THE MAGIC OF FORT WILLIAM

MAT GUY REPORTS ON AN ISOLATED CLUB STAYING STRONG IN THE FACE OF DVERSITY...

- MAT GUY

A TEAM is only ever as strong as its weakest link. That player prone to the odd mistake or poor judgement at critical moments sometimes defines a season just as much as the talismanic striker that inspires you to dream of silverware and glory.

Sometimes leagues are judged in this way too, their poorest relative touted when feeling the need to disparage a division for whatever point during a postmatch pint at the local.

But, sometimes, it is those perceived weakest links, those perennial basement bedfellows who help illuminate the great strength and worth of a league. Leagues like the Scottish Highland League.

The most northerly senior division in Britain, the Highland League spans a vast distance across some of Scotland’s most stunning scenery.

From Wick Academy a few miles shy of John o’ Groats in the far north, to Inverurie Loco Works (a ten-hour round trip for the Scorries of Wick) situated a few miles north west of Aberdeen, the league traverses mountain ranges, country parks, thick forests, grand, mystical lochs, and lush valleys that are home to some of the most famous whisky distilleries in the world.

But beyond it all, isolated away out on the west coast of Scotland, huddled beneath the towering shadow of the ominous Ben Nevis, stands the Highland League’s ‘weakest link’ – Fort William Football Club.

Formed in 1974 to provide senior football to a region of Scotland that had never been represented before, Fort William joined the Highland League 11 years later. After a couple of mid-table finishes in their first two seasons, The Fort’s isolation and paucity of local talent saw them drift to the foot of the league, finishing in the bottom three all but four times in the following 32 years.