Sauchie Juniors F.C.
 | |||
| Full name | Sauchie Juniors Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Rab Laws Big Baws | ||
| Founded | 1960 | ||
| Ground |
Beechwood Park Sauchie | ||
| Capacity | 5,000 (approx. 200 seated) | ||
| Manager | Fraser Duncan | ||
| League | SJFA East Premier League | ||
| 2015–16 | SJFA East Superleague, 14th (relegated via play-off) | ||
|
| |||
Sauchie Juniors Football Club are a Scottish junior football club based in the village of Sauchie, Clackmannanshire. Their home ground is Beechwood Park and club colours are red and white.
The SJFA restructured prior to the 2006–07 season, and Sauchie found themselves in the 15-team East Region, South Division. They finished second in their first season in the division.
History
Sauchie Junior Football Club began as Sauchie Juveniles, which was a league for players up to 27 years of age. Sauchie won the Scottish Cup four times (1951–52, 1956–57, 1957–58 and 1959–60). Having won every trophy possible as first class Juveniles, Jimmy Millar, the Secretary decided to go into the Junior grade. In the Club's second season as a Junior team, it won the East Region League Title, using mostly the Juvenile players.
The Park
Sauchie Juniors started playing at Fairfield Park, Sauchie, but built a new park for themselves – the present ground – Beechwood Park. This has been developed in 2003 with the building of a new stand an enclosure and the erection of floodlights.
Ground Capacity: 5,000 (approx) Covered Standing Area: 500 (approx) Seated Stand: 200 (approx) Bar/Function Suite Capacity: 100 (approx)
Staff
Manager – Fraser Duncan
Assistant Manager – David Beaton
Famous Players
Alan Hansen – Right from the start Sauchie has provided many players who became seniors - including three who became full Scottish Internationalists - Alan Hansen (Partick Thistle and Liverpool), his brother John (Partick Thistle), Joe Craig (Partick Thistle and Celtic) and Nicol Craig (Rangers). Jim Wallace went to Dunfermline and won Scottish under-23's and League Caps. More recently Paul McHale moved to Cowdenbeath then Clyde and is now at Dundee.
George Connelly – One other Internationalist player who gave great service to the Club was George Connelly of Celtic, but unlike the others, Sauchie was his last club, not his first.
Famous Cup Wins
Sauchie Juniors won the East Region, St Michael's Cup twice, in 1972 and 1974. After winning the East Dryburgh Cup in Season 1982–83, the team went on to defeat the other Dryburgh winners, Sunnybank, East Kilbride and Auchinleck Talbot to win the National Dryburgh Trophy.
After a barren spell, in season 2002–03 and then again in 2003–04 we won the Fife and Lothian Cup defeating Glenrothes and then Linlithgow Rose the following season.
The furthest Sauchie has gone in the OVD Scottish Cup is the quarter-final, when we lost 4–2 to Newtongrange Star at Newtongrange in 1970, then again in 2004 when after a 0–0 draw at home to Glenrothes, Sauchie were defeated 3–2 in the replay.
In season 2001–02 a team composed mostly of Gairdoch United under 21's, under the guidance of Jan Woojek brought Sauchie out of the doldrums. Willie Irvine and then Neil Duffy continued the growth with Alan McGonigal taking over until he moved on to Super league side Camelon.
Grant Brough took over the reins in season 2008–09 finishing third in the league, and continued into 2009–10 season with his back room staff of Myles Allan and Scott Stenhouse.
At the tail end of 2009–10 season Grant and his back room staff were replaced by Fraser Duncan and David Beaton. They took the team to fourth-place finish in the league and gave them a good grounding of what the Junior game is about. New signings were made for the start of the new season and a good blend of players came to Beechwood Park.
In 2011 Fraser and his team won the South East Region League to gain promotion to the Premier League. In Sauchie's first season in the Premier League, Fraser and his team won the League to gain promotion to the Super League. This was an amazing achievement to be back-to-back League Champions.