Today was a good day for Queens on the football pitch but an extremely sad one away from it. Just a few moments after the final whistle went at Ainslie Park, the club lost a true legend when Allan Ball sadly passed away.

Allan was one of the first inductees to the club Hall of Fame and the club's record appearance holder with 731 official appearances for the club (819 including friendlies etc as he was always keen to point out). He joined the club in 1963 for the princely sum of £100 and remained until the end of the 1981-82 season. Never a stranger to Palmerston anyway, he returned to the club officially as an Honorary Director in December 2001, a position he continued to hold right up to his death. He loved his involvement at the club, never more so than our trip to the Scottish Cup Final in 2008 and subsequent foray into Europe.

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 never lost his enthusiasm for the game or the club he held dearest. He was never slow to offer his opinion on matters on the pitch either. 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 dvd's 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. Funeral details will follow in due course.

On a personal note, as one who drove 'Bally' to away games over the last few years I will miss you and your sharp sense of humour my friend. And I will bear in mind that you "never had a bad game for Queens, though I did drop the ball in training once". Rest in peace.