This year is the ‘Year of the Light’ in Arbroath where the Bicentennial of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, situated 11 miles out into the North Sea, is being celebrated and the residents of the Angus town now have another reason to remember 2011 as a special year.
Victory over Montrose back on 23rd April saw Paul Sheerin’s side win the IRN-BRU SFL Third Division title and their achievement marks the first piece of silverware that Arbroath have ever won in their 133 year history.
Whilst the 35 metre high Bell Rock light can be seen for some 35 miles across the North Sea, Arbroath’s initial title success has been viewed further afield with Chairman John Christison commenting: “The well wishes that the club have received since our success stretch from far and wide. We have had e-mails and letters from Australia, Italy, New Zealand and Canada as well as a good few other countries where there are exiled Arbroath people and fans.
“We have the SFL Chief Executive David Longmuir and Martin Steele coming up from IRN-BRU to present the Third Division trophy after the game on Saturday and it really will be a day that Arbroath has never seen before.”
For Christison, the title success is the pinnacle of supporting his local side, man and boy, as he explained: “I joined the Gayfield Board in March 1989 but my support for the club goes back a lot longer. I went to games with my father and grandfather in the late 1950s and I have seen a few promotions and relegations.
"There have been plenty of highlights and lowlights, mostly lowlights unfortunately, but we are enjoying our success just now.”
The title winning presentation at Gayfield will be the day when it finally dawns on ‘Red Lichties’ fans that their team has won something as Christison explained: “Winning silverware for the first time has not sunk in yet. When we see the trophy, something tangible, on Saturday it will probably hit home what we have done after 133 years.
"With the club never having won anything before, it is all very surreal at the moment.”
The past few years have seen change on and off the park with Christison saying: “Albert Henderson had been the Manager of Arbroath for 18 years up until 1980 however, no-one has quite stayed as long since.
"We have seen some great characters managing the club during my time including John Brogan, who was a great lad, and I really enjoyed him being here.
“Danny McGrain and John Brownlie were also great characters and got people talking about the club and we gave Harry Cairney a start in senior management as well.
"John McGlashan came in when the club was in the Third Division and in a poor position off the pitch financially and he helped get us going again.”
Christison added: “Jim Weir came in for short period about 18 months ago and that never quite worked out but it has been a pleasure to have worked with them all.”
Weir’s move to Brechin City last summer left Christison and his Board to debate whether they should go for youth or experience for the Third Division campaign that followed their relegation via the Play-Offs last May.
Christison said: “As you will know from the list above, we have had Managers with a wide variety of experience but I now firmly believe clubs like Arbroath should be giving young Managers a chance. There is a hunger in them to do well.
“They face a huge learning curve and it is probably doubly difficult when you bring in a Player/Manager but Paul Sheerin’s experience and value as a player alone was going to be a great asset to us in the Third Division.”
Christison will soon attend the IRN-BRU SFL end of season Awards Dinner and he will be in a different frame of mind than when he attended the gala event 12 months ago.
He explained: “When we went down to Glasgow last year, we had only just appointed Paul. We had only two signed players in Steven Doris and Kevin McMullan and we talked about the hard work that lay ahead.
“Paul had to go out and build a team, he had never even spoken to Stewart Petrie about football let alone being his assistant, and we had no idea of what system the team would adopt.
"To be going back down this year with Paul in the running for the Manager of the Year and Steven, Gavin Swankie and Josh Falkingham being talked about as potential Players of the Year is a fantastic turnaround.”
It has not been all plain sailing with Christison explaining: “Our start of the season saw plenty of goals. We drew Dunfermline away from home in both The ALBA Challenge Cup and then The Co-operative Insurance Cup and that was a real testing start. We then went up to Elgin on the opening League day of the season and won 5-3.
“We then had more downs than ups at the start as we lost four goals at Berwick, four goals at Stranraer (left) and then five goals at Queen’s Park. However, things clicked together in the Wednesday night after we lost at Hampden when we played Clyde at Gayfield.
“We won that game 3-2 despite being down to 10 men and that was the 90 minutes where the new players and the new management team all clicked into place. We had a wee blip in the Scottish Cup against Montrose but by and large, everything went well from there until the end of the season.”
Winning the title in style also pleased Christison who said: “The football we have played this season is the best I have seen during my time here. It was quite funny to here Dunfermline Chairman John Yorkston saying something similar about their success and it just shows that good football can bring results.”
Arbroath will not rest on their laurels and work for next season has already begun with Christison looking to tie up Sheerin and Petrie on new deals.
He explained: “We started speaking to the management team 10 days or so ago and we are hopeful of having something sorted for the weekend.
"One of the spin-offs from being promoted as Champions as opposed to the Play-Offs is that we have a two week head start against some teams when it comes to talking to players for next season. We know what League we will be in and hopefully, we can use that to bring players on board whilst other teams battle it out.”
As well as success on the pitch, Arbroath have also been a success off it with an improvement programme bringing greater facilities to players and officials with the club also benefiting from investing in the hospitality market.
The Gayfield ground is, of course, famous already as there is no other football stadium in Europe which is as close to the sea. The terracing opposite the Main Stand is just eleven miles and five metres away from the Bell Rock!
Christison said: “We have built two corporate hospitality suites at the club and that has become a tremendous source of income for us. For a normal League fixture, we can bring in twice as much income to the club through corporate hospitality than we do through the gates and that shows how important it is to the club.
“There was nothing like that in the early days when we used to take people out to hotels or restaurants. We are now in control of that business and we have been sold out for most of this season. Having a winning team helps but it is always good to see people coming back two or three times as they have enjoyed it so much.
“The fans on the terracing have been great as well and winning the Third Division title will mean a tremendous amount to them as well. We are also extremely grateful for their backing both home and away.”
The biggest change at Gayfield has been in the physical infrastructure of the club with Christison advising: “Our dressing rooms were built in the 1920s to cater for 11 players and one team Manager. Over the years, teams have grown to 16 players and a Manager backed by an assistant, a physio, goalkeeping coach and others.
“We have now trebled the size of our dressing rooms and put in new showers as well. This was done for both the home and away areas even though some people at the club joked that we should not be so welcoming to our visitors.”
He added: “We applied for and received grants from the SFA to help with the cost of this and for new floodlights that were also installed.
"The match officials also have really good changing rooms now as well and we also cater for both genders with separate facilities. That has proven to be the right thing to do as we had Morag Pirie officiating at a game this season.”
Finally, Christison added: “There has been a lot of change during the decades I have supported Arbroath but winning something for the first time is probably the best change of all.”
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