A PARS superfan who has proved that bullies don’t win has vowed to keep on playing football – and meet one of his idols at Hampden.

We reported in last week’s Press the heartbreaking story of eight-year-old Ollie Young, who had written an upsetting note to his mum, Karen, after a case of bullying at school.

In his letter, Ollie said that he “hated himself” and that he was “terrible at football”, which prompted his dad, Simon, to send ex-Athletic midfielder Gary Dempsey a message on social media in the hope of putting a smile back on his face.

After his tale made its way to the club, the youngster received an outpouring of love and support from the football community and beyond, and was invited to be Athletic’s guest of honour at Tuesday’s match with Inverness.

He was joined there by Dempsey, a member of the 2004 Scottish Cup final squad, who also collected Ollie from school ahead of the match before taking him, and other kids who were free to join, for a kickabout with the Pars Foundation at Carnegie Leisure Centre.

And, if that wasn’t enough, Ollie was invited this week by the Scotland national team to be a player escort at next month’s match with Israel at Hampden – and the Liverpool fanatic only has eyes for one man.

“I don’t know if I’m going to walk out with Scotland or the away team but hopefully I’ll get to walk out with Andy Robertson, if he’s playing!” he said.

When asked how he felt about the past week, Ollie – whose position on the football pitch is at right back – added: “There’s loads of ways to describe it but, obviously, if I put them one by one, it would take me forever!

“It’s made me feel a lot better now and I don’t feel like I’m ever going to give up football ever again, which I’m not!”

Dempsey, who was also sending his new pal a signed Pars shirt, explained: “Simon sent the tweet to me and it really just went from there.

“Just seeing the letter that he had written to his mum, being a dad, a video message to him I don’t think was going to cut it. It’s a good ending to a story that started not so well but it’s going to be a good ending and a happy ending for everybody.

“I just think that, the world we live in at the minute, everybody’s negative about everything and social media’s a nightmare for it. But, on this occasion, it’s been absolutely fantastic the other way, with all the well wishes, good luck messages and videos.

“I think former players and current players should be using the platform we have to tell people, look, you might not be in a good place at the minute, but it’s going to be OK, there’s help there, and speak up.

“If an eight-year-old boy can do it, the message is, clearly, speak up and things will turn for you.

“It’s just fantastic the response we’ve had to the whole thing.”

The response has left Ollie’s parents overwhelmed and Simon said: “It started off with a message from Stevie Crawford saying to stick in, and to invite him to the game, and then Lee Bullen got on the bandwagon, Noel Hunt got on the bandwagon, and we even got a random message from Neville Southall at one point!

“It’s given him a real boost. He’s got his little swagger back and he’s got his genuine smile back on his face, which has been missing for a while.

“I don’t know whether it was the effects of the wording in the note from Ollie but I just can’t thank Gary enough.”

Karen added: “It’s just amazing the support that’s come out for Ollie. We’re so proud of him.”