EXCLUSIVE: Dumbarton's St Patrick's FPs apply to join West of Scotland League

St Patrick’s FPs hope to mark their 70th anniversary by being elected to senior football for the first time in the club’s history.

The Lennox can exclusively reveal that the Dumbarton side, who look set to celebrate a third straight Central Scotland AFL title this season, have applied to join the West of Scotland League – which would see them playing senior football as part of the pyramid for the very first time.

And coach Zander Diamond, a former Aberdeen player, believes it’s a natural next step for the club – who have a rich and successful history in the amateur game.

Zander told the Lennox: “St Pat’s is a club with a great history.

“For us as a football club it feels like a natural move. We’re always asking, where do we go from here?

“I’m ambitious, Johnny is ambitious and Tommy is ambitious. The whole football club is ambitious.

“It’s the next step. It might not happen, and we understand that some people don’t like change and could view it negatively. But we believe it will happen and we are confident that we have the infrastructure behind us to move forward.

“Who knows where it might lead. It might bear fruit for us or it might not.

“But this year marks 70 years since St Pat’s were founded. What a time it would be to get into the semi-pro leagues.”

Zander says he and Saints’ management team of Johnny O’Brien and Tommy Graham have already started preparing for life in Division Four – and will be ready to go if the club’s application is approved.

He continued: “We’ve started speaking to players from higher divisions to come in and help this group of players get to the next level if we’re elected.

“We’ve said to the players with us this year that we want them to be part of the journey as we aim to swap from amateur to