‘Close to immortality’: Arbroath’s part-timers chase Premiership dream

In a quiet corner of Scotland’s east coast, a modern football fairytale is being written. Arbroath FC, the Scottish Championship’s only part-time club, are in the promotion play-offs after finishing as runners-up in the second tier. “We’re so close to immortality,” their manager, Dick Campbell, tells me. “Nobody else will ever do this.”

Campbell is a hardened veteran of Scotland’s lower leagues, having coached more than 1,000 games across three decades. Now, just four matches stand between his side and the Premiership, starting with the first leg of their semi-final at Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Tuesday night. Win that tie, and the 11th-placed side in the top flight – probably St Johnstone – await in the two-legged final.

The colourful 68-year-old manager, an excitable whirlwind of one-liners, has become the face of Arbroath’s extraordinary rise – but if he is feeling any pressure on his shoulders, he doesn’t show it. “I couldn’t give a monkey’s hoot if we go up or not – I honestly couldn’t,” Campbell insists. “But now we’re in this position … you have to have a go, don’t you?”

When Campbell arrived at Arbroath six years ago, the picture could scarcely have been more different. The Red Lichties – named after the town’s harbour lights that guide boats back to shore – were labouring in the fourth tier, playing to meagre crowds of fewer than 500 people at Gayfield Park. The club’s home ground backs directly on to the North Sea, its open terraces exposed to fog, freezing winds and even the occasional rogue wave.

Campbell had been keen to get back into management after being dismissed by another Angus side, Forfar Athletic. “The guy who sacked me has apologised since, and said he was an idiot,” he chuckles. Campbell kept