Danny's Footballing Education

The value of a good education is not lost on Danny Denholm.  The 26 year old winger’s route into a career in the Scottish senior football leagues is perhaps one less travelled by many of his teammates. Nonetheless it has been a rewarding journey for the Stirling graduate both on and off the field.

One of a group of recent Forfar players to combine a university degree with a footballing education, Danny featured alongside good friend Gavin Malin in various Scottish Universities squads. Also swapping mortar boards for football boots were James Dale, James Craigen, Odmar Faroe and Ross Campbell who coached the squad, belying the old adage that footballers have their brains in their feet.    Danny believes that for him and his contemporaries it was an excellent way to progress all of their career ambitions at the same time.  He explains “The Scottish unis side was quite a high standard with a number of the lads moving into the senior ranks.  We did take it seriously but there was probably not as much pressure on us as on the young lads trying to make it at a full-time club and then getting released in their early twenties with nothing to fall back on. You don’t know what is around the corner but you do know that someday you will be an ex-footballer and so most of us have to prepare for a life beyond the football pitch.”

 Danny’s academic education started at Flora Stevenson Primary School and then Broughton High School, both in Edinburgh.  His early footballing lessons came through playing at Dunedin Boys Club and then as a youngster at Hearts before being released in his early teens.  Around the age of 16 Danny joined Roseburn Boys Club that formed into Edinburgh City FC. 

His descriptions of his early footballing days are peppered with uplifting words such as ‘fun’, ‘enjoyment’ and ‘laughing’. “As a young lad my main memory is being encouraged to take part and have fun. One week you would win 20-0 and the next week you would be on the end of a 20-0 defeat. But you played back then for the sheer enjoyment of being out with your pals having a laugh. You just love being on the pitch and didn’t look too far ahead or back.” 

Hailing from the capital city it’s no surprise that Danny was a regular at Tynecastle with his dad, Bob, a project manager and a Hearts season ticket holder.  From around the age of four Danny recalls these trips with great fondness and in particular was captivated by the skills of John Robertson.  “I loved going to Tynecastle with my dad. My favourite player was John Robertson who, although winding down his career continued to be a prolific goalscorer breaking the Hearts record.”  Danny’s mum, Veronica, a Librarian, comes along to support him but ‘has zero knowledge about football – she comes from a family of Hibees’. It is not clear if these two statements are connected in Danny’s maroon mind.  Older brother Joe and younger sister Ellen complete the Denholm family.  Girlfriend Katie, a structural engineer, appears to have a penchant for Baxter the Bridie. “Katie knows pretty much nothing about football but she does come to see me play. Though maybe that’s because of Baxter rather than me!

In 2008 Danny was accepted on a BA (Hons) degree in Sports Studies at Stirling University which has a UK-wide reputation for its sporting achievements, designated by the Scottish Government as Scotland’s University for Sporting Excellence.  Danny continued to play for Edinburgh City in the then East of Scotland league for the first two years of his Stirling degree.  

It was during a league match between his club and his University that the direction of Danny’s footballing career changed. “I scored a couple of goals for Edinburgh against Stirling and caught the eye of the university manager who then discovered that I was actually a Stirling student! On the back of that performance I was awarded an International Sports Scholarship for my final two years at Stirling and that is when I took my football more seriously again. We trained like a full-time team with a lot of specialist strength and conditioning training and gym work.   This really helped me. I know I am still skinny but back then I was a really really skinny wee boy. Built like the side of a £5 note some would say.  So being able to take advantage of the great facilities, resources and coaching at Stirling really helped my footballing development.”   

This was a very successful time for Danny and his Stirling teammates who played a schedule of games which would make many a well-paid top level player complain about fatigue. The team won pretty much everything in Danny’s final year including the East of Scotland Premier Division, King Cup, Alex Jack Cup, SFA South Region Challenge Cup and the Scottish Universities Queen’s Park Shield.  They were also runners up to the University of Bath in the British Universities Mars Football Championship at Selhurst Park, home of Crystal Palace.   “We played about 70 games in the 2011-12 season with sometimes three or four games per week. Even though there was squad rotation it was incredible amount of football. I think my studies did suffer a bit because of the number of games but it was brilliant to be part of such a successful team.” 

One achievement which evaded Danny was playing in the British Universities squad and the exotic travel which came with it to places such as China and Russia.  Missing out on a place at this first set of trials, Danny made the grade second time around when he was at Forfar but still eligible under the squad selection rules. By then however, Danny was about to go to Livingston and declined the offer.  “When I look back on that I do feel a bit of disappointment because it would have been an amazing experience but you make your choices and at the time I chose the full-time option.”

Although he did not play under Shelley Kerr at Stirling, the first senior club female manager in Britain, Danny is clear it can only be a good thing for football. “It's a very progressive thing from Stirling.  It's a barrier that needs to be broken; it's happening, but slower than it probably should be. A lack of female role models in football won’t help move the game forward.”

Danny himself is seeking to be a role-model in his choice of career. Not settling for his own educational achievements he is keen to pass on his knowledge to future generations as he enters the final year of primary school teaching placements through Dundee University. All going to plan he will qualify next summer. “I love working with kids, they are so honest but also funny. I have been on placements in really tough parts of Edinburgh with a lot of poverty which was humbling but at the same time rewarding.  Kids at a young age are ready to learn and for many of them coming to school is an escape from a difficult home life so you hope you can show them how important school is as well as it being fun. I think it is vital that there are more male role-models in primary school classrooms particularly to encourage young lads in these more deprived areas and football is a great way to relate to them.”

After graduation in 2012 a phone call from Dick Campbell encouraged Danny to come to Station Park. “I have really fond memories of the phone call – I don’t think Dick had ever seen me play but I think Ross put a really good word in for me. I don’t think I was going to use up too much of the manager’s wage bill so it wasn’t really a huge risk! Dick was my first senior level manager and I thought that all managers would be like him ... but I realise now he is one of a kind.”

His time at Station Park could not have started better with Danny scoring on his debut in a cup game against Dunfermline. “It was brilliant but also a wee bit terrifying to make my debut at this level in front of a decent crowd. I was very pleased to score and be part of the winning team as well as getting the man of the match award. I think it just confirmed to me that I could do this. It is quite daunting for a kid who has never played at the senior level to be lining up alongside the likes of Gavin Swankie [also making his debut] and the experienced Chris Templeman.  That was definitely the moment when I thought ‘you belong here’.”   Despite this promising start, the 2012-13 season proved to be a mixed bag for Danny. There were points when he had a good run of league games but then times he was left sitting in the stand.  For a young player, Danny was still only 22, it was difficult to adjust after such a fantastic debut. “Looking back I possibly didn’t handle not playing every week as well as I could have. By the time of the first play-off semi-final match I had picked up an injury but I was fit for the second leg.  I wasn’t stripped because I had already more or less agreed to go to Livingston so I had to watch it from the side-lines which wasn’t easy especially given the way the match unfolded to put us out of the play-offs.”

Despite these up and downs Danny played 32 games scoring 10 goals and by the end of the summer of 2013 the lure of full-time football took him to West Lothian where he joined Livingston. For a young lad who had not expected to make a career out of the game becoming a full-time professional sportsman was a proud achievement. 

The delight at this dream move was short-lived and Danny is quite candid that in some ways it was more like a bad dream at times.  “To be honest it wasn’t a great experience. I wanted a crack at going full-time but it became clear it wasn’t really for me. I got the vibe early on that I wasn’t really wanted by the manager (Richie Burke). The manager was sacked and then John McGlynn came in who was very professional but I don’t think he was too keen on wingers. I’m not feeling sorry for myself because it is a great life being a professional footballer - but when that is your main focus in life it can be tough. Simply put I wasn’t happy there. I was offered another year but I realised I wanted to start something career wise. So I decided to move back to part-time football to allow me to train to be a teacher which would give me a long-term career.”

If it wasn’t for Dick Campbell’s gift of the gab Danny might have ended up playing in red a little bit further north up the A90 in 2014.  “I was speaking to Ray McKinnon at Brechin and was almost on my way there when a phone call came in from Dick. He persuaded me, as only he could, to return to Forfar.  I knew how great the club and set-up was and I still knew a lot of the players. I remembered how approachable and friendly everyone was from the Chairman and the Board through to those working behind the scenes like Martin.  Forfar is a well-run professional club but also has a family feel to it - you are cared about as an individual which doesn’t happen at every club. I started to enjoy my football again and we had a brilliant season during my first year back.”   Although the season ultimately ended in disappointment for the club in the play-off final, Danny enjoyed a good season and felt there was a great spirit among the guys in the squad. “Maybe other teams had a better overall squad but our teamwork and cohesion was first class. It was a real sickener to miss out in that final game at Alloa. Even the weather was awful - dreich which summed up the mood at the end of the day. It was probably the worst experience of my playing career.”

The following 2015-16 season was also gey dreich with a rare highlight the scoring of a sublime goal at Hampden in the Scottish Cup. Danny in his characteristic honest way puts that moment of skill down to him being tired.   “That goal has been brilliant for me in terms of banter with my mates … I have scored an overhead goal in a competitive match at Hampden and none of them have!  I remember being really tired at the time so when the ball came to me I thought I can take a touch and try to beat the player or I can take a swing at it. I was so tired I decided to have a shot at it and luckily for me it went into the bottom corner.”    Earlier in the season there had been the potential for another fond memory to be formed with the Loons playing Danny’s favourites, Hearts, at Station Park in August 2015. Unfortunately it ended in disappointing fashion with defeat for the Loons and Danny sent off near the end of normal time.  “I had a brilliant chance in the 89 minute but hit it over the bar. I could have been the hero and a minute later I was walking up the tunnel having been sent off ... but it was a very soft red card. Anyone who watches me play knows I’m not the dirtiest player!  I was working in a school in Edinburgh at the time so I got a lot of stick from the kids, many of them Hearts fans. They can be merciless when it comes to something like that although the teachers were not much better. It was my birthday the next day so they presented me with a ‘red’ birthday card.”   As for his Dad and possible torn loyalties, “I think he was supporting me ... but he was in the Hearts end so I’ll never really know!”  Danny ended the season as the club's top goalscorer and was given a special award for his wonder goal at the national stadium. 

So far this season Danny has played an important part in the league topping start with the manager Gary Bollan assembling a pool of new players to add to the now old timers such as Gavin Swankie, Foxy and Danny.  With the first pre-season under a new manager Danny noticed changes. “Pre-season at St Andrews was brilliant - the facilities were magnificent. It was probably the hardest pre-seasons I have ever completed with lots of running - footballers don’t like all that running but it is paying dividends with our great start. Gary and his team approached it with meticulous planning and no stone was left unturned in their preparations.”   Danny is enjoying the attacking style of play and is keen to continue to be in the first eleven each week. So what does he think has made the difference this season?  “When you are winning games, the confidence is high so the mentality is there to fight back if you go a goal down. That wasn’t there last season for some reason but now everyone has the belief that we can get back into a game – like against Annan, Elgin and Raith.  Obviously the team objective is to get promotion but we are still taking each game as it comes even though that is a cliché.  Personally I want to get as many games as I can and match last season’s goal tally and give the fans something to cheer.”

Danny doesn’t mind the dressing room ‘geek’ tag. He enjoys watching boxsets of a more cerebral nature - political dramas like House of Cards and obviously has an intelligent sense of humour. “I do get a bit of flak from the boys for being interested in politics … they perceive that because I have a university degree I am intelligent so I do play up to that stereotype to wind them up. I’d probably say along with Malks I am one of the more intelligent ones in the dressing room … but if you spent time with some of the lads you’d realise that wasn’t saying much!”  Away from football and politics he loves to play golf to relax.

For Danny education and educational establishments have played an important role in his life. As his off the field career develops it is clear that he wants to show children that you can combine a career in sport with academic studies. You don’t have to choose in order to have a fulfilling career in either arena.  What shines through most of all is Danny’s desire to inspire youngsters and nurture mutual respect. “You should treat people they way you want to be treated. Working in schools has shown me that you can’t always know what people are going through - there may be a reason why someone is behaving in a certain way and so I hope that I respect others and that they will respect me.”  The children in Danny’s classrooms in the future will undoubtedly benefit from his dedication and thoughtful manner and as the season unfolds Forfar fans also hope to be enthused by his application, speed and a few more wonder goals.  

Danny Denholm was in conversation with Louise Taylor for the match day programme v Stirling Albion on 17 September 2016