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Fort William 2021-22 Thread


Aqy

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Finished 6-0 Brora. Clearly a case of men against boys. Brora were much stronger and ruthless in finishing. There was never any doubt who would win this game.

Having said that, Fort William looked much stronger compared to when I watched them last season. Starting away at the league favourites is the last thing you want with a team that for large part just arrived at the club a few days ago. Once they gel a bit, I'd expect them to start picking up a few points against teams lower in the division.

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39 minutes ago, Marten said:

Finished 6-0 Brora. Clearly a case of men against boys. Brora were much stronger and ruthless in finishing. There was never any doubt who would win this game.

Having said that, Fort William looked much stronger compared to when I watched them last season. Starting away at the league favourites is the last thing you want with a team that for large part just arrived at the club a few days ago. Once they gel a bit, I'd expect them to start picking up a few points against teams lower in the division.

I see Paul Brindle got at least one of Brora's goals, so not all of their top players were away at a rumoured wedding. Last season the score would have been well into double figures. Second bottom from last season Lossie beat Huntly today, third bottom Clach lost v 5th bottom Strathspey Thistle and 4th bottom Turriff drew with Rothes, so it should be a tight and competitive bottom third at least. Hoping Clach just had a shaky start. 

Edited by welshbairn
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Finished 6-0 Brora. Clearly a case of men against boys. Brora were much stronger and ruthless in finishing. There was never any doubt who would win this game.

Having said that, Fort William looked much stronger compared to when I watched them last season. Starting away at the league favourites is the last thing you want with a team that for large part just arrived at the club a few days ago. Once they gel a bit, I'd expect them to start picking up a few points against teams lower in the division.
Just need 9 Ross County players.
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22 hours ago, welshbairn said:

The pitch is usually unplayable from October to March, so it wouldn't surprise me if they move training up to Inverness for the duration. Bit of a pisser for the local players if there are any left.

Do most of the team not train in Inverness already?  They definitely used to.  They used to (and I imagine still do) have two groups training once a week (one in Fort and one in Inverness) and then altogether on another night.

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14 minutes ago, NorthernLights said:

Theyre not Britain, or even Scotlands worst team.

Theyre a freakshow that football hipsters and people who dont like football seem to have some sort of fetish  over.

Edited by invergowrie arab
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2 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:

Theyre not Britain, or even Scotlands worst team.

Theyre a freakshow that football hipsters and people who dont like football seem to have some sort of fetish  over.

As a supporter of a team who have massively underperformed for years I thought you'd have some sympathy for them 😉

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1 hour ago, invergowrie arab said:

When did Fort William ever underperform?

They joined the Highland League in 1985.  During their first 11 seasons they finished bottom just once and finished each season in the double digits for points.

Just back in 2014/15 they managed a respectful 13th place position.  They've had their struggles but they have never been completely hopeless and they represent an area that is very unrepresented in the current Scottish football hierarchy.

I just have a lot of respect for them for keeping a team going at this level despite going through a lot of tough times with the odd reasonable season (a bit like the city of Dundee).  The easy option would be to close down the club or at best "move down a level", whatever that level you'd judge to be.

I'm a bit of a ground hopper.  Just this weekend I took advantage of a free weekend to head up to Banff to visit Deveronvale for the first time.  Back in July 2015 I visited Fort William and attended their game against Strathspey Thistle.  It was less then 3 weeks after a fire had badly damaged their changing rooms.  You really couldn't fault their efforts in ensuring the fire didn't affect their abilities to host games  and I loved the memorabilia in the hospitably area that hinted at better times and some fairly epic Scottish Cup exploits for a club of their size. 

I'd love to see a proper pyramid system established in the Highland League area.  I'm sure there are Junior clubs in the North region or North Caledonian league sides who'd love to be given the chance to step up.  However until such clubs are ready and/or everyone finally agrees on the structure of such a system then things won't change and I don't see any reason for Fort William to "relegate" themselves for no other reason then people like you thinking that should be the case.

 

Edited by NorthernLights
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9 hours ago, invergowrie arab said:

Theyre not Britain, or even Scotlands worst team.

Theyre a freakshow that football hipsters and people who dont like football seem to have some sort of fetish  over.

I'd agree with the first bit - even in the non-public park leagues of Scotland, you'd find worse - Cruden Bay, Eyemouth, Dumfries YMCA etc... would all get a doing IMO.

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There was some hubbub in Saturday's papers - sort of "will Caley youngsters shine as Fort after B team rejected?" stuff... but suspect getting pasted 6-0 will see it quietly shelved for now.

Can they all play in Scottish Cup? Apparently they can play in NofS Cup, including if draw ICT (but who'll be available for ICT in that - U17s)?

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11 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

There was some hubbub in Saturday's papers - sort of "will Caley youngsters shine as Fort after B team rejected?" stuff... but suspect getting pasted 6-0 will see it quietly shelved for now.

Can they all play in Scottish Cup? Apparently they can play in NofS Cup, including if draw ICT (but who'll be available for ICT in that - U17s)?

They were playing the favourites for the title a couple of days after the KalykidsⒸ  arrived. Think they could stir up the bottom third of the table battle a bit, but not much more.

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49 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Think they could stir up the bottom third of the table battle a bit, but not much more.

If the Highland League had relegation to worry about I can understand the annoyance that some seem to have over this move. It's not something to worry about though. End of the day it's a bunch of teens not considered good enough for Championship level football and ICT aren't interested in the SPFL Reserve League(s) like quite a few clubs.

The people that signed up to run Fort William are doing their best to keep the club going and found a source of players that have the potential to make them more competitive after arguably their worst season in history.

It's certainly a far better situation for Fort William to be in than they were in say December 2017 and it's a way for ICT to keep their development system ticking over when other clubs are cutting the development/reserve aspect to balance their budgets.

On 05/12/2017 at 19:32, HibeeJibee said:

:lol:


On the squad thing... they scratched a midweek North of Scotland Cup tie at Forres earlier this season, but that was put down to them being unable to use triallists (which implies having to go and draft-in or borrow players when it comes to league games tbf). However things look pretty bad on the squad front.

They only had 2 substitutes against Clachnacuddin; only 3 substitutes against Rothes (of whom 1 was triallist given he has a 'T' beside him on teamsheet they tweeted); and only 2 substitutes against Brora. Even as far back as September they only had 3 substitutes against Buckie. These are going by teamsheets from their twitter. Even back in August they only had 4 substitutes (of whom 1 was a triallist) v Huntly; 4 v Cove; and 5 v Keith on the opening day. Rules allow 7.

Their team photo does have 17 stripped players including 1 keeper, and 7 others in tracksuits/etc.:

DIEQ5vsXUAAh32f.jpg:small

 

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Lossie are due to play ICT in the NoS Cup in midweek, and we’ve no idea what kind of side we’re going to be facing.

Not that it matters, Lossie are going to boss it after slitting the throats of Shire easybeats Huntly yesterday.

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