Club News

 

Club History

The First 55 Years

 

To George (Bunter) Stephen who has been associated with the club for it’s entirety. George, sorry, Bunter has played, coached, managed, ran the line (white hankie in hand), been the Secretary and was also our President and until quite recently never, to the best of my knowledge, missed a game without a really good reason or a letter to excuse him. He almost singled handily looked after the interests of not only the club but also those associated with it. Which was no mean feat. We all know that Kate, god bless her, was a driving force behind him, and always made sure that up until 7 years ago, we had a clean and well presented kit to wear for each game- how she ever got the mud out of those kits and never complained about socks not being the right way out I’ll never know! especially when we were playing 3 or 4 games a week and that Bunter was always available for his other Love Nicoll’s XI.

 One of the most interesting parts of compiling this summarised history was reading through the association minutes.

Who would have thought all those years ago that the Nicoll’s name would still be synonymous within Amateur Football in the new Millennium? If it had not been for a hardy few who worked or was associated with the fish trade, and the sponsorship by a certain Babby Ann Nicoll who was the founder.

Nicoll’s XI applied to join the Aberdeenshire Amateur Association on the 27^th June 1952 and was accepted into the 3^rd division. The Original team consisted mostly of players from the staff of her fish business and other associated fish trades, with her son Eddie being the teams First Manager.

However, we may not have been here tonight as in those early days attendance at meetings was sporadic to say the least accumulating with Nicoll’s XI having to rejoin the Association on the 1^st August 1954 after failing to renew their application.

Nicoll’s XI First Trophy came in Season 55-56 when they won the Nicoll Shield for the 3^rd Division Winners, which was sponsored by none other than Babby Nicoll.

This success was followed in quick succession in 56-57 when Nicoll’s XI won the 2^nd Division and in 58-59 when they won the 1^st Division breaking a championship run by Cove Rangers who had won it the five previous seasons.

Success on the field then slowed somewhat although Nicoll’s maintained first division status until 65-66 and several of their players such as A Freeland, Smith, Harper and Burnett went on to play in the Association Select for many years with Burnett also captaining it. They also reached the semi final of both the North of Scotland Cup and AFC Trophy before being beaten by the eventual winners Aberdeen University and Cove Rangers In 1968

Bunter as we all know takes great pride in informing us all, that he was never booked or sent off during a long and illustrious playing career, which spanned until he was 61. However, an extract from the records show that a certain Mr George Stephen was censured to his future conduct and fined £2 for assaulting a Mr William Stephen whilst running the line against St Andrews. (On appeal this caution was quashed).

This was also the Year that Bunter became President of the Aberdeenshire Amateur Football Association a position he held until retiring in 2000 During his period as President Bunter was bestowed with the position of Life Membership of both the National and Local Football Associations in recognition of his work in amateur foot balling circles from the late 60s and into the 70s Nicolls floated between the 2^nd and 3rd Divisions

1974 “Bunter” at the age of 58 showed that you are only as old as you feel when he went in goals for the first half against Hermes, when the keeper failed to turn up on time, As luck would have it the only goal of the game came while George was between the sticks. During this time for a short period Nicoll’s played their home games at Walker Park and for those players and officials that can remember although not a lot of games were ever off the wind and temperature even in the summer meant that you had to be well wrapped up.

In the Mid eighties Raymond Morrison took on the role of Player / Coach and whilst Bunter continued with his Nicoll’s secretarial and the Association Presidential duties.This combination seemed to work as Nicoll’s won a trophy (the good conduct cup for having the best discipline) for div 5 in  88-89

 In season 90 – 91 Nicoll’s just missed promotion from Division 6 by two points, however, the following season Nicoll’s were into the 5^th Division and looking to progress even further up the leagues. At this time they were playing their games at Inverdee1 and played there until the council gave up the pitch for the Goals Complex.

Although pitch number 1 at Inverdee our home had gone the team staved off a relegation scare with a 9 game unbeaten run.

During season 92-93 Nicoll’s gained promotion to the 4^th Division.

A move in October 95 to their new home ground Lochside Park that is shared with Hermes Juniors and a return of James Morrison ( Jimmy Mo ) saw the team once more progress upward to the 3^rd Division. via a play off against  Bridge of Don        which went to extra time (Photo 5)

Division 3 is where Nicoll’s XI stayed until a restructure of the Committee and Management took place with R Morrison and A Stratton stepping aside to create the structure that we have to-day of a Club Management and a Team Management. The new Team Management of Lewis Muirhead and John Craig along with Gus Mackie saw a large influx of new players and also promotion at the end 97-98 to the 2^nd Division. This partnership continued to show progress and Robert Simpson (Bobby) who had joined the team as a coach took over as Manager in February 99.

The remaining games of season allowed him to assess the challenge which lay ahead, and during the close season of 1999-2000 he completely revamped the coaching and playing staff bringing in a blend of youth and experience such as Martin Small, Quentin Niven, Steve Anderson, Brian Hay, Mike Dunn, Darren Redford but to name a few. With these, and the rest of the squad Nicoll’s went on a 25 game unbeaten league run which started 30^th September 2000 through to the 6^th June 2001 and eventually saw Nicoll’s XI crowned 2^nd Division Champions and take their place in the New Premier League. In the first season in the premier Nicoll’s achieved their highest ever finish in the Amateurs in 45 years when they finished 3^rd behind Echt and Kincorth, and were runners up in the Association Cup being presented with the Bowie Cup for our valiant efforts.

Success  followed after the disappointment of relegation from the Premier in season 2002-03 and the first division in 2003 - 4 when Martin Small became the Manager and started to-days revolution both on and off the park.

First of all he introduced a new coaching line up of Rob McRobb, Dave Small, Mike Cordiner all outfield coaches and Steve Anderson the goal keeping coach with experience at all levels of football from professional through to amateur. An influx of new players arrived during that first preseason and were the basis for success which saw Nicolls  promoted as Runners up in Div 2 East in Season 2005 -6 another new influx of under 19 players from the Bridge of Don Boys Club then went on to win the First Division North in 2006-07 resulting in promotion to the Premier Division, and also capturing the Stephen Shield which is named after and donated by Bunter by defeating Feuchside 2 – 1 after extra time in this our 55th Anniversary year.

Progress has continued under Martins guiding hand and at present Nicolls are giving a good account of themselves in the Premier Division and have won the Ian Napier Trophy with a 2 - 1 victory over West End at Lochside Park .