Intrigued to find out a little bit more about him, not least the Darlington-RossCounty combination, we spoke to Mike, who very kindly took the time to provide all the answers!

English or Scottish?
“I'm someone from Darllington who likes RossCounty. Actually it's more than like, it's support, as I try to get to as many of their games as possible.

"These are, in the main, the away games as I've found getting up to Dingwall and back in a day too much of a strain on me - both financially and driving stress!  I do however make the effort to get up for the first and last home games of the season, any others are a bonus.

Why Ross County?
“Well, unfortunately I don't (as far as I'm aware) have any Scottish blood in me, but my heart's in Scotland. And both myself and my wife love the Highlands. For over forty years of my life I followed and supported Sunderland ...  going to most of their home games as well as a good number of away games every season.

“Then whilst at one of the away games I suddenly thought - why am I doing this? Being marched from the coaches to the ground and back under heavy police escort, getting abused from the opposition fans and police/security, and to be honest Sunderland were playing badly. So my away trips stopped and I started to go to non-league games and then later started to visit various grounds in Scotland.  Football became enjoyable again.

“I visited all (at the time) 38 Scottish League grounds and deliberately left Ross County's to the end. Having seen them at several of their away games in their first season in the league I decided to start supporting them, and to go to a lot more of their games.  

“The number of Sunderland home games was gradually reduced until I stopped going altogether - mainly because it became so expensive to go (but Sunderland are still in my blood). Nowadays I tend to restrict my football to watching Ross County (plus the odd non-league game).

“Whilst on my trips to the game I try to satisfy one of my other pleasures - visiting Scottish non-league grounds (both Junior and Senior), and take photos of the ground (yes, I know I'm a sad old sod!). I've still got about 40 grounds to visit (most, as you'd expect, are in the Juniors North Region). As for the East Region of the SJFA, I got just six more still to visit. 

Why buy the Broughty badge?
“I managed to visit Broughty Athletic's ground at Whitton Park in April 2007, just before going to see County play Dundee. It's a nice ground, but what makes my visit memorable was that the bloke I asked if it was ok to take photos of the ground stayed and chatted to me for a while, telling me about the club and ground. 

“It impressed me especially as he took time out from preparing for a match that afternoon to talk to me. I didn't know who he was, but on checking your website I've now found out that he was your manager Kenny Cameron! 

“Another of my pleasures is collecting football badges - but only for clubs where either I've visited their ground or seen them play at their ground. But that's another story, which I won't bore you with.

There’s nothing boring about Mike Franklin! What a really nice man! Broughty Athletic are delighted to have him as part of our extended “family”. Thanks for your interest in our club, Mike.