Dundee United fans clubbed together to buy young fan Alyssa Duke a new phone, after she lost her old phone at her first match.
Alyssa, from Forfar, found a love for United while playing Fifa with her sisters.
Her dad Chris Duke, 38, decided to take the budding football fans to their first Tangerines match nearly two months ago against Motherwell.
However, upon leaving the match, the family discovered that Alyssa’s iPhone 8 had gone missing.
Chris went back to the stadium to look for the phone once they realised it was missing.
He said: “It was amazing what they did — all the fans were gone and the stadium was shut down, but they let me get in to check for the phone.
“They put the floodlights on and let me head across the pitch to the area we were sitting to look, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.”
The Forfar man asked fans to keep an eye out for the phone on Facebook. But as the weeks passed, a recovery seemed unlikely.
‘Amazing people’
So Kevin Rice, a lifelong Dundee United fan, decided to spearheaded fundraising efforts for a new phone.
Chris said: “Kevin got in touch to explain the idea to get Alyssa a new phone.
“He said ‘once an Arab, always an Arab.’
“It all just happened to fall on her birthday weekend as well.
“I’m speechless, it’s just such an amazing group of people who did that.
“We have struggled recently, I think it’s been a difficult few years for everyone.
“So it was lovely for something like that to work out for us.”
Kevin decided to arrange the replacement of Alyssa’s new phone to ensure she left Tannadice Park with good memories.
He said: “We tried to find the phone when it was lost, but after several weeks past it didn’t seem like we would get it back.
“We didn’t want Alyssa’s first Dundee United match to be a negative experience, we wanted it to be a good memory for her.
“So we managed to raise about £300 through Arabs Anonymous on Facebook and the rest from Club 83 for a new phone.
“That covered the new phone with insurance, a Dundee United case, as well as a Dundee United cake for her birthday.”
‘Good memory’
The fans surprised Alyssa before Saturday’s eventful match against Aberdeen in Club 83.
Dad Chris was blown away by the thoughtful gesture from the local football fans.
“It was very special,” he said.
“Alyssa was so surprised by the whole thing, it was a really lovely day.
“It was such a nice thing for them to do.
“There’s so much bad in the world right now and when you see something nice like this, it’s amazing.”
