Club chairman Frank Meade (right) reveals a plaque in memory of club stalwart Jimmy Lawson with the help of the Lawson family.
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Archive Latest April
2008
(28/4/08)
East Fife Jamboree
Club chairman Frank Meade (right) reveals a plaque in memory of club stalwart
Jimmy Lawson with the help of the Lawson family.
Match sponsors Pats Pals!
Cliftonhill groundsman Hugh McBride (left)
receives a thank you present from the Albion Rovers Supporters' Trust presented
by trust secretary Eddie Hagerty (right) as club mascot Wee Rover looks on.
The assembled Fifers fans await the announcement of the prize best fancy
dress.
The winner collects her award
A cornucopia of pics of the match (all courtesy and © of Paul Reilly) are accessible below!
Pics a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, za, zb, zc, zd, ze, zf, zg, zh.
McGowan Signs On
20 year old defender Michael McGowan has committed his future to Albion Rovers
by signing a new contract for the coming season. Other contracts are in the
pipeline.
(26/4/08)
Unlucky Draw
Rovers drew a match against league leaders
but should have won it not least as they failed to convert a penalty. They
finish the season in 7th place although they couldn't manage a victory at
Cliftonhill in 2008.
Before the match a plaque in memory of stalwart Jimmy Lawson was unveiled in presence of his family and a presentation to groundsman Hughie McBride was made in thanks of his sterling efforts throughout the season.
POTY
The player voted player of the year by fans was Pat Walker, second was Alan
Benton and third was David Scott. The supporters trust put up the trophy and
cash prize.
(12/4/08)
A Win At Last
Rovers today gained
their first win today at Station Park,
Forfar since February 16th in an identical scoreline at the home of Forfar's
Angus rivals Arbroath. Willie Martin grabbed a hat-trick (surprisingly the
fourth for a Rovers player this season). On-loan Bobby Barr got the other one in
a match peppered with controversial decisions by whistler Thomas Robertson who
sent off one Loons man and booked numerous others at the same time only booking
a couple of men in red.
(9/4/08)
Ban
Rovers assistant manager Paul Martin has been given a two-game dug-put ban
imposed for being sent to the stand at Firs Park on 29th March, he has
until Monday 14th April to appeal against the decision which would see
him watch the season end from the stand.
Pat Walker Clarification
The club have clarified the situation regarding the striker. As with all probationary teachers these
appointments are made for one year only and Pat must now wait and hope that he receives a suitable job offer. If he receives a suitable job offer he will be available for selection throughout the season. If he does not receive a suitable job offer Pat has indicated that he will go abroad for a year, in which case the Club will release him from his contract.
Golf Day
The Albion Rovers Celebrity/Amateur will take place at
Shotts Golf Club on June 12th. Team entry is £250 and anyone interested should
contact Pat Rolink at the club on 01236 606334 or via email on pat
at albionrovers dot com. Teams consist of three
plus the club nominated celebrity!
Seattle Keeping An Eye On Vers
It's interesting to see what global effects a Pat Rolink led Albion Rovers
initiative can have, take for example the American newspaper the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer who wrote the following article despite their readers
living almost 4500 miles from Coatbridge!
"REELING THEM IN: If you're a lower-division club in Scotland and based in or around Glasgow, the stronghold of domestic giants Rangers and Celtic, it can be hard to attract fans. Albion Rovers, in the bottom half of the fourth division, came up with a novel idea to get more to show up.
All Polish nationals were allowed to attend a recent game against Dumbarton free.
In the past few years, more and more Poles have emigrated to the U.K.
"The Poles in the area won't, we hope, have an affinity to any other club, which is more than can be said for the folk born and bred here," said Rovers director Pat Rolink. "So why shouldn't they support us? We've been trying all season to get more people in the community interested in Albion Rovers, but Old Firm fans are not for changing."
Note to Rolink: One of Celtic's most popular
players, keeper Artur Boruc, is Polish."
(5/4/08)
Gemmell Off As Rovers Slump
John Gemmell was red carded for a
tame head butt as Rovers lost 2 - 0 to Arbroath today.
POTY
If (and only if) you missed the opportunity to vote for the player of the year
in person you can do it via email! Send your selection of 1st, 2nd and 3rd by
midnight 18th April to poty@albionrovers.com
. Please include you name if not obvious from your email address so we can
verify you're not Robert Mugabe! The supporters' trust is putting up a valuable
prize to be awarded to the lucky recipient and this website is supplying the
bottle of champagne to accompany it.
Walker Signs Up
Pat Walker has put pen to paper on a new contract until the end of next season.
Due to the nature of Pat's employment he could be abroad for much of the season
and this has been taken into account.
(1/4/08)
April Fool
Yes as most of you realised eventually the
story below was an April Fool!
Major Development
We have learned that the delay on the proposed club E.G.M. on share issues and
ground redevelopment which was supposed to happen in late February to early
March is down to the fact that the board of directors are in talks to sell the
club. An approach was made recently by a consortium of West of Scotland based Polish businessmen with
an offer to purchase a 51% stake in the club when the shares are reorganised.
The consortium comprises four or five men with disparate business backgrounds, details are sketchy but retail, manufacturing and distilling form their expertise thus far. We understand one of their number has lived in Scotland for at least 20 years whilst the others arrived in the last in the last four years when Poland joined the European Union.
Albion Rovers club chairman Frank Meade said that talks were at an advanced stage with a group of potential investors and that he could say no more until talks were concluded.
As the Monklands area has a large and expanding Polish community this move could benefit the local area dramatically, greatly increasing the integration of the Poles into the wider community. It's understood that the clubs recent drive to encourage Poles to come along to Cliftonhill prompted this unprecedented move.
Rumours abound about what changes new owners would make to the club but it seems certain that a name change is on the cards although Albion Rovers would almost certainly remain part of that. In Australia their version of Albion Rovers became Albion Turk Gucu for a while as the Turkish community took charge.
A feeder arrangement with an as yet unnamed Polish league club has been mooted, we believe it would be talent moving to Scotland rather than the other direction.
Planning of a new ground within a few kilometers of Coatbridge town centre is at a very early stage as you can see from the plans below.
The Albion Rovers Supporters' Trust committee has called an urgent meeting for Tuesday evening to discuss the situation and are likely to give the proposal a guarded welcome.
In an odd move Airdrie United chairman Jim Ballantyne wished Rovers every success but added he was standing by if the deal should fall through.
