Loss of a legend

Former goalkeeper Allan Ball passed away on Saturday, at the age of 75, just a few moments after the final whistle went during the club’s match against Edinburgh City.
Allan was one of the first inductees to the club’s Hall of Fame and also held the club record for appearances, after notching up 731 official appearances for them, or 819 including friendlies.
He joined Queens in 1963 for the sum of £100 and remained until the end of the 1981-82 season.
And he came back to Palmerston in 2001 as an honorary director, a position he continued to hold right up to his death.
Allan loved his involvement at QoS, never more so than the trip to the Scottish Cup Final in 2008 and subsequent appearance into Europe against Nordsjaelland of Denmark.
Ill health had curtailed his football attendance in recent times, but he was still to be found at home games regularly right up to the end of last season.
And he was never slow to offer his opinion on matters on the pitch either.
In a statement this week, the club said: “A measure of how highly thought of he was is the fact that whatever away ground you went to, someone would ask about Allan and how he was doing.
“He fought his illness courageously over a long period of time and rarely complained about it. Until recently those who didn’t know him well may not even have known how ill he was.
“Although unable to leave hospital over the last few weeks, he has been keeping up to date with happenings at Palmerston through a stream of visitors and watching videos of the games.
“Everyone at Queen of the South is devastated to hear of his death and our thoughts go out to his wife Olive, son Keith, daughter in law Alison and the wider family.”
His funeral will take place on the afternoon of Monday August 6 at Dumfries Baptist Church. All supporters are invited to attend the service and wear club colours.