Decision day for Annan Athletic third division SFL bid

Jul 2 2008 by John Ballard

TOMORROW is Annan Athletic’s date with destiny.

The club should find out by 3pm if they will replace Gretna in division three or whether one of the other four candidates has pipped them to the post.

The five teams in the running – Annan, Spartans, Edinburgh Athletic, Cove Rangers and Preston Athletic – are making presentations to the 29 member clubs of the SFL at Hampden Park tomorrow, to highlight just why they should be selected.

And a decision is being made there and then as to who the chosen one will be.

Despite it being perhaps the biggest day in Annan Athletic’s proud history, chairman Henry McClelland insists the nerves have not got to him.

“I’m very relaxed about it because we’ve put in a strong application,” he said.

“All we can do is reflect the package that we’ve got, and we’ll go there with hard facts that we believe are good enough to get us the place in the league.”

Each presentation is scheduled to last around 15 minutes, and each club is allowed three people to take part in the proceedings.

McClelland, general secretary and treasurer Alan Irving and match secretary Dick Shaw will be representing Annan.

“I think I must be on about the 42nd draft of the presentation now, because it keeps changing as we get more and more information about various developments,” joked McClelland.

“We are due on at 12noon, with lunch taking place around 1.15pm and decisions due after that, so I would expect to hear how we have done by between 2.30pm and 3pm.

“As far as we are concerned, we are the club with the best bid, and I’m very pleased with how things have gone, but now we’ll just have to wait and see what the votes bring.”

All clubs in the SFL are required to have floodlights, and Annan will be taking delivery of theirs on July 25, meaning the main hurdle in preventing the club gaining league status has now been overcome.

In less than 48 hours time Annan could be joining fellow Dumfries and Galloway teams Queen of the South and Stranraer in the Scottish Football League – and many people in Annan and across the region will be praying the club doesn’t get stood up on its date with destiny.