University of St Andrews Football Club
| Full name | St Andrews University Men's Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Saints |
| Founded | 1887 |
| Ground | University Park St Andrews Fife |
| Manager | Stuart Milne |
| League |
Fife Amateur League Premier Division |
The University of St Andrews Football Club was formed in the late 19th Century at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. The Club currently has three teams participating in the Fife Amateur League and in the BUCS League.
The Club fully affiliated to the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1907, playing Senior Football until it allowed its membership to lapse in 1939. Since then the University Teams have been playing in the local Amateur league.
In the early 20th Century the four 'Ancient' Universities (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St. Andrews) were given a bye into the 3rd qualifying round of the Scottish Cup. St. Andrews debuted in 1907 against the Vale of Atholl in front of 1000 spectators at University Park.
The Club have appeared in the Scottish Cup proper on three occasions losing 10–1 to Cowdenbeath in 1923, 3–;0 at home to Bathgate in 1929 and 6–1 away to Nithsdale Wanderers in 1930.
There are no records of the Club's exploits in the Scottish Amateur Cup, but the University side have won the Fife Amateur Cup on two occasions - 1934–35 and 1957–58.
A second XI can be traced back to the 1923–24 season, but it is unknown exactly when the Club first entered a second team into the Fife Amateur League. However, when they did so it was under the moniker 'United Colleges' in reference to the amalgamation of St Leonard's and St Salvatore's Colleges' in 1747. The Club have spent most of their time in Divisions 1 and 2. Their most successful season to date was 2003–04 where they were 'promoted' to division 1 via a restructuring of the league and they won the Division 2 Cup, defeating Inverkeithing Swifts in the final 2–1.
The Club entered a third team into the Saturday Amateur League for the first time in 2005, under the banner of St. Andrews Academicals. After two disappointing seasons, the club decided to stop fielding Academicals in the Fife League.
The University currently play in the Fife Premier Division while the United Colleges play in the Second Division.
The Club competed against the four Ancients in 'Friendly' competition from their formation in 1887 until the introduction of the Queen's Park Shield in 1921. The First XI have won the competition three times the last being in 1942–43. The format of the Shield changed a number of times over the years, but changed for good in the late 1990s when BUCS took over the co-ordination of Scottish University Football from the now defunct SUSF. The Shield is now awarded to the winner of the Scottish 1A Conference, which for the last four years has been won by Heriot-Watt. St Andrews 1st XI have, since the late nineties, been in Scottish Conference 2A suffering many years of frustration and near misses in their quest for promotion.
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