Montrose FC Club Historian, Steve Doyle has kindly gifted the Club his entire collection of match programmes from games involving the Gable Endies, both home and away, dating back over 90 years.

Steeped in so much history from season 1933/34 onwards, the collection covers all away programmes known to have been issued and all home programmes since the first one was issued in 1955 when we were elected into the SFA ‘B’ Division.

Steve said, “I only seriously started collecting the programmes when I retired 17 years ago. I started sorted through the numerous boxes of MO stuff I had strewn around my house, and realised the vast volume of  programmes I had.

“I listed them all on the computer, made a list of those which were missing and vowed to fill in the gaps.

“Having about half of the home programmes, it soon became an enjoyable hobby trying to source the others, one I enjoyed so much that I decided to go all out and include the away ones as well.

“Living in Carlisle, I actually had more away programmes anyway, so it made sense to include them and go for a complete collection.

“It has taken all of my retirement years to get to this point and I really now think that all the home and away ones are in the MFC Programme Collection.

“The collection is for the whole original programme in each case but about 5% of them only have the front cover because I was unable to obtain the whole programme either because of the sheer cost or because an original has never come up on a website for sale. Also, sometimes only a teamsheet was issued but in 95% of cases it is the actual original programme which is included.

Receiving the collection, Club Vice Chairman Michael Fotheringham commented, “It is so important for any club to have a record of its history and, thanks to Steve’s incredible commitment and dedication, we have been gifted this remarkable resource.

“We are finding, like many other clubs that historical data once readily available online, can suddenly vanish, so having all this information in print is invaluable.”

“We will take good care of it and make good use it, and I know for one, our Community Trust is looking forward to using it to enrich their Football Memories dementia programme.”

Steve added, “I still collect Mo programmes but as age progresses it is becoming harder for me to do so. My hope is that someone will carry on the good work into the future as long as programmes continue to be issued. We are the MO!”

Our photo shows Michael taking ownership of the boxes and boxes of carefully date ordered folders from the back of Steve’s laden down car.