GLORY GUYS: The Cove Rangers celebrate securing promotion after winning 3-0 away to Berwick Rangers.

THE greatest day in the history of Cove Rangers is included in a new book celebrating football outside Europe’s top divisions.
Written by English journalist Mat Guy, Barcelona to Buckie Thistle ‘explores football’s less travelled roads.’
It includes an entire chapter ‘Highland No More’ about the author’s experiences when he attended  the second leg of our SPFL Pyramid Play-off final victory over Berwick Rangers at Shielfield Park last May.
Mat records the mood of the Cove Rangers supporters as they entered the stadium, confident that their favourites would be able to secure promotion after having won the first leg at Balmoral Stadium 4-0.
He wrote: “As the Cove 400 made their way to their allocation of main stand, passing the sombre home support already seated, renditions of ‘Flower of Scotland’ interspersed more traditional football chants celebrating the fact Cove really were ‘Highland Dynamite.’
“As the Cove players came out to begin their warm-ups, the roar from the travelling support no doubt echoed through the corridors beneath the stand, into the home dressing room.
“Their role as lambs to the slaughter already confirmed, the Berwick players took much longer to make their way out into the impossible environment they had created for themselves, where they would be stripped of their status as Scottish Football League players.”
Mat’s latest book, which also turns the spotlight on Highland League sides Fort William, Inverurie Locos, Forres Mechanics, Wick Academy and Buckie Thistle as well as visits to games in the Faroe Islands, Lichtenstein and Andorra, really captures what it was like to be in Berwick on that unforgettable day when Cove did indeed become the first Highland League side to secure promotion via the play-offs.

SUPER JO: Jordon Brown slides in to score in the 3-0 victory at Berwick.

Goals from Jamie Masson, Jordon Brown and Paul McManus gave us a 3-0 win – and 7-0 aggregate triumph – and a place in Ladbrokes League Two this season.
Mat added: “For Cove and their delirious support spilling out on to the pitch to celebrate with their heroes, the future is now a thing of endless opportunities.
“The only thing they know for sure is that they are Highland no more.
“In name at least, if not in spirit.”

WEVE DONE IT: Manager John Sheran, now the club’s football director, celebrates winning promotion into the SPFL last May.

Barcelona to Buckie Thistle, by Mat Guy, published by Luath Press Ltd and available on Amazon now.