He started playing for them as a 14-year-old in 1955, became team manager after hanging his boots up and Allan is now the club's chairman.

Another new season dawns on Saturday but does this amazing footballing stalwart still getting excited about the first match of a new campaign.

"The spark of enthusiasm is not the same these days to be honest," said Allan (67), who has his own plumbing business. "When I played football we played from September to April and then 10 of the 11 would play cricket from May to August.

"I used to look forward to taking the whites off and getting my boots on again but these days we only get an eight-week break between the end of a football season and the pre-season friendlies starting."

Clubmen like Allan are like gold dust. He admits he lives and breathes the Amateurs and although he has been tempted to walk away a couple of times he has never quite made the break.

His late wife Barbara, who died in 2001, was the archetypal football widow. Allan recalls a conversation the couple had around a decade ago when they were discussing their wills.

"I support Manchester United and I jokingly said I wanted my ashes scattered down the left wing at Old Trafford," he recalled.

"Barbara said 'there is only one place your ashes are going and that is on the pitch at Cottesmore Amateurs'.

"She said 'they've been walking all over you for years and they can run all over you when you've gone'."

Almost exactly 53 years ago Allan first pulled on a Cottesmore Amateurs jersey. It was the start of a career in which he scored 234 goals in 425 full appearances for the club. He played on the left wing and was the designated penalty-taker for many seasons. Allan converted 40 spot kicks on the trot but after missing the next he never took them again.

The stand-out season was 1959/60 when Cottesmore won the treble – the league and two knockout cups.

The team used to play on a cow field close to the RAF camp and facilities were nowhere near as plush as they are now at Rogues Park.

Allan said: "We used to get changed in a 24 by 12 wooden hut, the nearest water was in a cattle trough and before every game we had to shovel cow dung off the pitch."

Although Allan has lived most of his life in Rutland he actually hails from Manchester. He grew up in an area of the city called Longsight, which is now the drug and gang-riddled suburb known as Moss Side.

A lot of his spare time was spent with friends kicking a ball around. Though he was a United fan he used to watch their rivals Manchester City because their Maine Road stadium was much nearer home.

He remembers seeing great players like goalkeeper Frank Swift in the late 1940s and one of his biggest memories was seeing United lose the 1957 FA Cup final against Aston Villa at Wembley.

Allan recalled: "Football was so different in those days. There would be crowds of 60,000 and only a couple of policemen in the ground because there was no trouble. The players would even travel to the match on the same bus as the fans."

One of his biggest regrets growing up was never really knowing his father, who left the family home 18 months after Allan was born.

He captained the school football team at the age of 10 and one of his team-mates was Keith Newton, who went on to play for England.

"I remember watching Keith playing for England in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico and the same day I had been clearing cow mess off our football pitch at Cottesmore," Allan chuckled.

His mum met a plumber who found work at RAF Cottesmore and the family moved to Rutland in November 1951. Allan attended the Central School in Oakham, which is now the Vale of Catmose College.

Of course he played for the school football team and began turning out for Cottesmore. "When I started playing every village had a side. The teams died out because they didn't have the people to run them."

Allan's remarkable loyalty to the club has been matched by treasurer Gordon McNeil and committee man Kenny Hallam, who both played alongside him during the early 1960s. He is indebted to the dedication of many people over the years who kept the club running behind the scenes and those generous sponsors who have injected much-needed cash.

As he looked ahead to the new season this weekend, Allan added: "When I think I have been at the club since 1955 it is ridiculous.

"But it is like most things in life, if you are enjoying it you keep doing it. I have met so many friends on and off the field over the years and I wouldn't change much."