Ellen's flying the flag at 106!

When Burscough presented Ellen Baybutt with flowers and a new club scarf on Friday to mark her birthday the Linnets could have been celebrating the club’s entire history as their life-long supporter reached the grand old age of 106!

The Evo-Stik NPL First Division North club were originally formed in 1905 as Burscough Rangers and their Vice-President was born a year later in 1906, just three years after Briton’s current oldest living woman, super supercentenarian Grace Jones from London.

Burscough are now proudly laying claim to having Briton’s oldest female football supporter among their ranks and Miss Baybutt, pictured, who was made a Vice President for life in 2000, was honoured by a delegation from the club at a nearby care home after living opposite Burscough’s Victoria Park ground for the first 99 years of her life.

To celebrate their special fan who’s followed the club home and away for years and saw them reform after the Second World War in 1946 in their current guise as Burscough, yesterday’s matchday programme for their 2-1 home win over Ossett Albion also carried a special tribute.

Miss Baybutt never married and worked alongside her four Burscough supporting sisters at Victory Park, washing kit and running the canteen as they enjoyed some of the club’s greatest moments including reaching the FA Cup’s First Round for the first time in 1959 and seeing the legendary England winger Bobby Langton manage his hometown club in the 1960s.

Burscough Vice President and Treasurer Stuart Heaps said: "Ellen is a true fan and we’re all very proud of her at the club. She is as bright as a button and even now is always asking about the club and how everyone is getting on. Each week we drop a programme off to her and hopefully she’ll enjoy the next one as she is featured in it as we all pay tribute to her."