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With all this natural beauty surrounding the area, you’d think Fort William would have no trouble attracting players to the club. But they’ve got one big problem, shinty is the main sport around here.

“Fort William is a small community, and sport in the local area is pretty much all shinty. It’s basically hockey without rules. We have five main shinty teams in this area and only one football team. Shinty is one of those things in which people are heavily involved. It has that community with a family involvement around it,” he tells me.

The sport of shinty saturates the area, with established clubs having no trouble rounding up players and getting the support they need. Fort William has struggled to attract players over the years due to shinty’s ironclad grip on the Highlands. The Fort is still very reliant on players travelling from Inverness, which involves a 130-mile trip for some players.

“He would end up travelling six hours just to play his football at Fort William”

Olly goes on to say, “Football is definitely not the main sport in this area, but the club itself has some committed coaches and people that give up their time for the club for absolutely nothing, and that’s amazing.”

This really isn’t a lie. The club once had a player from the Edinburgh area who played for the club. He would travel to away games and come to training once a week (a three-hour one-way trip). He would end up travelling six hours just to play his football at Fort William. Over the last few years, the media has recognised this club more and given them a platform to appeal to a whole new fan base, where they can tell their underdog story to the world.

Part football team, part fearless band of mountain men, Fort William can take a 10-0 thrashing and never let it get them down. Their story is an oddly inspiring one.

When I speak to him, Olly already has one eye on the next challenge he can take on to support his beloved Fort William.

“We have something called the Ben Nevis mountain race, which is run every year in September. Last year was the first time it wasn’t held for thirty years or something because of covid. We have a local doctor who is in his thirties, and he has won it for the last nine years in a row.

“It’s open to people elsewhere as well, but you have certain qualifying stages you have to get to in order to be able to do it. So you have to run a certain amount of hill races over a calendar year to be able to take part. It has around 300 people who do it every year – the average person walking it does it in like six hours, and this doctor is doing it in an hour and a half.

“Fort William can take a 10-0 thrashing and never let it get them down”

“I’ve thought about it in the past, but it’s a mammoth one. That’s something I’d have to have a moment of madness to sign myself up for, and then I’d have to really train for it. Running up any mountain is hard but running up the biggest mountain in the UK is a lot harder.”

As for Fort William, their biggest challenge now is figuring out how to make The Fort a fortress. They’ve got a plan, and it’s a plan as bold as that Auld Alliance made in 1295. Apart from this time, it won’t be the French helping out the Scottish. It will be the Hungarians and the Latvians.

Before touching on the future of Fort William though, let’s run you through the present squad and some of the key standout players. The best place to start is with the team’s current captain, John Treasurer, who at the age of 24 must face the brunt every week as he looks to motivate his fellow players following yet another defeat.

Next up is the reliable Scott Hunter – an architect in real life and one on the pitch as well as he looks to be a creative force in the Fort William midfield. Trying his best to break into the team is talented 16-year-old Robbie Rydings. The forward is hoping to become a mainstay in the Fort William attack when the Highland League starts back up again.

That’s where they’re at in the present, but what about the future? Well, Olly has thought about potentially scouting European workers in the area. With three big companies on the club’s doorstep, and with each of them having an affiliation with countries in Europe, it feels like there’s an opportunity, however unlikely it might seem, to be seized

“The Hungarians that work for me are all fantastic footballers but don’t play for a team”

BSW Timber, where Olly Stephen works, employs up to 200 people. However, the network reaches over 600 when you take into consideration partners. You’ve then got the Alvance aluminium smelter, which offers employment to more than up to 150 people. The third company comes in the form of Mowi Scotland, a sustainable salmon farming business that has a processing plant in Fort William.

Olly tells me, “I have a few Latvian and Hungarians at the mill. The Hungarians that work for me are all fantastic footballers but don’t play for a team. We had a football event at the sawmill about two and a half years ago. The Hungarians really stood out because they all played together, it was a father and his two sons, and the dad who’s in his late 50s was unbelievable, he played semi-professional in Hungary and his kids are great footballers as well. I was thinking when the tournament was going on that we have 8-10 players who with a bit of exercise and fitness could get into the Fort William team.”

Imagine the scenes. Fort William climbing the league pyramid with their very own band of Hungarian superstars. It sounds like something you’d only see happen while playing the eternally popular computer game Football Manager. However, if the last year has shown us anything it’s that we should always expect the unexpected

For now, Fort William is focused on breaking the stigma and continuing to perform their best on the pitch no matter what. FWFC, it’s clear, are champions of the idea that the worst teams aren’t defined by how many games they win, lose, or draw – they’re defined by their ethos. It’s clear to see, following my chat with Olly, that the coaches, players, and fans at The Fort have a good one.

While it isn’t exactly a trophy, Fort William have recently added an impressive accolade to the club’s honours board with the introduction of their own official club tartan. The ‘Mon the Fort’ features the club’s colours, with black and yellow running through the pattern design. It is finished off with a green that represents Claggan Park, and a white that signifies the snow of Ben Nevis.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got to take Fort William from the doldrums to Dundee United away. Well, it’s something to do in lockdown isn’t it?

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