Six years of secondary school didn’t furnish me with a huge amount of academic accolades but I did scrape together enough to become the first person in my household to be accepted into university. Stirling was the destination of choice, as my local uni it allowed me to continue living at home while joining their Religious Studies & Education degree course. As I was first in the family to reach the land of higher education I really did not know what to expect, would I be capable of stepping up to this level of learning?
Arriving for Fresher’s Week in September of 2000 I was instantly put at ease when I discovered that I’d only be required to attend lectures and tutorials for no more than nine hours a week as well having just one or two essays, no longer than this blog, to do each month. Even with my twelve hour a week shelf stacking job at Alloa Somerfields the majority of my time would be spent on one pound pints, fifty pence vodkas and a 75p tequila night that almost left me blind. Four and half years later I attained a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and the Diploma of Education, a lifetime of teaching sullen teenagers stretched ahead.
Nowadays alcohol isn’t the draw it was for young people with the number of teetotallers in the 16 to 24 bracket increasing by forty percent in the last decade. At Stirling students are no longer attracted to the place due to cheap pints of snakebite, it is its status of ‘Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence’ that gets them matriculating. A large part of this sporting excellence comes from the University of Stirling Football Club, a collection of sides that play in various leagues including The East of Scotland League, Scottish Women’s Premier League 1 and the British University & College Football League. Today I’m off to see their Lowland League incarnation (their top men’s side) take on SPFL League 2 club Elgin City in the third round of the William Hill Scottish Cup.
Stirling Uni came into life just ten years ago when they were admitted to the First Division of the EoSFL which they won at the second time of asking. In the 2011/12 season the club smashed almost all opposition on their way to winning the EoSFL Premier Division as well as lifting the prestigious Alex Jack Cup after defeating Gretna 2008 in the final. By 2013 their success saw them invited into the new Lowland League, tier five in the newly created Scottish football pyramid system, a division in which the have generally performed very well. Four of their five seasons, in a very competitive league, has seen them finish in the top six of the sixteen team league. A second placed finish in the inaugural Lowland League season behind Spartans (accompanied by a Lowland League Cup win over Preston Athletic) has been their most successful campaign result, while last season’s ninth place was the worst performance thus far.
The University side’s biggest claim to fame is that they were the first male senior team in the United Kingdom to appoint a female boss. On August 19th of 2014 the University of Stirling installed ex-Kilmarnock, Hibernian, Spartans & Arsenal Women’s gaffer Shelly Kerr to the manager’s position. The former Scotland & Doncaster Belles defender is now the FIFA World Cup qualifying gaffer of The Scottish Women’s National Team.
Today I’m looking forward to seeing my Alma Mater in action against another side I’ve never seen play before in the Scottish Cup no less. I’ve been to Forthbank already of course on my travels, for Stirling Albion vs Montrose last season, but it will be interesting to see how the UofS side use the ground and what level of support they get. A day of familiar places and unseen teams ahead, so lets get going.
Pre-match Pints
When I wrote about the pubs of Stirling in my Binos blog I stated my belief that it was not a good city for pubs but also that familiarity perhaps breeds contempt. Today I’ve identified very diverse styles of boozers to try, from auld man’s haunts to places popular with ‘the yoof’ of today, none of which I am that familiar with. First up it’s an old yins, old fashioned pub the Port Customs Bar.
I arrive in Stirling early and have to wait for the pub to open, I’m not the only one as a fair queue has gathered before the lock clicks open. Inside there is a long dark wooden bar and a fresh coat of nutmeg emulsion on the walls. I like the giant pocket watch used as a clock above the bar.
It amazes me, at just five past eleven, how busy this place is. Not just old blokes but the middle aged an women too. I get a pint of McEwans Export for three quid and it is pretty damned good. Great to see an old place like this doing so well and being so popular.
In a city famous for the nearby battlefields of Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn you might expect pubs to run with this theme in order to draw in the tourist cash. This isn’t the case however as one of the towns most popular bars, The Kilted Kangaroo, has gone for a full on Australian theme. It’s a boozer I’ve never been in and when I cross the threshold I instantly regret that fact.
This place is glorious with the Aussie theme running wild: Toilet door handles are didgeridoos for push and boomerangs for pull. Surfboards adorn the ceiling and maps, license plates and other antipodean nonsense cover the walls. Kangaroo meat is through the menu.
A couple of pints (Moretti and some IPA I forget the name of) comes in at eight quid but it is worth it in such a nice place. We also order a Kangaroo cheeseburger each and while it is delicious I have a sense of guilt as the pub’s smiling marsupial mascot grins at me from the napkin.
Finally we head into The City Walls a place I was familiar with in my youth when it was a sweaty underage nightclub by the name of The Courtyard. Now it is transformed into a nice looking chain pub, like a classier ‘spoons, a place where families go for a reasonably priced meal.
The pub appears immaculate and there is a tonne of seating but while we order drinks (a Punk IPA & vodka ‘n’ coke) we are taken aback by a strong smell of pish. It’s weird as it is highly localised to a spot at the bar far from the toilets and with no punters in sight. Apart from that it’s a decent place if not a little soulless.
The Ground
A taxi takes us to Forthbank Stadium for my second visit in eleven months. It is only eight quid entry for this Scottish Cup tie, much cheaper than my last visit and cup fever must have gripped the university as a huge crowd has gathered. Both sets of fans in a single stand for a decent crowd later announced at three hundred and ninety, including a celebrity supporter in the form of Judy Murray. My companion today is from Dunblane and an acquaintance of the great tennis coach, therefore I am gifted the honour of a brief introduction to Ms Murray. And lovely to meet her it was too.
I’m quite impressed by the club’s attempts to make Forthbank appear their own with numerous banners up and cheerleaders putting on a show. There is a positive vibe even as the sun goes down and the temperature drops.
The Match
I had been expecting a competitive fixture given the not great distance between the two sides in the football pyramid and when the game kicked off it did seem like we were in for a balanced affair.
Dreams of a great cup battle were dashed by the fourteenth minute however when the visitors went two goals up, Cameron doubled the lead after Omar opened the scoring at the nine minute mark. The Uni weren’t poor, they played some decent fitba, but when pressing the opposition they had no ability to handle swift counter attacks.
In the second half, after a further cheerleading extravaganza, it was more of the same. The University of Stirling played some lovely football but Elgin’s SPFL pedigree severely punished any mistakes. Hay’s 58th minute strike all but ended the tie and by the time the superbly named Loveland scored a fourth on eighty minutes everyone was begging for the final whistle.
A hard lesson for the uni lads but it wasn’t all negative. In my opinion they have some player in their number nine Aidan Ferris. He covered a lot of ground for a striker and was tough, dogged as well as skillful throughout. Winger Blair Lyons had a good game too and wins the award for best former club as I just read he came to Stirling from Upper Iowa University Peacocks.
The Aftermath
A pint in Brewdog Stirling after the game gives me plenty of time to reflect on the day. First up I think I’ve been too harsh on the Stirling pub scene, it does have some great places and The Kilted Kangaroo is certainly one of them. I’ll be back there soon.
On the footballing front it wasn’t an exciting afternoon at Forthbank, despite plenty of talent and some cracking players Stirling could not break down the visitors from the big leagues and that SPFL experience was too much to handle.
I loved the positive vibe, the good sized crowd (including a celebrity supporter) and the sense of cup fever that had arrived at Stirling University. If they had got the result it could have been a special day and the union bar might have been filling victorious students with a lot of cheap booze.
The Fitba Nomad 