A letter for every fans attention

By Chris Mac
February 5 2003

Thus letter was sent to Fans Representative Veronica tonight from Jim Ballantyne. I have been asked to pass it along word for word. Enjoy everyone.

"Dear Veronica

I would like to convey the board's appreciation of the supporters last night. They were absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately I cannot say the same of Tayside police. I thought that they were off the mark with their attitude and I told them so.

I went to the police control room to find out what the problem was and i was told that the Airdrie Fans would not sit down. Crime of the century or what? I tried to explain to them that their intervention was likely to cause more trouble than it would solve. Unfortunately I was dealing with jobsworths and wasted my breath. I asked why the Saints fans were not being asked to sit down and was politely told that after all the Airdrie fans sat down they would look at the Saints.

The penalties were at their end due to police intervention. They advised that there was a risk of trouble at our end. The club will therefore be asking for written comments on the pitch invasion at the end which was by far the most inflammatory event of the night.

If Tayside police are as vigilant in their normal duties as they were with making Airdrie fans sit down i can only assume that the area is virtually crime free. I feel the police were very heavy handed and the club will officially inform them of this.

The Transfer Window

As you will know we only brought one player David Dunn. We sat down in December with Sandy and he drew up a list of potential targets. We were really only intrested in Prem and First division players. There are only a handful of players in our division that might improve our team and every one of them is under contract and therefore unavailable."

We made offers to Mark Roberts and Stuart Taylor, both of which they seriously considered but we were pipped by Falkirk as both wanted full time football. Mark Roberts ended up at St Mirren for almost the same money as we offered but full time was the aption he went for.

We approached Kilmarnock with a loan deal for SanJuan. We had agreed terms with Kilmarnock but then they changed their minds and freed him. He decided to return to Spain.

Stadium descussions continue and it is only fair to say that Alastair and Morna have been very helpful through out the bad weather period.

Thanks again for all your support