Football pre-season success
Following a fantastic year of football in the 2021-22 academic year, Saints Football came back raring to go with new international recruits, excited to see what the year holds.
University of St Andrews Women’s Football had a record-breaking preseason from August 29th to September 9th 2022. Over sixty players from around the world attended pre-season sessions with each of the three competitive teams hosting sessions. Practices ranged from technical sessions to co-ed club footy tournaments and team picnics. It was an unbelievable opportunity to not only bond as a team but also a club. Week 1 ended with a night out in Dundee which fostered team bonding and was a great way to relax after a long week! 
Our Men’s Football had a slightly longer preseason with their first BUCS games not starting till mid-October. With some of the new recruits joining in during preseason to get an early start, that made this the largest preseason the Men’s side has ever had. Recruiting over 90 new players, this brings the total number of members in the club to over 250.
In week 2, we hosted the University of Ulster Football Club and the Women’s 1st team scrimmaged against Ulster’s Women’s 1st team. 
Despite ending in a loss, 5-1, it was a great opportunity to play some amazing football against one of the top teams in the UK. To round off preseason, the Women’s 1st team competed in two more scrimmages, one against East Fife winning 5-0 and another against the Women’s 2nd team.
The Men’s 1st team also played against Ulster’s 1st team for their first friendly during preseason, Ulster’s men’s team currently compete at the highest level in Northern Ireland. Even though the Saints Men’s 1st team have just had the second largest transition, with all the new freshers, they managed to win 4-1.
The Universities Men’s 1st team also managed to have another three preseason games before their first BUCS game with one being a varsity game against Dundee University which saw them travel to St Andrews to be defeated 5-1, this extended the home unbeaten run to 9 games. The second game being against Abertay’s 1st team, which was a hard-fought game from both sides but saw Abertay the victors. The last game was against Carnoustie Panmure, who compete in the SJFA Midlands League, where we lost 5-1.
In addition to all this, we also held multiple Give It A Go sessions which led to the formation of the recreational 4s team for the Women’s side of the club. The total number of Women playing recreational football for the club is now over fifty for the first time in history. This was such an amazing time to capture the growth of Women’s football at St Andrews and it was an absolute honour to be a part of it, ASAW!