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That was until AS Roma announced on the club’s English-language Twitter account that the Serie A club would be adopting Glasgow’s Ants on the UK’s annual Non-League Day.
The Scottish team’s Twitter account went crazy as thousands of new followers arrived from all over the world - killing the battery on their shell-shocked Twitter admin’s phone in the process.
And that was before the small matter of the team’s match against Johnstone Burgh at McKenna Park that afternoon.
The Ants ran out 3-1 winners, with striker Grant Kelly grabbing a Totti-like hat-trick.
A special bond was formed that day and now, one year on, Saint Anthony’s FC are followed by clubs and fans from all over the world.
On the eve of 2019’s Non-League Day in the UK, we caught up with Martin McKenna, one of the club’s two Twitter admins, to find out how life has changed in the 12 months since Roma adopted them…
Martin, take us back to Non-League Day 2018…
“I didn’t know it at the time but Roma had tweeted announcing that they’d adopted Saint Anthony’s for Non-League Day. I hadn’t seen the tweet but I woke up in the morning and my missus was like, ‘Are you seeing this?’
“I was like, “Seeing what?’ And she was like, “This!” and she showed me her phone with Roma’s tweet about Saint Anthony’s. I was still half asleep so all I saw was the Roma name and I genuinely didn’t know what she was talking about! Then I read it again and I saw my own phone was going absolutely mental!”
How many messages do you think you got?
“My phone just went into meltdown. The BBC sent me a message, it was on the radio as well later that day. Newspapers were calling me, then there were just so many tweets. It was constant tweets and mentions and follows and likes. I guess that’s the Roma effect.”
And then you went out and won that day as well…
“Yeah. Grant Kelly went out and scored a hat-trick and really made it a perfect day for us. He recorded a nice video message after the game and he thanked Roma and all our new Roma followers. We made the YouTube highlights video of the win with ‘Roma Roma’ as the music, Roma made the Scottish playlist – which was spot on – and then I tried to do an Italian one which was a disaster.”
We’ve had so much fun on social media between the clubs and between the fans. A lot of our fans adopted you and not just fans from Italy, but fans from Nigeria, Indonesia, America, everywhere…
“It’s been wonderful but it’s actually been weird and surreal at times too. It’s given us a great chance to be ourselves and to interact with Roma and with fans from all over the world. Mark Otabor, the radio presenter from Nigeria who did that epic commentary of the Barcelona game, was in touch because he obviously has a great connection to Roma and he actually did a report on the Ants on the breakfast show at his radio station.”
Didn’t he announce a new signing for you? On Nigerian radio?
“He asked us if we had any news and we had actually just signed a player that night. I told him I’d get him an exclusive for Nigerian radio, and after he’d done it, I’d record it and put it on the website so the news comes out that a Nigerian radio station had broken the news. So inbetween a story about Paul Pogba and Messi, people in Lagos are obviously hearing that Stephen McGarrigle had signed for the Ants. So really, just a normal Monday morning for me!”
On Football Twitter, you’re part of this great community of clubs from all over the world – some massive, some non-league. It’s an incredible thing that has developed since Non-League Day last year…
“It’s amazing. There was a scenario recently where Zenit St. Petersburg were playing Benfica and we sent good luck messages to both of them, because we speak to both of them quite regularly now and couldn’t just wish one of them good luck. We’re close with Sunderland as well now because we were in touch with them through Roma after Non-League Day. One of their fans actually paid for us to go to the match in hospitality there as well.”
One of the great things about Twitter is just being able to unite people through football and I think that’s something that we tried to do by adopting Saint Anthony’s. You’ve totally embraced that ethos. It seems both clubs really share the same idea that on social media, fans can all support different clubs but still have fun and a laugh together…
“That’s the best thing about this, isn’t it? We’re connected with teams, even other non-league teams, and we just have a laugh and a joke, a bit of banter if one of us has just been beaten or wishing good luck if we have a match. And that’s how it should be. It should be fun. It’s a time to get away from your wife or your husband nagging! We just want to enjoy ourselves and get immersed in something completely separate to our everyday lives. With football obviously there’s times where you have to be serious but it’s a game and it’s fun and it’s enjoyable and it’s not supposed to be something that drives you crazy. At the end of the day, it’s just football.”
You’ve obviously become a lot more popular since Roma adopted you in October 2018. Where are you now in terms of followers and exposure?
“In terms of followers, I think we were at 3,500 and now it’s at 9,600 - so over a 6,000 follower jump! Roma adopting us helped us in so many ways. We’ve now got a two-year sponsorship deal with Govan Law Centre. They do a lot of pro-bono work and work with immigrants in the area so we’ve tied them in as well because it's the right thing to do. We’ve had sponsors before but not on this scale. We’ve now also got custom-made kits - designed by Gerry, the other admin, which is something we've never had before.”
Are you the most followed Scottish non-league team now?
“We’re number three overall in non-league Scotland, but one of the teams ahead of us had a documentary made about them by the BBC which is a bit mental. But to be honest, it’s not about the ranking, it’s about having a platform to do good things really. There are things we’ve always done as a club just because it's the right thing to do. If we can help anybody, we’ve always done it, but now we can do it on a bigger scale because we’ve got this exposure. And it’s not just about the 6,000 new followers but the community we’re in as well. If Roma retweet or like a post, it usually goes mental, and the bigger clubs, if they like it, it shows up in their followers’ feeds as well, and then our message is seen by even more people. It’s great that more local people see the things we’re doing but now certain things we do get pushed out to the world on a larger scale.”
We’ve loved how Saint Anthony’s have used the exposure to help others and make a difference. Tell us about the partnership with Balls to Cancer…
“My brother got cancer seven or eight years ago now, so there were things we had been doing for certain charities after he had been diagnosed but we decided to get in touch with Balls to Cancer and we put their logo on our shorts for free - just because we wanted to get them that additional exposure. They do great work and are active on social media as well but we thought it was a good way to get people talking about it. We’re going to try to get them in touch with some of the clubs in Ghana and Uganda as well and see if we can do something with them.”
We actually launched AS Roma’s Twitter Team of the Day series on the back of adopting Saint Anthony’s because we saw how a little shout out from Roma could actually bring people together online. We’ve shined a social spotlight on over 150 clubs so far and that all started with Saint Anthony’s on Non-League Day…
“I’m glad these teams are getting exposure because a lot of these clubs are doing great things. There’s always a reason behind Roma’s Twitter Team of the Day, there’s always a story where they’ve done this for their league or worked with this charity or something. It’s just about bringing clubs together and connecting clubs. They help each other and support each other.
"Football fans won’t change their allegiance and shouldn’t, but there’s no reason not to follow other teams and give exposure to other clubs that are doing good things around the world.”
Good luck against Ardeer Thistle on Saturday! Keep making new football friends…
“100%! That’ll never change Roma.”
Click here to follow Saint Anthony’s FC on Twitter and help them reach 10,000 followers.
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