As we approach ‘crunch time’ in the Wearside Premier Division, it seems an apt time to introduce the first team players and lay out the challenges that lie ahead.

As I am sure many of those reading this piece will be aware, this is the third season of the partnership between Durham United and Durham University AFC. Having finished sixth and seventh in the previous two seasons – which both posed their own challenges – it was the aim of this group of players to finally make that push to (hopefully) deliver the Northern Football League to the club.

This piece has three aims: firstly, to give a flavour for what it is like to run and play for a student-run football club. Secondly, to give a brief update on the season so far. Finally, to give you a bit of detail behind the players stepping out each week.

Student Football at Durham University

The landscape is an interesting one for university football clubs like ours, as every year approximately a third of the squad changes as first years join the university and older boys graduate, meaning continuity of players between seasons is rare as much as those at the top of the club work hard to keep our ethos, principles and systems consistent year-to-year. In addition, for universities** such as Durham who run a national non-league campaign (Step 7), there is a further challenge in fighting on two fronts every week, playing on Wednesdays in the university (BUCS) leagues and Thursdays and Saturdays in non-league. Logistically this means across the first team we will often play three games per week…

** Newcastle University and Loughborough University are two Uni's that compete on two fronts, BUCS and non-league.

Season Update

Currently the first team sit top of the Wearside League, five points clear of next and cross -city nearest rivals, Durham Corinthians, with a game in hand. Following a disappointing loss on the road on Saturday the team have currently played nineteen, won sixteen, drawn once and lost twice. Success so far has been built on a solid defence, conceding just nine times in the first eighteen games of the season (I’ll smooth over the fact we shipped a further three last Saturday yesterday). At the other end of the pitch, we are currently averaging a little over 3 goals scored per game.

In the BUCS leagues, the first team are top of Northern Tier 1 (the rough equivalent of the Championship in football league terms) with 4 games to play. Our ambition is to bounce straight back to Premier football, having won the National Championship two years ago, the first team was relegated last year. The team travels to Leeds on Wednesday for a must-win top of the table clash, ahead of another six-pointer against Easington Lane the following night. Elsewhere the second team have won their league with two games to spare, with several of these boys featuring regularly for the Durham United FC First Team XI.

Upcoming League Fixtures for February:
6th / 19:30hrs @ Home/Maiden Castle v’s Easington Lane
8th / 14:00hrs @ Away v’s West Auckland FC Reserves
15th / 14:00hrs @ Away v’s Windscale
18th / 19:45hrs @ Away v’s Durham Corinthians
22nd / 14:00hrs @ Home/Maiden Castle v’s Annfield Plain AFC

One for the diary is our first senior team Cup Final appearance, Alan Hood Charity Cup when we play Durham Corinthians at their home ground (Consett AFC); lets hope we drum a following and make it a special Claret and Amber day.

The Team

It's a team, and a club, that pulls players from all over the country, with diverse footballing journeys. Top scorers Fin Gwillim and Phil Kay both hail from the South-West, having represented several of the clubs in the area, including Forest Green Rovers and Bristol City. Two of my Centre Back partners Ellis Challinor and Chris Wild are based in the Northwest; Chris played his youth football in and around Manchester, while Ellis has grown up playing and watching his dad, Dave, successfully earn promotions as manager of Hartlepool and currently Stockport County. We are glad that Els has inherited his dad’s knowledge of the game as well as the infamous Challinor long throw. Goalkeeper, Harry Archer, is a season-ticket holder at Sunderland and can be quite hard to prize away when there’s a three o’clock kick off at the Stadium of Light. This affiliation is amicably contested between Archer and Morgan Lant, Centre Back, who has been a lifelong season ticket holder at St James’.

Our first years have brought a brilliant energy to the group. Rory Edwards, recently ‘dual-reg’ with Dunston, has been an incredibly bright spark since joining us in August, an ex-member of Crystal Palace’s academy, he brings a passion for the game that I have rarely seen. I have already mentioned Phil Kay, who is in college with Rory. Ossie O’Neill has joined us with previous experience at Brighton, while Charlie Bramwell and Paddy Dixon have also been regulars in the Durham United XIs this season.

We also have a wealth of experience - relatively speaking - provided by our postgraduates at the other end of the club. Ollie England is in his *whispers* fifth year as a student at Durham. A fellow National Championship winner and my co-president at DUAFC, Ollie spent last year on an ‘industrial placement year’, working at Adidas’ HQ in Nuremberg, Germany in their product innovation team… he’s certainly got the freebies and the stories to prove it. Elsewhere, Sam Benoist, Chris Seery and George Pitsillides have all joined us for a Master’s following the completion of their undergrads in various parts of the US.

Finally, a nod to our Durham United coordinators, without whom, this partnership would not be possible. Jonah Blake and Tom Trace, housemates and fierce friends do a stellar job getting teams on the field and sometimes more importantly accounting for a lack of drivers to get everyone and the kit to games. Without their work, this partnership would not be possible.

So I sign off with a thanks for reading and following our journey. It is my continued ambition that we foster closer ties to the Youth section of Durham United, and hopefully our work with Mark and Rob, to get our boys down as coaches to midweek sessions is another step in the right direction.

We so enjoyed having the boys down as mascots for our recent two seasons of County FA cup ties (v's Julio Arca's South Shields FC and Consett AFC); lets hope we do this again before the season ends.

If you would like more frequent updates and match reports from both Wearside and BUCS games then these are available via our website www.durhamuniversityafc.co.uk or via social media, primarily Instagram, @durhamuniversityafc.

Feel free also to reach out to me if you have any questions about goings on in the university football club or indeed life at the university, I’d be happy to answer via email duafccaptain@durham.ac.uk.

Enjoy your football - Up the Clarets

Freddie Merrett

Co-President, DUAFC; First Team Captain, DUAFC and Durham United