Alan Irving is Mr Annan Athletic.
And if he says this weekend’s Rangers cup clash is the biggest game in the club’s history then that’s official.
Alan, 71, is club secretary and director and has been associated with the club since 1968 as a player up to the modern day and as the cliché goes, he has the team DNA coursing through him.
On match days he is seen dashing around the Galabank ground multi-tasking from helping with the turnstiles to team sheets and even writing match reports.
He said of the Scottish Cup last 16 tussle with the champions: “It is an exciting time and the phones have been going absolutely crazy with demands for tickets.
“This will be the biggest game in our history because the last time we played Rangers a few years back - and beat them - they were a League Two club.
“So now they are coming here as the Scottish champions and the best team in the land.
“The game is being televised live with a 5.30pm kick off for television and although we will receive £24,000 extra revenue, there is a lot of outlays for the club as well.
“We will have to arrange police and extra stewards for the game.
“The television money is welcome, however, if we could have streamed the game live on the internet with, say 30,000 Rangers fans paying £10 a time, then it could have been a bit more lucrative. But we don’t have the rights for that.”
Alan added that the income from visiting fans should also boost the towns pubs, clubs, hotels and takeaway shops.
He said: “We could have sold out our corporate hospitality four or five times over for this game.
“We are holding it in the clubhouse and also have arrangements with the Anglers and Queensberry Hotel so we have accommodated extra people.
“This is a good game for the club, for the players and for the town.
“We are also printing a souvenir programme for the occasion.
“The money coming in will help with the jobs we are doing around the ground and, to an extent, we have already started spending some.
“As I said, this is the biggest game that I can remember in the club’s history.
“I came here as a player in 1968 and took over the secretary’s job in 1974, so it is a long time.
“Back then we were in the Carlisle and District Amateur League then moved into the South of Scotland.
“We applied for the senior football league and missed out to Gretna then when they went bust we got the opportunity to go in again when Henry McLelland was the chairman and he did a great job with his presentation and we got into the senior set up.
“Now we have Rangers coming to town and they are saying their supporters are showing great interest.
“And it could be Aaron Ramsey’s full debut for the club.
“Our capacity is 2,500 but with Press, media and other factors it is likely to be 2,400 of a crowd.”
