Saints released the second episode of our Behind the Scenes documentary last week, looking at the career paths of some of our players before joining Saints.

UWS student and contributor Giuseppe Taouss caught up with Saints winger Zac Hannay to hear how Zac has been getting on at St Mary’s.

Zac Hannay reveals to me that his positive and upbeat approach to life has been the driving force behind juggling recovering from injury and being a full-time university student.

The promising young player from Annan, joined St Cuthbert Wanderers in September. Before joining, the player suffered a groin injury and had to undergo surgery, whilst beginning his journey as an economics student at Stirling University. 

It was his first test of his strength and character as he struggled with being unable to play for a year.

 …the injury affected me mentally at times; you see everyone else playing and knowing that you can’t join is really upsetting.

To be honest that time was brutal for me, being at University and having to recover from an injury at the same time was a lot and it took its toll on me.

Despite the setback, Zac tried to remain in good spirits, and he believes that pushing forward and staying positive is the only way to overcome life’s hurdles.

All you can do is push yourself and remain positive in order to recover quickly. I always knew I was going to bounce back it would just be a matter of time. These are just the downfalls of football you need to deal with sometimes.

Fully recovered and fighting fit, the youngster, joined Saints with the right attitude and an eagerness to perform well and train hard.

Training is particularly good, a few of the boys have played at a higher level before so they constantly want to win, even in training games which spurs me on to give it my all too. They’re winners and it comes out during the games on the Saturday too.

His season with the club has been a truncated one, limited heavily then declared Null & Void by the COVID pandemic.

it was gutting but best thing you can do in these situations is pick yourself up and keep going.

The midfielder is finishing his third year at Stirling University and adapts to the new online way of working throughout the pandemic.

It’s been a struggle doing university remotely; it can be pretty lonely. The most challenging thing for me has been not being able to socialise and see anyone. I’m really looking forward to getting things back to normal and playing on a Saturday with some fans in the ground.

As always, Zac is looking at the positives and is excited for the future with the Saints; he believes his team is in a good place and is confident they will do well next season.

Our goal is to win the league next year. We started well this season, so hopefully, we can continue to progress for next year.

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