STEVE KITTRICK: Dave Holland, the man who sold us the Boro dream

It has been an emotional time for the club this week as it is a year since the passing of our former chairman Dave Holland.
Dave Holland welcomes Steve Kittrick to the clubDave Holland welcomes Steve Kittrick to the club
Dave Holland welcomes Steve Kittrick to the club

Dave was instrumental in getting me to the club, meeting me three times in Leeds and then persuading me to come down.

If it wasn’t for him then I don’t think I’d be here now.

A number of people I know in the game were asking me why I was prepared to drop down a few levels after I’d been managing in the Conference and Conference North, but Dave sold me the dream.

And everything that he said to me has come true.

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When Dave passed away, his partner Wendy Danby rang me to ask if I’d contact everyone and tell them the sad news.

That just showed the great relationship I had with him and Wendy.

I spoke to her on Tuesday to see how Wendy was and she is keeping busy and keeping her chin up at a very difficult time.

It has been great to see her at games this season and I hope to see her at a few more in the coming months.

Dave was a man that did everything for the club.

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I can still picture him at away games, filling in team sheets with one hand and dragging the kit out of the car with the other.

He did so much, probably too much, to keep things going.

He had time for the players and they all appreciated that. Dave would have been the first to shake their hands after they walked off the pitch on Tuesday night after another good win at Ramsbottom.

It has been tremendous how people rallied round and galvanised things after he passed away.

The new chairman Trevor Bull, Fred Firman and the rest of the board have worked very hard to maintain Dave’s dream and take the club to where it is now.

There is a good feeling at Scarborough Athletic.

If you look at how things have progressed over this last year, I definitely think that Dave will be looking down smiling on us from above.