Arbroath chairman John Christison is trying desperately not to get carried away as the Gayfield club nears a possible first championship.
The Lichties have, for 133 years, been an integral part of the Angus town’s community and have enjoyed some real highs as well as some lows.
What they have not experienced, however, is a league title win or lifted a national cup.
They do have seven promotions to their name but all those have been achieved as runners-up or via play-offs.
Arbroath have also played top-flight football and reached the last four of both the Scottish and League Cups.
However, the unwanted claim to fame as Scotland’s only long-established senior team not to have collected silverware has come to the fore this season, even being posed as a quiz question on radio programmes.
All that will disappear, though, if they beat local rivals Montrose to clinch the third division crown on Saturday.
So it is no exaggeration to say April 23, 2011, may only be edged out for importance in the club’s history by September 12, 1885, when they achieved the world record win in senior football with a 36-0 victory over Bon Accord.
Right in the middle of it all is chairman Christison, who has followed the team as man and boy.’I don’t care how we get there’He said, “There is so much riding on this game because we have been top of the league for so long now and it is expected that we will become champions.
“What I am trying to do is not get too excited beforehand because you never know what can happen in football.
“Montrose are our local rivals and they have one or two former Arbroath players in their squad. They won’t want to see us celebrating, that’s for sure.”
He addedm “So I am being cautious because when you back a horse you don’t collect your winnings until after it has crossed the line.
“As an Arbroath supporter all my days, I think people will forgive me if I don’t get ahead of myself.
“I don’t care how we get there as long as we get there. A scrappy 1-0 win courtesy of a last-minute penalty would do me.”
The road from terracing to the boardroom at Gayfield has been a long and winding one for Christison.
He said, “Some of my earliest memories are of coming to Arbroath games with my dad and brother in the 1950s.
“So that has been a long time to wait on a trophy.”‘Fantastic’ supportersChristison revealed the lack of a success in a national league or cup competition has been the topic of discussion among board members and there is a real desire to put things right on that score.
He said, “It is something that has been spoken about on numerous occasions and it would be nice to put it to bed.
“We are one of the longest-standing businesses in the town and it would be a joy to put smiles of the faces of our people.”
He added, “The supporters have been fantastic this season and I hope they are happy come full-time on Saturday.”
Christison cast his mind back to a day towards the end of last season, when they had just appointed Paul Sheerin as manager, and pondered how far the club has come in a short space of time.
“I remember being at the Irn-Bru divisional awards dinner in Glasgow not long after appointing Paul,” he said.
“We only had two signed players (Kevin McMullan and Steven Doris) on the books. I remember sitting there dejected at having so much planning and work ahead of us.”
He added, “It was a massive task to assemble a squad but we got there and ended up with as good a bunch as there is in our division.
“Then the season started and we quickly went out to Dunfermline in two cups and didn’t make the best of starts in the league.”
Christison said, “Around November time things settled down and we kicked on from there.
“Paul is due a lot of praise for that, along with his assistant Stewart Petrie, while the players have been a credit to the club.”