I was reading the football magazine "Four Four Two" the other day and came
across an article about a Brechin fan.  It wasn't any ordinary Brechin fan,
it was Martin Clark, who lives in the USA and whose company British Metrics
sponsors this website.  The following is adapted from the magazine.

Superfan
Well, you would have to be to
follow Brechin City from the USA...

Martin Clark explains what makes a man leave his beach house in the US four times a year to watch 1st division side Brechin City...

"My uncle Jack Sunter was associated with Brechin for 50 years. He would take me up on a Sunday morning underneath the old wooden stand, and I'd watch him cleaning boots and stuff. As a kid, I'd go to games and I'd be in the stand and he'd be in the dugout. That was me hooked. In 1981, I moved to the states and now I live a couple of hours from Philadelphia, but I've never lost it.

"When I first came over, I had to wait for my aunt or my father to send the papers out before I got the scores- unless I phoned home, and that was as expensive as hell at that time. Then some English guy told me about shortwave radio- I'd never heard of it, but bought one and listened to the BBC World Service Sports Programme.

"The problem with short-wave was that the signal was always a bit in and out, but things have changed so much. The world is a lot smaller now. Every morning I'll get up and read the Daily Record online and listen to BBC Scotland on the computer at work.

"Brechin City is my major reason for coming back home. I never make a trip in June or July, because theres no football. I was there last season when we beat Ayr 3-0 to get promotion to division one, and I was there for the Rangers Scottish Cup game in 2000/01. I do everything around the fixture list. It looks like I'll be coming over in October because there's three games in one week: this season the big games will be the Dundee games.

"It used to be a big deal when you come back to Scotland for a week for a week or so, but I'm there three or four times a year now. I can drive up to Philly in two hours and be in Scotland in another six. If I go to Germany on business, I'll arrange it so I can get Ryanair over to Scotland, see a quick game, and then head back. Every chance I get, I'm there.

"When we played Inverness Caley in the Scottish Cup, I was in Liverpool for a meeting, and I left about 4:30am on Saturday morning to get up to Inverness, just to see them get beat five bloody nil in the pissing rain.

"If I'm in the states on matchday, I go to the office and tell my wife not to call me between 10 and 12 in the morning. I'll log onto the sky website to get the teleprinter, and then listen to an SPL game on BBC Scotland because if Brechin score, they'll let you know. It can be nerve-racking, especially if it's 1-1 with 20 minutes to go, but it's tremendous. I've got a buddy in Dundee who's going to record Scotsport (The ITV highlights package for the Scottish Football League) on DVD and once a month send it over to me, so soon I'll be able to see all the games. And the Brechin City website is excellent.

"I think I've become a more intense fan since I moved to the States. A couple of years ago I got the club badge tattooed on my bum! The wife says she hates it but I catch her now and again in the middle of the night having a wee peek when she thinks I'm asleep.

"When I was a kid, if we were third bottom it was a great season, but now, we're doing well. We're 100 years old next year and stronger than ever. I hope the people in Brechin appreciate what an asset the team is."