On The Road: Ayrshire upstarts Annbank dare to dream… and with a host of links to footballing royalty, they don’t have to look far for inspiration

Annbank United 3 Lochar Thistle 0

There is a hierarchy in football royalty but in Ayrshire the Sloan dynasty speaks for the best in the Junior environment that obsesses so much of the local landscape.

There are great names to be invoked in Annbank. A series of conversations in the wonderfully appointed New Pebble Park cast out references to Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars and a hero of Botswana in the Africa Cup of Nations. There is also the remembrance from one principal of victory at Anfield.

It is giddy stuff. But the Sloans, and those like them in the Junior game, are never far from thought, word or even sight.

Two of the clan, Lee and Tommy, play for Annbank. Their uncle Davie helps out the club with providing hospitality and so much more from his base in a bar up the road. Tommy, the players’ father, is the sage of Auchinleck Talbot, a manager who has brought a slew of Scottish Junior Cups to that club.

New Pebble Park is hidden behind the main street but directions are provided by a couple of gentlemen who are heading to watch the Talbot. They are about to pay homage to Junior royalty who are now in the Lowland League West. But they pass on best wishes to Annbank, who have left their amateur status behind to enter the West of Scotland league.

They were once a Junior side and they are again. They dismissed Lochar handily in the South of Scotland Cup on Saturday but their ambitions lie far beyond that sort of success.

‘I have visions for this club,’ says Gordon Inglis, chairman, as he looks over the splendid green surface and on to the hills beyond. These involve sporting success. Annbank once transitioned from the Juniors and into the amateur set-up where they were very successful. The resurrection of the semi-pro ideal is but the first of a series of changes.

‘We want to make this the centre of the community,’ he says. ‘We want to provide free stuff for the community, for local youngsters. We want to give the youngsters something to aspire to. We are also interested in programmes for health in the community.’

His outlook is formed by experience in the football world. Inglis ran a successful football academy for 15 years. But he was also a player at Barnsley when they were in the English Premier League in 1997-98 and spent six years in the US with teams in Kansas, St Louis, Indiana and West Palm Beach.

‘My highlights in football include being part of the Barnsley squad that won 1-0 at Anfield and the American experience was wonderful,’ he says.

He recalls with a smile that when he came back from America he signed for Talbot and was plunged straight away into a derby with Cumnock. ‘Yes, the phrase baptism of fire comes to mind,’ he says.

Set behind the main street, Annbank’s New Pebble Park ground is a hidden treasure for fans

But he was back home with newfound ideas. He joined Annbank a year ago and helped move the club from amateur football to semi-professional. He points out that there is interest in Annbank in Botswana.

‘One of my great friends is Dipsy Selolwane who is a hero of football in Botswana,’ he says. Selolwane scored the first Botswana goal in the Africa Cup of Nations competition in 2012.

‘We keep in contact regularly and he is up to date with Annbank. I hope he will be more impressed as the years go on. This is just the start.’

THE beginning of the new life was inauspicious. ‘I was handed the keys and told to just get on with it,’ says Mark Pringle, manager, of the moment that a new Annbank was formed.

The hierarchy of the club then was disillusioned. Pringle, a highly successful manager of Mossblown, another amateur side in the village, was charged with building an amateur team. That was five years ago and he and his team have been conspicuously successful in the amateur form, but progression was inevitable.

Our man Hugh gets the lowdown from manager Mark Pringle and former referee Jim Laird

‘There have been tough times here,’ he says. ‘We were put into abeyance for a year but that helped us put things together and we were regularly successful in the amateurs. The highlights were coming up the divisions as champions and eventually winning the Premier League. We also enjoyed winning the Ayrshire Cup on Talbot’s ground.’

His team is strong, quick and well coached. They beat Lochar comfortably but tougher tests lie ahead. Pringle knows this.

‘It’s a bit of a gamble to come into this league but it’s the right thing to do,’ he says. ‘I am optimistic that we will get promoted.’

There is a dog collar in the dugout and this is a sign that Annbank are embracing the realities of modern football. Andrew Johnstone, minister at St Nicholas Church in Prestwick and wellbeing coach at the club, watches the match with the focus of a fan.

‘I was formerly chaplain at Annan Athletic and appreciated the benefits of that,’ he says. The challenges facing young players are diverse but Johnstone appreciates the chance to become involved in a community. ‘Many of the players are from this village and it is a privilege to hear their concerns,’ he says.

Andrew Johnstone doubles up as minister at St Nicholas Church and wellbeing coach at United

Behind the dugout sits a bench that is dedicated to David Clark, who died two years ago but spent 65 years serving the club. His daughter, Arlene, 53, continues the family tradition. ‘I promised my dad when he was ill that I would continue to come here and help out,’ she says as she collects the gate money.

‘I came here as a very young girl with my dad and basically have never left. It is a big part of my life.’

Football, too, has been very much part of the life of Jim Laird, who attends the match as refereeing development officer. It is a more humble setting than those he frequented as a grade one ref in England.

‘My best moment was refereeing Spurs v Arsenal in a league cup tie,’ he says. ‘The players I remember most from that game are Dennis Bergkamp and Marc Overmars. Overmars was absolutely lightning, the quickest player I have ever seen. He could have been an Olympic sprinter.’

Club legend David Clark’s daughter Arlene continues the family tradition of helping out

When Laird returned to Scotland, he was older so took charge of games in the Juniors and then the amateurs. ‘I was 54 when I retired four years ago,’ he says.

He enjoys his new role. ‘When I was young there were older refs who helped me,’ he says ‘So it is good to come along here and help another generation. I see this as a bit of a payback.’

He is greeted warmly by spectators who know him from playing in games he officiated. ‘Football is important to people,’ he says. ‘It can be serious but it is fun too.’

He smiles widely and says: ‘Remember, you can’t have a game without a referee.’

That applies to Bergkamp and Overmars as much as it does to the Sloan dynasty and the hero of Botswana. It is a sentiment articulated off the main drag of Annbank but its truth resonates around the world.