Ahead of last night's friendly against SPL Champions Rangers, Corby Town announced that the main stand at Steel Park was to be named the "Peter Mallinger Foundation Stand" in honour of the club's late chairman.

Mr Mallinger worked tirelessly to ensure that his vision of a new purpose built stadium for Corby Town came to fruition, however he sadly lost his long battle with leukaemia in January this year, at the age of 74, meaning he never got the chance to see his beloved team play at Steel Park upon it's completion. 

Peter Mallinger took charge at Corby in 2007 when he led a consortium that bought control of the Steelmen. He was also formerly chairman at Kettering Town and a director of Newcastle United. 

Peter's son and acting chairman of the club David Mallinger told www.corbytownfc.co.uk: "Without his vision and commitment to Corby Town Football Club we would still be playing football in front of smaller crowds next door inside the athletics track.

"The new Steel Park stadium is a football ground that the Corby community can be proud of. We have room to build, grow and develop. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves but everyone around the club is ambitious.

"We have desires and aspirations for better things and I am keen, along with my fellow directors, to help put a plan together that will make Corby Town Football Club the envy of many. My Dad would certainly have wanted it that way.  

"As a community club it is only right and proper that we use The Peter Mallinger Foundation as a vehicle to give back and help those that might need a helping hand. Isn’t football wonderful that we can do things like this…. Cheers Dad! Thanks for getting us started."

Corby Town manager Graham Drury told us: "He was well loved in football and everyone knew what a genuine man he was. I think he would say 'don't name the stand after me'. He would say to get money into the club. That's how he was.

"But the whole town could be named after Peter, because everything he did was for Corby."

Mallinger, was also successful away from football with Newarke Wools Limited which he founded in 1961 as a market stall business, also made a huge impression on the chief executive of Corby Borough Council, Chris Mallender.

Mr Mallender told said: "The Rangers match was special because it saw the naming of the new grandstand after our late Chairman, Peter Mallinger.  This was a poignant moment for me.  It brought back lots of fond memories about our time spent together planning, progressing and enjoying watching the development of the Steelmen.  He would have been an incredibly proud man had he been around to celebrate the opening of Steel Park and watch our current team.  We only knew each other for six or seven years but my abiding memory of him will be as one of my closest, lifetime friends and confidantes. 

"Peter and I first met in early 2005.  I had been following press coverage about the ground dispute at Kettering and rang to ask if there was anything I could do to help.  We talked and explored options but not long afterwards Peter transferred ownership of the club to Imraan Ladak.  Shortly after that has happened another treasured friend, then Corby Town Chairman, Jimmy Kane, passed away.  I saw an opportunity and encouraged Peter to step into the void.  

"The rest as they say is history!  Thanks to Peter’s prodigious passion and commitment we have a ground and a team that we can be proud of.  It is arguably Corby’s best ever team, though I can already hear the terrace banter about the respective merits of the teams of the mid 60’s or the early 90’s. We also have a superb youth team and are developing fantastic links into schools and the wider community.

"It’s a great time to be a Steelman.  For that we owe a great debt of gratitude to Peter Mallinger, a genuine Corby legend.  His memory will live on in the superb stand that has been named after him!"

The Mayor of Corby, Gail McDade also extended her best wishes to the Mallinger family on the occasion of the naming of the Peter Mallinger Stand, describing the occassion as "A well deserved tribute to a great servant of the Steelmen."