Drumming up more support for Annan

Aug 15 2008 by Craig Robertson, Dumfries Standard Friday

ANNAN chairman Henry McClelland revealed a drummer boy could be their secret weapon tomorrow.

The club’s new supporters’ club officially got underway last night with plans to introduce drums to the Galabank crowd. And according to McClelland, the beat may well inspire the players to take maximum points against East Stirling.

He said: “The crowd has been fantastic for the last two matches and we’ve had the highest support in the division. “I’m hoping that will continue for Saturday and we might even get a few Queen of the South fans down from Dumfries as Queens play on the Sunday.

“The supporters club will start to bring things together as well. There’s even talk of a drum coming. I’ll wait and see if that turns out, but I think that’s something which would transfer from the fans onto the pitch and would get the adrenaline pumping with the players.”

Annan’s opponents are no strangers to beatings as they’ve been known in recent years as one of the poorer teams in the Third Division with bad form seeing them finish at the bottom half of the league.

But with new manager, Jim McInally, leading his first full season in charge, McClelland believes it will be a fresh start for their visitors.

He said: “We obviously want to take maximum points on Saturday and I think we would be disappointed if we didn’t take something from the match. But East Stirling are a different side now with Jim McInally in charge and this season so far all the matches in the league have been very tight and it will likely be the same with us on Saturday.

Saturday will be Annan’s second home game as an SFL club and McClelland predicts it will be another operational sucess for Galabank.

He added: “After our first match at home last week, the SFL and the SFA have said they were extremely happy with the ways things went.

“We have also had a meeting with the police and there are only a few minor points where we need to sharpen up on.

“We have fed that back to the stewards but there is nothing of major concern.”