IT’S perhaps a pity that Anne Barker took up football as a hobby.

Perhaps, if she’d taken up politics or gone into the City, the country wouldn’t be in the financial mess it seems to be floundering in.

Okay; something of an exaggeration, but Clitheroe FC chairman Carl Garner can’t praise highly enough the contribution that Anne, his vice-chairman, has made towards turning the club around.

“She’s been fantastic,” he said. “I don’t know where we would be without her determination, her drive and her enthusiasm.”

Anne modestly attrib-utes her part in the club’s rise almost from the ashes as “just good house-keeping” – and the loyalty of fans.

Not much over two years ago Clitheroe FC was on the brink. Its financial position was desperate and the club was on the verge of going out of existence.

Survival, at least to a standard that supporters had come to expect, was a long shot.

Garner said: “The club had to part company with the manager.

“We couldn’t afford him. Most of the team walked out and we had £1,000 in the bank, only four experienced players and our next match was a few days off somewhere down in Leicestershire.”

An emergency meeting got things moving. Garner took over as chairman and among new committee members was Anne Barker who had also gone to that first meeting out of curiosity as much as anything else. She had grown up with football.

She was secretary of Clitheroe Wolves junior club and her three lads all played.

Offers of financial backing came in and slowly the new committee began to turn things round.

Anne was made vice chairman in June last year, an appointment that took her “completely by surprise.”

She said: “It was very humbling and I was so proud. I still am.”

On match days she does anything and everything from handling the tannoy to making sure there are enough toilet rolls.

But it’s her financial and organisational experience that has proved such a boon to the club.

From the brink of obscurity, Clitheroe is now as strong as any non-league club in East Lancashire, says Carl. But it has meant a lot of hard work for the committee and supporters as well as the manager and players.

Neil Reynolds and his squad have got off to a great start in the Unibond League Division 1 (North) losing only one of their first six league games and beating Grantham 4-1 in the FA Trophy.

They maintained their good form with a 3-0 win over Colwyn Bay at the weekend and face Bradford Park Avenue in the next round of the Trophy.

Clitheroe FC now have a bright new clubhouse which has cost close on £35,000 and, with average gates of around 250 and loyal fans not afraid to get their hands in their pockets, the future is looking rosy.

“But we aren’t getting carried away,” says Anne. “We are very careful these days.”

She added: “We have a long way to go but we are getting there.

“We really need what I’d call auxiliary helpers; supporters who might not have time to go on the committee but who might have some spare time to spend helping us.”