hopefully, something will come up which again gives me the opportunity to go and play every week.”

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Airdrie will head to Somerset Park in confident mood. A missed penalty was included in a batch of spurned opportunities for the hosts on Wednesday, with Adam the lesser troubled of the two goalkeepers.

“We were disappointed not to win the first leg because of the number of chances we made,” Adam concedes. “We had four or five really good chances but for whatever reason it just didn’t happen for us in front of goal. The flipside is we can take confidence from that, knowing we are capable of creating chances against them.”

Adam has at least retained the faith of Scotland’s international management, collecting his latest cap in the recent loss to Italy. “Billy Stark has been great with me. He left me out for a couple of games when I hadn’t been playing at club level, but now I’m back and looking forward to a qualifier against Bulgaria at the end of May.”

That part of Adam’s immediate future is clear. The rest, for both himself and Airdrie, is intrinsically linked to events on the Ayrshire coast this afternoon.

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