Fight at the Fort

In the heart of the Scottish Highlands, Shadab Iftikhar has become Britain’s only Asian football manager. Desperate for a break, he’s taken on one of the hardest jobs in the country, trying to save Fort William FC from relegation, a team that hasn’t won a league game for two years.

Fort William FC’s picturesque home sits at the foot of Britain’s highest mountain, but in January 2022 a more ominous threat overshadows the club. For the first time ever, the Highland League (the fifth tier of Scottish football), has controversially introduced relegation for the bottom placed team, a position Fort William FC has occupied for the past five years. It could be the end for the community club: this season, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Fort William FC.

In a remarkable twist, a new chairman, John Trew, has secured the services of a young manager with a CV unlike any other in the league. At just 31, Shadab has managed in Mongolia, Samoa and scouted for the Belgium national team. Shadab is now set to become the only Muslim and Asian football manager in the country – and in one of the least likely locations. He has a mountain to climb, arriving halfway through a thus-far winless season, with the club rooted to the bottom of the table.

With meagre resources, Shadab builds a new squad mixing local players with imports from England and abroad who, desperate to play professionally, are accepting a paltry wage in return for one last chance to prove themselves. Fight At The Fort follows the efforts of the eager young manager to save the club, as he battles challenges on and off the pitch. The films explores both his and his players’ desire to make it at the highest level possible, at all costs, moving hundreds of miles, for little pay, to play for a team seemingly doomed to failure.

Can Shadab and his team become local heroes, prove themselves, and save Fort William FC? If they are to do so, they must also rise above the club’s ongoing battle with the figures that run the league itself, as well as the difficulties they face in having to play every game away, given the supposed poor state of their pitch.

Mirroring the struggles facing many British ethnic minorities trying to progress in traditional establishments, Shadab is breaking social convention. The film explores Shadab’s pride in his heritage – born in Preston to an Indian mother and Pakistani father – and the discrimination he’s faced as he tries to build himself a career, which he started by playing the computer game Football Manager.

Can the ambitious Shadab make a name for himself and pull off what he describes as “the greatest escape in the history of the sport” – or will a growing set of unforeseen challenges defeat him?