Forth Wanderers 3 Kilsyth Athletic 2

Life is moving fast at Forth Wanderers. But some things never change.

‘I go back here 40 years, back until I was about seven,’ says Alan McCormick, treasurer. ‘I sat every week on top of that dugout as a kid listening to the manager swear. That’s where I learned my swear words.’

He looks across the pitch to the dugouts where, four decades on, a bunch of young lads find the Kingshill Park experience is still enhanced by a perch above the home coaches.

The smile on the face of McCormick may have been prompted by this remembrance of times past but it may also have been the product of recent events in the South Lanarkshire village.

The afternoon produces various estimates about the amount in the Forth account in November of last year. This ranges from ‘nil, nada, nowt’ to the princely sum of £37. Whatever the precise amount, the club was skint. It was about to close the doors.

Youngsters sit atop the dugouts at Kingshill Park as they watch their favourites in action

Nine months on, an incredible story has been born. Forth are financially secure and a former Champions League striker is strutting his stuff up front.

It is a tale of sums and drums. The club was becoming increasingly unviable. The committee members were delving into their own pockets to pay the bills. ‘It was becoming too much,’ says Stewart Barrett, secretary. ‘It couldn’t go on.’

Enter Paul McManus followed by Kyle Lafferty. McManus, the drummer of rock band Gun, is a Forth boy who wants football, particularly for kids, to flourish in the village. He has put his money where his backing vocals are. Lafferty, who at 38 has played for almost 20 clubs including Rangers, has been the major signing.

‘It was a bit different before Paul came on board,’ says McCormick. He tells of how he and his daughter Emily, 16, cleared the cupboards at Kingshill of old strips and took them to a car boot sale. ‘Emily also put some of them up on Vinted,’ he says.

‘Anything to get a penny and we got a few hundred quid.’

Forth is a tiny outpost in South Lanarkshire but the local football club is daring to dream big

His family link to Forth was formed not only by his great grandfather who played for the club but his father, John, for whom the term club legend seems a tad measly.

‘I was 12 when I was invited on to the committee in 1965. I have been here ever since,’ says John, pouring the tea in the pie hut. ‘I think they wanted me on the committee at a young age because I didn’t sit about. I organised raffles, sweeps, everything.’

Last winter was the most depressing in decades of service to the club. ‘That was a terrible time. There just seemed no way out. We had to tell the players there was no money and we were obliged to release them.’

John’s link with McManus goes back years. He formed a music management company with his son and the drummer. ‘We managed a band called Seven Stone Lighter,’ he says. ‘One of them is now on the committee at Bellshill.’

The conversation seems to have spun off into esoteric Lanarkshire bands but John quickly brings it all back to the club. ‘It has been hard but it is much better. We have hope now.’

Forth native Paul McManus is the drummer for Gun, who have recorded four Top-20 albums

The darkness was enveloping the wood and Gerry Ward was deep in thought. ‘We had been beaten 6-0. I was out in the woods walking my wee dog. No phone. No distraction,’ he says as his team prepares for the match behind him.

‘Suddenly I remembered a newspaper article from three years ago when Paul’s name was mentioned. There was a connection to someone in my family. I thought: “I can approach him”.’

The Forth manager spent seven weeks arranging the sponsorship deal over a series of dinners with McManus. He admits the element that appealed to his rock star backer was the chance to provide football for children on their doorstep. ‘Kids have to go to Edinburgh to play football,’ he says. ‘They get to a certain age and other teams snatch them up.’

Forth has now applied for community club status. Under-age teams will now play at a ground that the club hopes to be all-weather.

But Ward knows the first priority when he talked to McManus was simple. ‘It was about survival,’ he says. ‘We had £37 in the bank and we had to sell 14 players. The next priorities are to sustain and to then grow. We are keen to connect to the community.’

Well-travelled former Rangers and Northern Ireland striker Kyle Lafferty is now a Forth player

He has been through the financial storm with the club. ‘We had to play the under-20 boys last season, so they were turning out on a Friday night and then a Saturday,’ he says.

The dinners with McManus changed everything. ‘It was a new era, a new dawn,’ he adds. ‘I am delighted to be in a privileged position. I am as ambitious as they come and we want to achieve here.’

His first idea for a marquee signing was Lafferty. The Northern Ireland internationalist has spent the last couple of seasons at Johnstone Burgh. The negotiations were swift.

‘I met him over a coffee. No agent, a good chat and bang, bang, he has signed.’

He praises the big striker’s impact at the club. ‘He helps out with the academy and as player/coach he takes the training on a Monday. He has already raised the standards here with his professionalism.

‘Obviously, he has a presence and an aura but he believes himself just to be another player. I think he is giving back. He is calm in the dressing-room, one of the boys, down to earth.’

Lafferty’s stunning 82nd-minute strike ultimately proved the difference against Kilsyth

He has quietly reinforced the message given by McManus. ‘Paul introduced himself to the players and gave them a wee talk. He told them precisely where we are going.’

The change has been stunning for Ward. ‘It has been very painful here. We have had to lose a lot of players. We were dragging guys off the street to fill the jerseys,’ he says.

Now he watches his side win a West of Scotland Second Division fixture with the aid of an excellent goal by Lafferty, who is still very much a force at this level.

Ward, who played with Forth when they won the Central Division Two title ten years ago, has an affinity with both club and village. He was determined to succeed when the club was in the financial mire.

‘When I heard about that I thought: “I’ll fix it”. There is always a way out.’

That faith has been rewarded and so has the generosity provided by the committee.

Forth secretary Stewart Barrett enjoys the match with some of the club’s long-suffering fans

When I visited Forth two seasons ago, they were playing at Carluke as Kingshill was flooded. Barrett, secretary then as now, reached into his back pocket to provide the £20 notes to pay the ref.

‘I reckon I gave about five grand a season,’ says the retired nurse. ‘But so did others.’

He stretches out in his chair as the sun shines on the Wanderers merchandise and the gate money in a plastic box.

‘There has been a bit of nasty stuff on the internet about the money,’ he says. ‘But it is all very, very transparent. Paul is a very successful businessman who has just sold a quarry near here and has decided to help us. It’s that simple.’

He adds: ‘Why should we not have a bit of joy?’