By Lance Jenkinson
When Albion Rovers relocated to a new soccer facility at Cairnlea in 2007, the club’s officials opted to change the club’s name to Cairnlea FC to better reflect the suburb it was playing in.
But even after more than a decade with the new name, in the hearts of most of the club’s players and supporters, it was still the Albion Rovers.
The players would sing the theme song with Albion Rovers in the words after wins and some supporters on social media still referred to the club as Albion.
So it was decided by the club late last year that it would revert back to the popular name Albion Rovers in 2019 – the year in which the club will celebrate its 50th anniversary.
“It sort of goes back to the history of the club,” Rovers’ coach Kevin Theuma said.
“It’s a name that everyone remembers the club by, especially in its glory days of the 1980s and 1990s when we had 1000s of people watching the games in the Premier League and some massive names came through the club.
“It’s about getting in touch with our history again.”
Theuma is hoping the name change will allow the club to re-connect with some past players and supporters.
He is adamant there are plenty of old Rovers fans who would still feel a connection to the club through the name.
“I think we always were Albion,” he said.
“Even our theme song is still Albion – always has and always will be.
“This will bring a bit of symmetry around who we actually are … hopefully we can push the club back to the glory days, which is what we’re all looking for.”
Theuma is back on board for a third season in charge.
It is an important season for Theuma as it will give him a chance to see if he can achieve the three-year goal he set out at the start of his tenure.
“I took over in 2017 and it was always a three year plan in terms of promotion,” he said.
“We’ve rebuilt a whole new squad from scratch, so that was never going to be easy, and 2019 was always going to be the year we really wanted to get promoted.
“There was a bit of disappointment last year in not achieving it when we were so close, but we’ve retained a lot of our squad from last year and a few additions, which we’ll announce in the coming weeks, so there’s definitely some excitement around the club.”
Theuma’s anticipation is not confined to what he thinks the seniors and reserves teams can achieve this season.
With a new board recently installed, there has been a focus on lifting the professionalism of the club from top to bottom.
A key driver of that will be Mustafa Mustafa, who has taken over as the new director of football.
“There’s a few changes through our juniors with a focus on improving the level of coaching and level of professionalism that we offer our kids,” Theuma said.
“Our new director of football is involved with that and will be leading the football department, rather than just a committee member trying to do bits and pieces.
“It will be really good for the kids and you’ll see an improvement in the quality of coaching.
“We’ve got some massive clubs in our area in terms of National Premier League and some good junior clubs as well, so we want to be part of that and we want to be better than them.”
