Annan Athletic's dreams come true

Jul 4 2008 by John Ballard, Dumfries Standard Friday

ANNAN Athletic’s dreams of playing in division three came true yesterday after the club was sensationally elected to the Scottish Football League.

In a ballot of all 29 SFL clubs at Hampden Park, including Queen of the South, the Galabank side won the vote for election to league status.

Chairman Henry McClelland described the moment Annan were announced as Gretna’s replacement in the SFL as the “greatest day in the club’s history” and now he can’t wait for next season to kick-off.

He said: “We’re absolutely delighted, even if it hasn’t sunk in yet.

“At this time though I can’t help thinking about all the hard work that people have put into the club over the last 20 or 30 years to get us to this point where we’re now in the league.

“It hasn’t just been the last couple of years or our presentation today that has got us to this stage, in a nutshell it has been a gradual improvement year on year.

“We’ve always tried to take the club forward and improve, and next year in division three it won’t be any different and the hard work will continue.”

And McClelland had a special message of thanks for the Standard and its readers from across the UK who sent letters and online messages of support to our Backing the Bid campaign.

“I’m so pleased we had that support and it can only have helped our campaign,” he said.

To get elected Annan beat off competition from three other East of Scotland League sides – Spartans, Edinburgh City and Preston Athletic – as well as Highland League outfit Cove Rangers.

The success is a remarkable victory for the club as the bookies had Spartans down as favourites to replace doomed Gretna, who went out of business at the end of last season following relegation from the SPL.

With a minimum of 15 votes required, three rounds of voting were needed before Annan’s place was confirmed.

They polled 17 votes in the final round, with Cove, their closest challengers pulling in 12 votes.

One of the factors that is believed to have weighed heavily in Annan’s favour, is that all eight representatives from the SFL, who toured the grounds of the five applicants, gave Galabank their backing.

Annan’s opening game in division three is an away trip to Cowdenbeath on Saturday August 2.