News

Chairman Keith Moorhouse spoke to the media after we clinched the cinch League One title with a 1-0 victory over Dumbarton at Balmoral Stadium. 

Keith began by paying tribute to his late father, Cliff, who was an ardent supporter and used to take Keith’s son Grant, now a club director – to matches when we played in the Highland League. 

Keith said: “When I woke up on the morning of the game the first person I thought of was my father, who always wanted the best for Cove. 

“I just wish he was here to see what we have achieved. 

“I thought about him again at the final whistle and will be thinking about him again after the celebrations are over. 

“I’m sure he was here watching us. 

“That family connection has always been important because it’s part of what has made our club successful. 

“Even though we are now an SPFL club – a Championship club – we have not lost our values. 

“We haven’t lost the culture that has got us to this point. You can see that by the number of people still involved that have been with the club for years. 

“We are more professional on how we do stuff, that’s not a slight on what happened before it’s a reflection of where we are now. 

“But for me it will always be about the people at the club. 

“From George and Neil (Mathieson, the long serving brothers who do handy-man jobs behind the scenes), who have been cleaning the boots since our days at Allan Park. 

“My board of directors, people like them and Duncan Little (the club secretary), who have given their life to the club. 

“Alan McRae has been massive for the club because of what he has done over the years, there’s simply too many people to mention. 

“If you have the right people around you, good things happen. 

“I just want to thank them all and say how proud I am of them all.” 

When asked to comment on how far Cove Rangers have come over the last few years, Keith replied: “It’s happened a lot quicker than we thought it would, that’s for sure. 

“We need to sit down and work out what our next steps need to be now. 

“We were working from a five year plan, so we obviously need to adjust that a bit now. 

“We will discuss what we want things to look like in another five years, both on and off the park, it’s how we have always done things. 

“Most importantly, we will invest in the squad because we want to be competitive now that we are up in the Championship.” 

When asked how far the club could go from this point, Keith said: “We’ve got to dream. 

“We are an ambitious club, we have never hidden that.  But we will also be responsible. 

“I would love for us to be in the Premiership… what’s stopping us? 

“We’ve just got to think it through and put the proper plan in place. 

“I’m sure the manager will share that view. 

“Once the dust settles, we will sit down and come up with the plan to help us continue to be successful. 

“It would be nice if we could eventually see ourselves edging towards the Premiership, that would be success – however, we are well aware that this step up is much greater than the last step up.” 

Article Copyright © 2022. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to www.coverangersfc.com. 

Seven Cove Rangers Players Named in the PFA Scotland League One Team of the Season »