DICK Campbell stood on the touchline and folded his arms across his chest. Turning towards the Arbroath fans, he took a deep breath, inhaling for so long he might have sent the North Sea crashing over the Gayfield Park walls, and surveyed the scene before him.
In that moment, just minutes ahead of a crucial Championship clash, he had the air of a man revelling in the unexpected situation he found himself in. As well he might; this isn’t how Arbroath’s season was supposed to go.
Not only had no one given the part-timers a sniff of the title, they’d already doomed them to trips to Dumbarton, Peterhead and Clyde next year, with few - if any - putting them higher than 10th in predicted league tables.
Fast forward 90 minutes after that pre-match moment of reflection and there was Campbell again, this time racing onto the Gayfield pitch, arms aloft and bunnet askew, a 5-1 rout of Queen of the South taking his team just two wins from the Premiership.
Expect similar scenes in front of the TV cameras on Friday if Arbroath can win for a second time this season at Rugby Park and leapfrog current league leaders Kilmarnock ahead of Greenock Morton’s visit on the final day.
Just where, then, does Campbell, whose long career has taken him across all of Scotland’s leagues, rank the do-or-die decider?
"It's as big a game as I have ever been involved with,” the 68-year-old said. "I went down to Tannadice with Dunfermline once and everyone wrote us off. Jim McLean put all the home fans behind the goals to try and intimidate us.
"We beat them and then we beat Airdrie the following week to win the Championship.
"So I am going down on Friday with no illusions.I've nothing to worry about. It's not going to break my heart if we don't do it.
"The pressure is all on Kilmarnock because of their high expectation level.
"Derek McInnes is a good friend of mine and we will shake hands after the game."
When Campbell and his players take to the Rugby Park pitch for Arbroath’s pre-game warm-ups on Friday, they’ll do so backed by an away support several thousand strong.
That - and Saturday’s near-2,500 attendance - would have been unthinkable when Campbell took over the reins at Gayfield back in 2016, when talk of triple digit crowds was a thing of fantasy.
But in half a decade Campbell and twin brother Ian have changed the mood in the seaside town, which has bought into the Premiership dream.
"You can smell it here,” said Campbell. “It's a lovely place to do your work. We had 2,500 today and when I came here our average crowd was 500. It's fantastic.
"I think we will take over 2,000 down there.”
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