WEDNESDAY afternoon at Galabank, and a delegation from the Scottish Football League arrives to check on the progress of ground improvements. It's just over a month since Annan Athletic were admitted to the Third Division to fill the vacancy left by the demise of their neighbours Gretna, and work is still going on.
By the clubhouse, a digger operator is working on what will be the turnstiles. On the pitch, three other workers are attaching the floodlights to their pylons. Not everything will be complete by the time Annan play their first home game this afternoo
n against Stenhousemuir, but it's getting there, and the SFL inspectors appear broadly content.
The few weeks since the vote on 3 July have been hectic, but in reality the work on the ground has been going on for a decade or more. "What we've tried to do over the years is gradually develop the ground to get us into the position where we could apply for league membership," explains Alan Irving, the club's secretary and treasurer, who saw his team get off to a flier last week when they won 4-1 at Cowdenbeath in their opening Third Division match.
"Over the past ten years we've put terracing in, we've got an all-weather floodlit facility behind one of the goals, we've put walls round the ground and now we've put the stand up. It was all geared for this day, really, to make sure we had the facility which could host a Scottish Third Division game." A former player for the club, Irving has been secretary since 1974. He has always stressed the virtues of building steadily, of living within one's means. After all, what happened eight miles down the road last season showed what can happen when a small club's plans become too grandiose, and how "living the dream" can become a waking nightmare.
Irving believes that it is precisely because of their careful husbandry that Annan won that vote of clubs at Hampden. "It probably wasn't to do with our ability on the park, because last year we finished seventh in the East of Scotland League," he accepts. "We've been up there in the top three in previous seasons, but not last year.
"I think the main reason we won the vote was because of our facilities, and because we could produce audited accounts for the last three or four years and basically convince the SFL we will not be another Gretna. The club is on a sound financial footing. As long as we don't spend more than what comes in then we shouldn't be any worse off than we were last year."
So, while proud to be in the league, Annan are not about to lay on lavish celebrations. One key date for them has already passed – when Rangers came down a week past Sunday to open the new stand – and now they are keen to get down to business as normal. The same sober mood is evident in the town itself. No bunting, no special buns in the club's colours on sale in the bakers, in fact no sign anywhere of feverish excitement.
The Annan museum has just opened a textiles exhibition, and has hardly a mention of local sport. On being asked, one of the curators recalls they did have a football exhibition last year, and goes off to have a dig in a plastic bag. She comes back with two programmes – two Gretna programmes, from their run to the Scottish Cup final in 2006.
But the club is relaxed about the fact there is not huge awareness of their activities beyond their core support of a couple of hundred. They are gradually improving the ground, they are steadily improving the team, which has been strengthened with several new signings over the summer, and they will build up their fan base in like manner.
"We're not exactly sure of the size of crowd we'll get, but we believe it could be up to 1,200," Irving says. "Our usual attendance in the East of Scotland League was around 150. But we've had crowds of about 1,000 in the Scottish Cup, we had about 800 for a friendly against Queen of the South a couple of weeks back, and we had a similar size of crowd when Rangers came to open our new stand. So we've got experience of coping with attendances like that."
They also have experience of coping with their subtly sloping pitch. Beginning today, we will see how much of an advantage that gives them.
The full article contains 766 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
