Ugandan children 'kitted out' as Bannsiders thanks to Coleraine FC and former club chaplain

...but that’s what you might well hear around the village of Dikka in Uganda following a visit there from the former chaplain of Coleraine Football Club, Rev Robert McMullan.

Rev McMullan travelled to the village of Dikka in the east African country as a trip with the charity Charlene's Project and he was bearing gifts of Coleraine FC tops, which were distributed to children of all ages.

The kit was kindly donated to Rev McMullan by the Club Shop and he explained how it helped bring smiles to the faces of children on the other side of the world.

He stated: "The village of Dikka lies in the north west of Uganda. The uneven red earth roads are a challenge to traverse, while the noise of the road side traders and the Boda Bodas (motorbikes) seems to never slacken.

"It seems to be a place that time has forgotten until you see a sign which announces the latest Premier League game to be shown in what is nothing better than a rundown garden shed.

"Football permeates into every corner of the community with many wearing football shirts of Premier League (especially Arsenal for some reason), La Liga and Serie A teams!

"But recently a group of Dikka children received a unique set of football shirts like none other in Uganda.

"I met them while visiting a maternity hospital supported by Charlene’s Project when I was in Uganda with the CP teaching local pastors.

"Let’s say they didn’t all quite get the exact size but that didn’t matter! Their smiles said everything. I even tried to teach them to say ‘Come on the Bannsiders!’

"The football shirts were very kindly donated by the Club Shop at Coleraine FC. A big thank you to Scott Smyth for organising it. Dikka might be unknown to the outside world, but in one small corner of it Coleraine FC is all the news.”