Leave the preconceptions and punchlines at the door.
The notion of a rag-tag band of bleary-eyed students, still recovering from the previous night’s festivities; boots in carrier bags. There’s a certain romance to that tableau, particularly for those reliving their own “glory days” many moons ago.
However, that fanciful fiction could not be further from the truth of the University of Stirling.
By the time the final ball is kicked this season, Chris Geddes’ industrious charges will have participated in EIGHT different competitions.
Just this Wednesday — when the reader might reasonably assume all focus would be on a historic trip to Tannadice — Stirling Uni were sealing their second successive BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) Premier North title with a 3-3 draw in Durham.
The others, for those keeping track, are the Scottish Cup, Lowland League, Lowland League Cup, South Challenge Cup, East of Scotland qualifying Cup, The BUCS knockout phase and Queen’s Park Shield.
Stirling Uni’s first-team will play in the region of 70 games this season, depending on success. Boss Geddes, who also oversees the under-20s, will take charge of more than 100 fixtures.
“It’s absolutely mental,” laughs club captain James Berry, formerly of Raith Rovers. “We played 63 games in total last year and we are well on course to beat that this season.
“We don’t have a huge squad so most of the boys play every game. I’ve only missed two games this season and, like a lot of the other boys, it’s basically Wednesday-Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday for a whole season.”
“Ridiculous”
So much for the tiresome cliché of the slothful student.
Berry, in his his final year of a sports business degree, is juggling that fixture congestion with exams and ongoing work on his dissertation. Shackling Dylan Levitt sounds a doddle, by contrast.
Wow! What a support for our #UofStirling footballers 🤩💚 @LilianThuram21 @JudyMurray @DougieVipond @evemuirhead @RossMurdoch_
Let's get behind the team, secure your tickets at https://t.co/b3y1xKedgz pic.twitter.com/5ZGmuzh8wf
— University of Stirling (@StirUni) January 20, 2023
But he would have it no other way.
“I was half-way through my last year at Raith and there were other options I could have pursued,” recalls Berry. “It was my mum who told me I should apply for Stirling University. She had looked into the scholarship option.
“Chris (Geddes, manager) got in touch and it snowballed from there.
“I don’t think young players know too much about the opportunities here, which is a shame. You could speak to everyone who graduates from here — they will say it’s the best four years they have in football.
“You meet friends for life, you get a degree at the end and you get to play a RIDICULOUS amount of football! There’s nowhere else in the country that offers that chance to young players.”
Attention
And the standard is not to be underestimated.
Stirling Uni are punching above their weight in the Lowland League, just three points off the summit and a potential crack at promotion to the SPFL — an achievement that would be truly staggering.
Not only are they up against big-spenders like Open Goal Broomhill and the cream of Celtic and Rangers’ academy, but must contend with a yearly churn of players as their top talents graduate and depart.
“Due to people graduating, the truth is we never quite know how good we’ll be at the start of any season,” confesses Berry. “I saw one prediction that we’d finish 14th this year — so you just use all these challenges as motivation.
“The Scottish Cup tie will rightly get a lot of attention, but even how well we are doing in the Lowland League this season has surprised a lot of people and crowds have gone up.”
Around 1,000 spectators will be roaring on the student underdogs at Tannadice on Saturday.
Should Stirling Uni achieve the unthinkable and emerge victorious, it would go down as one of the biggest upsets since the inception of the world’s oldest cup competition.
That is no exaggeration.
Easton’s expert advice
And they can call upon the expertise of Craig Easton, the former United favourite who coached Berry at Raith Rovers and is a regular on the Tannadice gantry for BBC Sportsound. Not a bad brain to pick.
“Easty has been in touch and offered to give us some pointers ahead of the game,” smiled Berry. “Though I’m not sure I should say that. I know how highly thought of he is by the United fans and I wouldn’t want to ruin that!
“He was amazing for me. If you ask any of the boys who were at Raith at that time, they loved him. His enthusiasm was infectious.
“Even silly things like doing yoga with the boys, as well as the energy of the sessions; it was second to none. He helped me a lot.
“I grew up Rovers fan — and it’s easy to get caught up in playing for the club. There’s a lot of emotional connections there. You can beat yourself up when things don’t go too well. Easty helped to make sure I always kept that enthusiasm and enjoyed my football.”
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