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Community Football Day

Clyde FC’s status as a community club was enhanced last weekend as it’s South Side School of Football held their community football day at Broadwood Stadium.

Burnside and Calderwood Primary Schools, East Kilbride Boys Club and Celtic Boys Club all visited Cumbernauld and teamed up with The Bully Wee’s South Side School of Football kids to give over 100 young people a day out that they will never forget!

All aged between 7 and 11, the excited youngsters used the first team changing rooms, walked on to the pitch through the tunnel before lining up on the pitch as their names were read out over the tannoy to the cheers of the support in the stands.

The excitement of all boys and girls involved was visible as they displayed their footballing skills on the same turf that Manchester United, Everton, Rangers and Celtic have all played on in recent years. On arrival at the stadium each player was given a full VIP tour of the stadium, post match every player was presented with a special Clyde badged medal and a goodie bag.

With Clyde now officially a community interest club, organiser Stevie Morton stressed the importance of maintaining links within the club’s traditional heartland:-

“We aim to promote Clyde within the community to help make youngsters and their parents aware of the club whilst providing them with a great day out that they will not forget for a long time.

“The chances are that most of these youngsters will be Rangers or Celtic supporters but we want to be the club actively providing alternative opportunities for them in their community.

“Hopefully the experience of the day might just encourage some to become Clyde supporters in the future. It’s also possible that through our involvement with the local community we might just unearth potential talent for our pro-youth system and possibly even a future Clyde star!”

Douglas Morton recently apppointed Head of Community Football added “This was my first ‘official’ function and what a wonderful occasion it was. It was great to see so many youngsters in Clyde strips joined by others from across the community playing football at Broadwood.  I also have to say that the standard of football demonstrated by the Clyde players showed just how high the standard of coaching is at Southside.  If we add in the positive reaction from the parents and relatives etc. who accompanied the players then Southside have made a massive contribution to the reputation of Clyde in the Community, and by association, to the reputation of Clyde FC.  Stevie and the others did a marvellous job.  It was a privilege to be a small part of it.”

Stevie also gave thanks to the many people who helped make the day a fantastic success for both Clyde and the community which includes; John Carolan, John McCone, Stephen Muckalt, Robert Sweeney, Andy Brown, Chris Dewar, Tony Ventre, Douglas Dunn, Gordon and Maureen Nisbet, David Alexander, Andy Muir and of course new community manager Douglas Morton who presented the kids with their medals.