Words | Brian Flynn

Altrincham Football Club is very sad to learn of the passing of Ray Sant, following a short illness.

Ray was born & bred in Altrincham & had followed The Robins since the early 1960s, when he went to games with his father.

As a young schoolboy, Ray became Altrincham’s first ever mascot. These days, mascots are for a single game, but in 1963, the mascot fulfilled the role for a season & Ray went on to proudly be the club’s mascot for two seasons!

Below is a photo of what we believe is Bradbury School u13s, with Ray bottom right on the front row.

Ray moved away from the area when he joined the Army as a young man & whilst this prevented him from attending games regularly, Ray never lost touch with the club that meant so much to him.

When Ray returned to civilian life, he settled in Shrewsbury, watching Shrewsbury Town on a few occasions but felt that it wasn’t the same as supporting his hometown club, so he returned to watching games at Moss Lane.

He caught the Alty bug again & started to travel from Shropshire for matches more regularly, eventually becoming a season ticket holder & a shareholder, attending home games with his first wife, Jill, who very sadly died in 2017.

Ray was devastated by the loss of Jill, but, happily, in 2019, met Jan, through the golf club where they were both members & Jan became a frequent visitor to The J.Davidson Stadium, accompanying Ray to every game that he attended & also combining their two shared loves of football & golf to spend a number of weekends playing golf in the home counties on the Friday, before watching Alty on the Saturday, on one of our many visits to play in the south of England.

Ray & Jan married in September 2022 & the very happy newlyweds were interviewed on Radio Robins at the first game they attended after tying the knot.

Ray was a well-known, highly popular & frequent contributor on the Alty fans forum, posting under the name ‘Distance Traveller’.

Ray’s final visit to The J.Davidson Stadium was last month for the game against Southend United, which he watched, with a whole bunch of Alty friends, from his usual vantage point on The Popular Side, underneath the gantry & slightly to the right hand side as he looked out onto the pitch.

Ray & Jan are Ethan Ross’s shirt sponsors this season & Ethan, who was had been in regular contact with Ray, since learning of his illness, arranged for a shirt to be signed by all the players involved in the Southend game.

This was the game that Ethan turned up for, only to be sent home by manager, Phil Parkinson, due to being ill, therefore coach, Ross Speight presented the shirt to Ray, at his favourite spot on the terrace... it was a very touching & emotional moment, that I was privileged to witness.

Ray was at peace & surrounded by his family, in a local hospice, when he passed on Sunday.

He was a lovely, very caring man who adored his family & Altrincham Football Club. He will be very sadly missed by the many fans who knew him & we send our sincere condolences to Jan & Ray’s two sons, Dan & Steve at this very sad and difficult time.

Details of Ray’s funeral, which will be in the New Year, will be posted, once known.