All credit to Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir, – The world of football is full of ironies, upsets, extremes and even compassion.

We shouldn’t be too surprised that Sir Alex Ferguson has lent support to Cowdenbeath FC in their current quest for Scottish football league survival (The Courier, March 20).

Despite his successes with Aberdeen and Manchester United over the years, he has never forgotten the game has deep roots in local communities, north and south of the border.

Central Park and Old Trafford are polar opposites – one associated with near dereliction and despair, and the other with international glamour and success, but both still vital in the culture of the game.

I’m sure Sir Alex hasn’t forgotten his part in one of the most important games in Cowdenbeath’s history.

In the spring of 1970, the 29-year-old Ferguson played, alongside Andy Roxburgh, for Falkirk in a promotion tussle with the Blue Brazil at Central Park.

Cowdenbeath won 2-1 securing their return to the top tier Scottish division after a wait of 25 years.

Some would say this was justice overdue as the club had been unceremoniously sent back to the second Division at the end of the Second World War.

Certainly they were relegated within a season, and their ups and downs since have been well documented.

Its departure from senior Scottish league football in 2018 would be an unseemly end to 137 years of history.

It is to Sir Alex’s credit that he recognises not just the seriousness of the situation, but the need for football and communities to be intertwined. Bob Taylor. 24 Shiel Court, Glenrothes.