WE ARE well into the chat and Dougie Donnelly is trying to explain what it means to be a Clyde fan. The highs – of which there are a few – and the lows, which significantly outnumber them.
"It's not that we don't suffer when things go wrong," he explains. "I think it's just that we are used to it. It was Mattha Gemmell who said that Clyde fans have hearts made in a foundry. And I think he was right."
He can recall several instances
when fate has rushed in with a late and brutal tackle, denying them progress in the cup, or sanctuary from league reconstruction. There was even the time when a town boundary rather than on-field performances saw them excluded from European competition. But nothing, he says, is more devastating that when the very existence of the club is threatened.
It's not a new phenomenon. The current plight, which requires them to pay off a £146,000 debt or face eviction from Broadwood Stadium in two weeks' time, is not the first time fiscal fears have plagued the club. They are still trying to resolve the matter but have been stung by North Lanarkshire Council's intransigence. They will no longer sit down with the club's directors and are willing to communicate only through lawyers. It does not bode well for a happy ending.
Donnelly was in Portugal for work when he got the call last week. Needless to say he was not thrilled to get the message. After all it's only five years since Clyde fans had to rally round to save their club, dipping hands into pockets which are, due to the current recession, a lot emptier these days. Like many others, Donnelly has written a cheque and the Clyde Supporters' Trust is hoping to stage another successful salvage operation but it is a worrying time for anyone who has Clyde in their blood. The sports presenter undoubtedly does.
"I have been a Clyde fan since I was a boy. My dad was a Third Lanark fan and was always very keen that I didn't become an Old Firm supporter. My grandfather worked as a turnstile attendant at Shawfield so when I was a kid he would take me with him on a Saturday and, at first, I was in the turnstile with him. But then, when I wanted to see the game, I went into the snack bar, serving pies and Bovrils, then I was a programme seller and then a ball boy, so I grew up at Shawfield.
"I remember gathering round at the end of the reserve games, with the few hundred others who turned up for those matches, waiting for the first team result to come over the Tannoy. And if we'd won a wee cheer went up. That was in the days before the radio and the internet and those are the kind of warm memories that make your club your club and every football fan in the country will have similar memories. That's why I became a Clyde fan but, fortunately, during my ball boy years we had that great season in '66/67, when we were third in the league, with players like Harry Hood and John McHugh and all these guys and that was a thrill of a lifetime to see my wee, part-time team third-best in the country."
Some could argue that it was cruel to lure a young laddie with such head-turning moments then, having captured him, torture him for the next few decades. But that is part of football. The part which deals with emotions rather than logic.
As we approach Broadwood Stadium, the staff at the club shop welcome Donnelly like a member of the family. Sales of Clyde merchandise are steady, they report. "We're not dead yet!"
As we walk down the tunnel, the players are out on the pitch preparing for yesterday's trip to Dingwall. It's not just pounds, it's points that are at a premium at the moment. A fact not lost on Donnelly, who admits that, with a relegation battle on their hands, the timing of the local authority debt collection could not have been worse.
The bustle of people going about their everyday business is a sign that no-one is giving up, on or off the park, but there are other signs, more worrying. There is the new leisure centre which is being built where the fourth stand should be. Large windows overlook the pitch, which in time will allow members free viewing of home games and curtail further the club's revenue. Not ideal for a club which, according to Donnelly, has always struggled to attract sizeable crowds. "It's a sad fact but it's always been the case. I still think that, maybe other than January 8, 2006 when we put Celtic out (of] the cup, the greatest year for the club was when I was 13 years old and we finished third in the old First Division, in '66/67, and we lost to the Lisbon Lions after a replay in the cup semi-final. That was a great Clyde team but we only had about 3,500 fans so even then we were not a well-supported club."
The fact remains that a fourth stand, rather than a leisure centre, was part of the lease agreement when the club took up tenancy of the ground. In the past five years the club have had sell-out matches against both sides of the Old Firm and Manchester United and chairman John Ruddy maintains the ticket demands for those games was such that another stand would have been filled easily. It may have been for just one game a season but each game would have earned the club an extra £50,000. That's £250,000, well above the figure now owed to the local authority.
"I do think, speaking as a supporter, that the local authority have not been as supportive as they might have been," says Donnelly. "There was never a feeling that they were delighted to have us or that they were willing to work with us and make us a community club. It has always been a case of them and us and we were only here to pay the rent for the stadium. I think there has been a bit of resentment about that. The fourth stand was never built and the planned development around the stadium – there was supposed to be housing and retail etc – none of that happened and we have suffered through that."
But it is clear that, given the relationship with their hosts, eviction would not be a disaster. Provided the SFL allow them to share a ground.
"It's a funny thing but we were the gypsy army for several years anyway. We shared at Firhill and then Douglas Park for a long time when we left Shawfield so, while we were thrilled and delighted to have a stadium of our own, I do think that it makes perfect sense for clubs at our level to share and we all know that even with the big clubs there is a logic there. But for clubs at our level, whether it's a municipal stadium or a jointly owned stadium it makes sense because, in the current situation, crowds are dropping, kids are not supporting their local teams as they once did and with money tight, then yeah I think it makes sense to go that way and have a couple of clubs sharing a ground. You don't need to lose the traditions or sense of community, we proved that when we were ground sharing in the past, we maintained roughly the same level of support and the fans showed they are loyal to the club and not to a ground.
"Besides, so many clubs have moved grounds in the past so why not move into one that makes more financial sense. Everybody is in trouble and we are only one of a number of clubs in serious financial difficulty and with people losing their jobs it's hard to keep asking them to put their hands in their pockets to keep their club alive – it's hardly the biggest priority, is it?"
Donnelly's fear is where the core fanbase of 800 to 900 Clyde fans go on a Saturday afternoon if the club does not survive. "Do we just lose them to Scottish football?" he asks. Like a loyal widow with only room in his heart for one true love, his father, like many other Third Lanark fans, couldn't face adopting a new team when their club went to the wall. "He would still take me to international matches and he liked big European nights regardless of which clubs were involved, but no, he never started supporting Clyde," says Donnelly. "That's why I wonder where the likes of the Gretna fans go now. Do they still watch Scottish football, or have we lost them?"
Should the unthinkable happen, finding something to occupy his Saturdays will never be the issue for a sports daft presenter such as Donnelly; it's finding something to pull at the strings of that heart forged in despair as much as delirium which will be the real test.
Clubs in crisis
CLYDELittle hope is being expressed that a solution can be found to the financial problems at one of Scottish football's institutions. North Lanarkshire Council is demanding the club settle a debt of £146,000 or face eviction from Broadwood on April 26. Clyde director John Ruddy has claimed the council has a "hidden agenda" for chasing the rent arrears.
LIVINGSTONRumours have been circulating that the club is on the brink of administration for the second time in five years. Problems over late payment of wages have dogged the club for months. Despite vehement denials over solvency issues, the Italian consortium led by Angelo Massone, who took over the club from Pearse Flynn last summer, are believed to owe money to 16 creditors.
KILMARNOCKWith the Ayrshire club around £12m in the red, Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston has admitted they would be "at the mercy" of the banks if they were relegated and so unable to service their debts in their present form. Technically, ownership of the club is still in the name of the Moffat family, but Jamie Moffat is no longer willing to underwrite their liabilities.
STRANRAER The outlook for the Stair Park side does not appear as grave as a few months ago, when chairman Nigel Redhead said the chances of the club making it to the end of the season were no better than 50/50. The club, run by committee, are more than £250,000 in debt but have since announced a tie-up with the local housing association.
ANDREW SMITH 