Supporters of Dunfermline Athletic have made a rallying call to townsfolk ahead of the club’s first game under new ownership.
Dedicated fans have asked for a bumper crowd to fill East End Park when the club faces local rivals East Fife on Saturday, coming just days after a fans’ takeover of the club was completed.
With Pars United having taken over the boardroom, supporters at ground level have now appealed to local people to pack the stands at the weekend and prove that the efforts to save the club from liquidation have been worthwhile.
Life-long fan Jim Doig is one of those who will be attending on Saturday and is hoping that others will show the weight of support in the town for their football team.
“It was a fantastic day for everyone and it was a huge effort to save the club,” he said.
“I take my hat off to the players and Jim Jefferies, who have shown great integrity throughout the whole process. It’s a new era now and we should get everyone to this ground on Saturday.
“We get plenty of people travelling to the big games and they should come here on Saturday and support the team.”
The process into fan ownership has clearly been a tough one for the supporters, many who believed that their team would be forced out of existence.
Even when the prospect of Pars United taking over the club seemed likely, a legal challenge over the club’s training ground threatened the future of the club as recently as last week.
However, despite the rocky road, Mr Doig is confident that having the club under the control of supporters can only be a good thing.
“I heard that we were coming out of administration before the Forfar game but that never happened,” he added.
“Then it came out about the training ground issue, so it is a relief it is all over. It is sad when any football club goes into administration but fan ownership is definitely the way forward.”
The news of the Pars survival would not have been greeted with more relief than by one of the club’s longest-serving supporters, Marvyn Stewart.
The 70-year-old has been cheering on the team since 1948 and admits that life without her beloved football club would have been unthinkable.
One of those people guaranteed to be in the stands on Saturday, she said: “I’ve been coming here since I was five. I was brought up in a huge footballing family and my dad was really into junior football.
“My mum used to wash the strips and every Saturday, it was just football, football, football for me. If the club had disappeared then, it would have been a huge hole in my life.
“My family and Dunfermline Athletic are my life. Its been a great journey and it’s great that it will continue.”
Marvyn has been part of the huge fundraising effort that was required to save the club from liquidation.
Operating out of the supporters’ club office at the ground, she has been receiving donations of old kits and memorabilia to sell off and generate funds to save the club.
Earlier this week, she helped to present a cheque for £10,000 the latest in a string of donations.
“We’ve been fundraising since the club went into administration,” she added.
“Now we need to get people going to East End Park and show how important this club is to everybody.”
Another relieved supporter was Gavin Richardson, 31, who said that the players and fans could now look forward to the rest of the season and even contemplate promotion.
“It’s great that I’ll still have a team to support,” he said.
“A few months ago it looked like it was going to be all over, so it’s great that the club has been saved. It looks like Rangers are going to win the league but let’s see if we can make it to the playoffs.”