Cove Rangers chairman Keith Moorhouse dedicated their League One title success to his late father and hopes he was watching on.
Cliff Moorhouse was a fervent Cove fan and took Keith along to games as a child.
The Moorhouse name is synonymous with Cove. Keith has been chairman for more than 20 years and his son Grant is also on the board of directors.
It was an emotional day for those closely connected with the club, as the 1-0 win over Dumbarton sent them up to the Championship.
“I feel proud more than anything,” said Moorhouse. “I woke up on Saturday morning and the first person I thought of was my father, who was a Cove fan through and through and I just wish he was here to see what we did.
“I thought of him at the final whistle and I thought of him last night. I’m sure he was here watching us.
“I’m proud for everyone at the club. For George and Neil (Matheson) who cleaned the boots in the days of Allan Park. People like Duncan (Little, secretary) who have given their life to the club.
“John Sheran has been a massive part of this club for what he’s done. Alan McRae – there’s too many to mention. I’m pleased and proud for them.
“I still think, even though we’re now a Championship club, we’ve not lost our values. We’ve not lost the culture. We’re more professional with how we do stuff and that’s not a reflection of where we were. It’s a reflection of where we are now.
“For me it’s about the people. It’s always been about the people. If you get good people around you, good things happen.”
Bringing in Paul Hartley three years ago was a key tenet in their five-year plan to reach the Championship, a goal they have achieved in three.
They were clear winners of League Two in 2020 and were beaten play-off semi-finalists last year.
Now Cove must reset their goals but the ambition still remains. Moorhouse sees no reason why the club cannot target the Premiership in the next facet of their grand plan.
“It’s happened a lot quicker than we thought,” said Moorhouse. “We said five years and we’ve done it three – we need to work out what we do for the next few years!
“We’ll sit down and come up with another five years and what we want it to look like, on and off the park. Things will happen off the park too but most importantly we’ll invest in the squad.
“We’ve never hidden our ambition – why not dream to be in the Premiership? I would like to be in the Premiership. What’s stopping us? We’ve just got to think it through.
“We’ll sit down during the week once the dust settles and come up with a plan. It would be nice to think we could be edging towards that. To me, that would be success.
“We’ve got to be realistic but we’ll still be ambitious. We still want to be successful and win stuff. It’s in the DNA of the club.”