1st Battalion The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders   Football Season 1996/1997

            All photographs are the property of RHQ Argylls and may not be reproduced or copied without permission from RHQ Argylls.

            This year's competitions began with high hopes and expectations. Some very good, young players had entered the fold. Having played a friendly against the respected 32 Signal Regiment team and only been narrowly defeated 3-2, there was a general belief that with some fine-tuning and good luck this could in fact be a very promising year. All players were registered and eagerly awaited the draws for both the Army and Infantry Cups.

             Round one of the Infantry Cup saw the team travelling to Colchester to play against the Royal Scots. This proved to be a difficult game, particularly for Major Stafford, who was under pressure to cheer for both sides; however, the result was 2-1 in our favour, despite having a player sent off in the first half. The game was great, but was somewhat overshadowed by the coach journey there and back. In good traditional Army style the team travelled in the proverbial "WINDAE LICKER" which we actually ended up pushing into a garage on the Al after it ran out of petrol. W02 Reid (the team coach) remarked that it was good stamina training. Needless to say, some of the replies cannot be repeated.

         The next game was in the Army Cup against 35 Regiment RA. This was the first of three games to be played against the RA in this competition. We were to win all three of the games comfortably; the last of the three being a 7-1 win over 39 Regiment RA. Meanwhile, we had also disposed of the 1st Battalion KOSB with a comfortable 4-0 victory in the Infantry Cup. As the saying goes "winning breeds confidence" and this was certainly the case with the Argyll team.

         However, that confidence was about to take a knock with our first defeat, in the Infantry Cup quarter final. The team was looking forward to the day as this was the first time that we had reached any quarter final for sometime. It ended rather unfortunately in a 4-3 defeat after extra time. It has to be said that had our goalkeeper not been sent off, the result would have more than likely been in our favour. Nevertheless, we were out of the Infantry Cup and that defeat still hurts to this day, as we all had high hopes for that competition.

         With the Infantry Cup now over for the year we redoubled our efforts in the Army Cup and were more than ever determined not to be defeated again. We were drawn against 7 Royal Irish in the quarter final of the Army Cup and, although we were confident at this stage of the competition, we knew that a difficult task lay ahead as there were no easy teams left. We heard the usual stories before the game: of how good the opposition was, and how they had all played semi-pro in the Irish league. If these stories were to be believed, we would have been expecting a thrashing. This of course never happened and the Argylls won 4-3 with a sickening blow for 7 Royal Irish when they conceded a ninetieth minute winner.

            We had now reached the semi-final and we awaited the draw with our confidence sky high. We were drawn to play against 7 Signal Regiment in Krefeld, Germany. This became a bit of an admin comedy. After having booked and cancelled flights, ferries and coaches we were finally confirmed on the Hull to Rotterdam ferry. This was an interesting journey, with the ship's magician the highlight of the evening, keeping us all entertained.

On arrival in Krefeld, we began a hard training and tactics session in preparation for the biggest game any of us had been involved in for many years. Our opponents were very confident. To give you some idea of how confident they were, they had already booked a friendly match prior to playing in the final and asked for insurance for the trophy after they won it. This only helped to inspire the Argylls and the day became a great success with a 2-0 victory of which we could all be justly proud. It took a little time to sink in, but we had actually succeeded in getting into the Army Cup final for the first time in 40 years. The final was to be played in Aldershot Military stadium. Our opponents were to be 3 RSME and we all looked forward to the day.

            We arrived in Aldershot two days before the final for vital training and preparation. We had our first disappointment when one of our regular defenders, Cpl Mitchell, had an injury which was to rule him out of the final. We then had to make late team and tactics changes to our game plan. We did not recover from this blow and although the team gave their best we were unfortunately defeated 3-0 at the final whistle. We did however receive the runner's up trophy and medals and we all enjoyed the day thoroughly despite the result.

The Team

Click to enlarge

 Manager —   W02 RQMS(T) Marshall

Coach   —   W02 CSM Reid

Players —   C/Sgt Gallagher

The Results

                                                 Army Cup                                                                                                                Infantry Cup

Edinburgh 1995 - 2001

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Updated: 11 October 2014