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Post by gazz on Sept 2, 2022 20:38:29 GMT
Excellent reading again, yorks. With Celtic being the only club to have platinum level, would Rangers have been awarded this had they not gone through those well-documented financial troubles a few years ago? According to the SFA Licensing Manual, criteria for each standard consider the following: - • Ground Criteria
• First Team Football Criteria
• Youth Team Football Criteria
• Legal, Administration, Finance and Codes of Practice Criteria
A great deal of care and attention has been given to the drafting of criteria. The focus has been on establishing
a set of quality standards for Scottish Football.
Scottish FA activities with regard to licensing are subject to third party scrutiny by UEFA in order to guarantee
the transparency and integrity of the system
I suppose it's entirely possible that the final criterion relating to finances has prevented it, particularly since they were still substantial £ millions (I want to say £25 million plus but don't quote me on that as I can't remember the figure off the top of my head) in debt when they came out of administration. Thanks, Yorks, that does make perfect sense. This really is a great read, mate.
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Post by dudleyhatter on Sept 3, 2022 12:48:51 GMT
Cheers North Yorks, thanks it is fascinating to see how the league has developed and as always self interest and importance seem to be a priority for leagues and owners.
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Post by woznorthyorksexile on Sept 16, 2022 17:05:53 GMT
By way of a change, I thought I would introduce some of the more noteworthy clubs competing in some of the lower reaches of the pyramid. It is quite a long piece but it seems to me to be a tale worth telling. Gretna 2008 FC have, as their supporters are keen to point out, no relationship to the previous incarnation of the club that rose spectacularly through the Scottish divisions and whose exploits included competing in the Scottish Premier League, competing in the final of the Scottish FA Cup with Heart of Midlothian as well as in the UEFA during the following season. However, they play their home games at the same venue, Raydale Park and their fanbase remains much as it was and the two remain inextricably linked.
Football was first introduced to Gretna during the late 19th century when Gretna Green FC were formed as a junior club and competed in various Dumfriesshire leagues before folding in 1926 without unduly troubling the recorders of Scottish football history. Gretna FC were formed in the immediate post war period. Formed in 1946 by John “Jock” Kerr, whose own playing career started at Queens Park FC whilst working as a fitter in a Clydeside shipyard before WWI interrupted his career before moving to Blackburn Rovers and Brentford, with whom he spent one and three seasons respectively.
The club spent one season in the Dumfries Junior League before heading south of the border to compete in the Carlisle and District League where it continued to ply its trade for all but the 1951-52 season during which it competed in the Cumberland League until, having dominated the competition for most of the next 25 seasons, in 1982 the club successfully applied for membership of the second oldest football league in the world.
In its first season as founder members of the newly expanded Northern League’s second division and, having spent the then princely sum of £100 000 on updating its facilities, the club achieved promotion to the first division behind champions Peterlee Newtown. The following seasons showed steady upward progress and culminated in back-to-back championships in 1990/91 and 1991/92, the second resulting in promotion to the Northern Premier League.
The remainder of the 1990s remained largely uneventful although those with longer memories for the trivia of the game may remember Gretna reaching the first round proper of the FA Cup during the 1991-92 season, losing 1-3 at Spotland after a 0-0 draw in the first game against Rochdale, repeating the feat in 1993-94 season when they lost by the odd goal in 5 to Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park. In doing so, they became the first Scottish club to compete in the first round proper of the FA Cup since Rangers equalled the feat in 1887.
The club’s ambition however was beginning to change. No longer wishing to compete in the English leagues, the club made a series of applications to join the Scottish Football League, the first of which occurred in 1994 as it reorganised in the wake of an attempt by the leading Scottish clubs to form a “breakaway” league. That bid was unsuccessful, ending as it did in the introduction of Inverness Caledonian Thistle, newly emerged for the amalgamation of that city’s two clubs and Ross County into division 3.
A further bid was made in 1999 with the same result, this time the club losing out to Elgin City and Peterhead in a nod to the strength of the Highland League. However, when Airdrieonians left the league following their insolvency, Gretna were elected to the Scottish 3rd division in time for the 2002/03 season ahead of six other applicants, including the newly reconstituted Airdrie United, Cove Rangers and Edinburgh City, now Edinburgh FC.
Their first league game could hardly have started better, taking the lead after 19 seconds against subsequent league champions Greenock Morton in front of a crowd of 1566. Their first season culminated in a respectable record of P36 W11 D12 L13 For 50 Against 50 Pts 45. They also made their debut in the Scottish Cup beating Cove Rangers in the first round before succumbing to Clyde in the second. However, the portents of things to come were there for anyone with to eyes to see. Despite the opening day attendance, it was not long before gates settled at around the 350-400 mark.
The rise and fall of the club is closely associated with the rise and fall of the Durham-based businessman Brooks Mileson. A well-known entrepreneur with a soft spot for, and regular benefactor of lower league football, it is not the purpose of this piece to denigrate the dead so, for anyone wishing to know more there are plenty of sources available online so a brief resumé of the club’s rise and fall will suffice. The club’s second season showed a marked improvement as they finished third however, the following season marked a staggering change in fortune. They won the third division title by an astonishing 20 points, securing promotion by early March and the championship itself by early April.
Their final points haul of 98 beat the previous record of 80 set by Forfar Athletic in 1994-95 In doing so, they scored 130 goals, only 2 short of Hearts post war league record and a new record for the third division, completely obliterating the previous record of 87 jointly held by Ross County (1998-99) and Stranraer (2003-04). They won all their home games, setting a record of 13 consecutive wins before a mid-season hiccup (it is relative, the drew 2 and lost 2 all season) gave them the opportunity to reset the record to 14.
For some perspective, the Scottish lower leagues are largely semi-professional with most clubs maintaining a squad of no more than 20 players. Transfer fees are rare so, it came a s a surprise when Gretna paid Inverness Caledonian Thistle £20 000 for the services of David Bingham who, at 35 went on to finish second in the goal scorer's table with 28 which would have been a new record for this level of the game had his forward partner and trainee medical practitioner Kenny Deuchar (Geoff Stelling’s “the good Doctor”) whose services were acquired from East Fife not come top of the list with 38, including 6 tat-tricks. They followed that up in the January transfer window with an extraordinary fee of £75 000 on Dene Shields to bolster their options up front.
The following league season failed to meet quite the same dizzy heights however, they still contrived to win the second division by a margin of 18 points, finishing well clear of second placed Greenock Morton. However, the 2005-06 season will forever remain memorable as the season they, as the only third tier team reached the Scottish cup final since 3 divisions were introduced in 1974, lost 2-4 on penalties to Hearts. Hearts took the lead after 6 minutes but the expected procession never quite materialised and Gretna took advantage after 75 minutes when Ryan McGuffie tucked away the rebound after his penalty had been saved.
The disappointment was no doubt tempered by the fact that Hearts qualified for the following year's champions league by dint of the fact that, for the first time in 10 seasons, Ranger finished outside the top two. The European sojourn lasted one round only as Gretna were firmly put in their place by Derry City who effectively finished the tie with a 5-1 home win.
The club’s season in the Scottish championship was a different matter. By mid-January, and 12 points clear of second placed St Johnstone, the club off-loaded some of its more experienced players, ostensibly in a bid to reduce the age of the squad, however, in the light of subsequent events, it is possible to see early signs of the financial crisis which subsequently overwhelmed the club. The season went down to the last game with Gretna scoring a late winner at Ross County to secure promotion to the SPL.
It was clear from the off that Gretna had taken a step too far. Unable to play home games at Raydale Park because it failed to meet SPL standards, its minimum capacity being less than 6000, they were compelled to groundshare at Fir Park, the home of Motherwell some 75 miles distant. The season started badly and continued on a downward spiral as the club ended up breaking several SPL records. Those records include, the least points (13), the most goals conceded (83) and the lowest attendance (431).
With the health of the club’s benefactor ailing along with that of his business ventures, the club finished the season with a flourish losing only one of its final 6 games and beating Hearts 1-0 in what was to be its final fixture. A few days after the conclusion of the season, the administrators laid off the club’s 40 remaining employees. The club initially applied to rejoin the Scottish Football League which was still separate from the SPL. Given reasonable doubts about the club’s ability to complete the following season, it was automatically relegated to the 4th tier of the game. When, a few days later the administrators rejected the business plan of the only potential buyer, Gretna effectively ceased to exist.
The next piece will be about the club that rose phoenix like from the ashes, Gretna 2008 FC, illustrated with photographs to be taken from a forthcoming game.
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Post by woznorthyorksexile on Sept 27, 2022 13:12:02 GMT
Vale of Leven FC. In a change from the advertised piece, instead of completing the write-up about Gretna I thought a trip into the history of the formative years of the Scottish game might be of some interest (largely on account of the author having had a senior moment, i.e the old duffer got the fixtures mixed up – Ed). So, while County were coming second to Northampton Town, I had a shlep up the M74 to Alexandria, just to the north-west of Glasgow to visit the area which dominated the early years of the game in Scotland.
The River Leven tips out of the southern end of Loch Lomond, meandering down the valley of the same name before meeting the Clyde at Dumbarton some 5 or so miles to the south and since the complete dominance of the game north of the border by the two Glasgow giants, it is not only difficult to envisage an era during which that was not so, but it is equally difficult to see how such a small area with correspondingly small population could have hosted 3 clubs which dominated the early years of the Scottish game.
Of the first 18 Scottish Challenge Cup competitions from its inception during season 1873-74 through to the 1890-91 three clubs, Dumbarton FC, Renton FC and Vale of Leven FC appeared in 16 finals, winning it 6 times between them. Dumbarton also won the opening Scottish First Division Championship in 1890-91, sharing it with Rangers before winning it outright the following season.
Renton no longer exist. Dumbarton, currently flying high at the top of Scottish League two vacated Boghead Park, their home since 1879 and at that point the oldest ground in Scotland still in continuous use, for a characterless flat-packed ground in the shadow of Dumbarton rock atop which its magnificent castle sits, in 2000.
Which leaves Vale of Leven FC, founder members of the Scottish Football League, 3 times winners of the Scottish Cup in consecutive seasons from 1876-77, the first club to inflict defeat in the competition on Queens Park FC who had won the first 3 trophies and currently plying their trade in the lower reaches of the West of Scotland League Division 3, the 9th tier of the Scottish pyramid, a division below Yoker Athletic.
They are the club for whom this season is its 150th and which still plays at Millburn Park on the banks of the river Leven, its home since 1888, who were the last team to complete a season without winning a single game until Brechin City heroically took that dubious mantle in 2018, and just for good measure, a club embroiled early on in controversy over the alleged professional status of one of its players.
By way of a bit of context, in the early years of the game in this area the dominant sports had been rowing on Loch Lomond and Loch Regattas were not only big crowd pullers but relatively lucrative for the professional oarsmen who took part, cricket, which had been imported by textile workers coming up from Lancashire and elsewhere in England in the 1830’s, and shinty which was brought into the area by Highlanders coming to work in the local factories.
Shinty was played in Alexandria, Renton and in Dumbarton on the Public Parks in both towns and had probably the largest following of all sports in the area. It was the shinty players who decided to give football a try, although they knew very little about the rules of the game.
Formed in 1872 as the Vale of Leven Athletic and Football Club their first game was against the famous Queen’s Park FC, an amateur club whose players were drawn from Glasgow's middle classes, a group traditionally providing a rich seam for Scottish missionary zeal whose activities spread the game very effectively on both sides of the border.
Having heard that the club originally intended to adopt the Rugby code, Queens Park immediately offered to come down to the Vale and show them how to play Association Football rather than Rugby. Sometime in the late summer / early autumn of 1872 the offer was taken up and the first of some 3 or so exhibition games were arranged on the Public Park at Parkneuk, Alexandria, now under a housing estate.
It is interesting to note that these early exhibition games were literally just that, with frequent stoppages to allow the Queens Park players to explain the laws of the game to their opponents and one assumes, the crowd.
By the following year, and now doubt fully cognisant of said laws, the club entered the Scottish Cup. They were drawn against Dumbarton who successfully protested the presence in the Vale team of John Ferguson who, it was claimed, was a professional sportsman and about whom I will write a separate piece in a bid to keep this one to manageable proportions.
The same thing happened the following season, this time against Clydesdale FC who protested before a replay could be played after the first game ended in a 0-0 draw. Vale refused to play the games without Ferguson and were duly removed from the competition.
Vale were allowed to compete along with 48 other entrants in the third competition, losing to eventual winners Queens Park in the semi-finals. The following year however marked a departure from the norm as Queens Park’s dominance was broken by Vale in the quarter-finals having defeated Third Lanark RV in front of a crowd of 4000 in Alexandria along the way.
Queens Park's defeat was the first time that the club had been beaten by a Scots side as Vale came from a goal down to win 2-1. The local press reported that the team were greeted on their return to the town by its the entire population who carried them on their shoulders from the station with the revelry continuing until well after midnight.
The final was played against Rangers over three games following two draws with Vale finally triumphant at Hampden Park, the game ending 3-2. The first replay ended 1-1 and was the first instance of extra-time being played in a Scottish Cup tie although the game was abandoned before the final whistle by supporters invading the pitch in protest when, after a lengthy concurrence, the referee and umpires decided that a rebound off the Vale crossbar had not in fact crossed the line.
A key feature of Vale’s cup successes was the predominance of local men in the team, many of whom worked in the town’s textile mills. A measure of the quality of the team meant that of the 17 players who represented the club in the 3 finals, 9 went on to represent their country. The first of these was the same John Ferguson mentioned earlier whose first cap was won in the Scots third ever international, a 2-1 win over England in a game played at the West of Scotland Cricket Ground in Glasgow on 7th March 1874. His team-mate John McDougall, capped for the first time the following year became the first player to score an international hat-trick in the game also played against England played on 2nd March 1878.
Vale went on to reach a further 4 cup finals, losing all of them. A few days after the last, defeat to Queens Park by 2-1 after a replay, the club was invited Hilton’s Commercial Hotel in Glasgow to a meeting held on 28th March 1890 to discuss the organising of league matches in Scotland. As one of the most successful clubs in Scotland, it was hardly surprising that they became founder members although by this point were a club already in decline.
Their first league game was held at Millburn Park on 30th August 1890 during which they inflicted a 2-1 defeat on the long defunct Abercorn FC of Paisley in front of a crowd estimated at 2000. Despite the encouraging start, the season went badly including an 8-1 defeat the following week at Hearts, 6-0 in the return at Abercorn and a 9-1 thrashing at the hands of Celtic. By the season’s end, they were 9th of 10 and were obliged to seek re-election. Although successful, it merely postponed the inevitable.
The following year they finished bottom of a 12 team division failing to record a single victory, having conceded 100 goals in their 22 fixtures. The club were unsuccessful in their bid for re-election failing to gain the support of a single club. As a result, the club spent a single season in the Scottish Alliance League but dwindling crowds and debts of £500 meant that between 1893 and 1902, the club only played friendly games.
Fast forward to 1905 and the Scottish League now had two divisions, the second of which was about to be expanded. Vale of Leven were elected with Cowdenbeath alongside the re-elected Abercorn and St Bernard’s. For the next 10 seasons, and up to the outbreak of war, Vale of Leven competed in the second tier finishing in the bottom 3 no fewer than 7 times. The principle bright spot came in season 1906-07 when the finished as runners up to Edinburgh club, St Bernard’s.
At the end of May 1915, the Second Division was disbanded due to the 1st World War and along with five other ex-Scottish league clubs, including near neighbours Renton, they joined 5 non-league clubs to form the West of Scotland League. When the Scottish Second Division was reformed for the start of the 1921-22 Vale were invited to join and in their first season, they won a club record 17 league games finishing fourth although they competed without much distinction in the remaining 2 seasons finishing bottom in 1923-24. Its glory days well behind it, the club was relegated to the newly formed Third Division, an event which sealed its fate as a league club.
What turned out to be the final league match was played at Millburn Park on 3rd April 1926, a 2-2 draw against Mid-Annandale whose resurrected descendants now compete in the South of Scotland Football League. The remainder makes sorry reading. Saddled with debts of £800 due to the erection of a roof over one of the stands, the following week, the club postponed its match at Montrose as several its players were suffering injury or illness. Furthermore, with gates dwindling as the area suffered economic depression, the club could not finance the rail fare of 16s 1d to the game. The final straw came when the players refused to play on account of not having been paid after the Mid-Annandale game.
The latter problem was one that many third division clubs were experiencing to the point that the Scottish FA declined to award the championship due to the number of games that had been postponed. With the disbanding of the third division the clubs played in local leagues until, in 1929 the Directors of the club decided to suspend activities until the economic situation improved whilst maintaining the structure of the club. For some historical perspective on this decision, it was taken a few weeks before the infamous Wall Street crash of October 1929.
Unfortunately, the Vale were overtaken by events before the officials had managed to take all necessary administrative steps. The Club stopped playing football but did not withdraw from the Scottish Qualifying Cup in time and were held to be in default by not turning up to play Dykehead in the first round of the Qualifying Cup in the autumn of 1929. Ironically Dykehead, from Shotts, were in an almost identical financial position to the Vale, and barely outlasted them. For this withdrawal, the Vale were expelled from the SFA and were to remain officially in the wilderness for the next ten years. However, where there is a will, there is a way.
Season 1930 -31 saw a “new” football club emerge in the town, the Vale OCOBA. OCOBA stood for “Old Church Old Boys Association”, although which Old Church and which Old Boys remained and remains unstated, no doubt intentionally (there were 2 churches with “Old” in their names in 1929, both Bonhill and Alexandria Parish Churches styled themselves “Old Parish” at that time, so maybe OCOBA included them both. The Vale OCOBA were accepted into the West of Scotland Amateur League in 1930, within a matter of months of the expulsion of Vale of Leven from the SFA and styled themselves “a senior club run on amateur lines”. They also became members of the Scottish Football Association.
In 1939, officials from the OCOBA club were involved with the reforming of the Scottish Alliance League although it was the newly re-named Vale of Leven FC who actually joined. The second World War intervened, the new league was suspended as a result and Vale stepped down to become a junior club which they remain to this day. As such they won the 1952-53 Scottish Junior Cup beating Annbank United 1-0 in front of 50,000.
For the reasons stated above, most Scottish football historians would argue that the Vale of Leven club we see today, is a genuine and direct descendent of the club first formed in 1872 and kept going through thick and mostly thin by several people who have not prepared to let the club with all its history and traditions die quietly. Having spent a very pleasant Saturday afternoon chatting to some of them, I can see why.
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Post by dudleyhatter on Oct 13, 2022 10:59:36 GMT
When two worlds collide!
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Post by woznorthyorksexile on Jul 24, 2023 14:16:26 GMT
Solway Star FC Having unsuccessfully toyed with the idea that I can manage quite nicely without football thank you very much I thought it time to resurrect this thread and describe in more detail a version of the game that I can relate to. It’s not a game in which a club can pay £105 million for a player, an event that I find so egregiously grotesque that my vocabulary is not wide enough to describe my views. Traditional grounds, gritty football, not a multi-millionaire player anywhere in sight, no managers hell-bent on playing the game by numbers as per the FA Coaching Manual which they appear to have swallowed whole and definitely no Directors of Football choking on their own smug, self-satisfied bullshit. It’s altogether more to my liking.
I was quietly musing to myself whilst on the way home from a pre-season friendly at newly promoted Annan Athletic last week, about the game in Dumfries and Galloway and specifically, how few clubs there are in this neck of the woods when the name Solway Star popped into my thoughts so, here’s a piece about a now long-gone club whose existence left few ripples on the history of the Scottish game and whose demise probably upset no-one at all.
The game in the south-west of Scotland has teetered on the brink of oblivion for as long as there have been people trying to get it established. And there are presently only three Scottish League Clubs based in the area, two of whom, Queen of the South and Annan ply their trade in League One and Stranraer in League Two. Tier 6 of the Scottish pyramid contains The South of Scotland Football League, a single division of 12 or so teams whose development is so far behind that of the other tier six leagues, those of the multi-division East and West of Scotland Leagues it really can’t be compared like with like.
The reasons are very simple, population, or lack thereof. For example, Annan, the third most populace town in the region and a small port on the Solway coast from whence Solway Star emerged in 1911 has a current population of half that of Bredbury! I’ll describe the quixotic nature of organised togger in the area in a subsequent piece but suffice it to say for now, for the first years of its existence, Solway Star FC competed mostly in friendly games and local cup competitions, of which there were and remain, very many.
The club joined the Southern Counties League already at its third iteration in 1914 until events elsewhere in Europe overtook such frivolities and the league was suspended without being completed. A couple of forays during the 1920’s into the Scottish cup led to heavy defeats at home, 1-5 at the hands of East Stirlingshire and a 2-7 shellacking at St Mirren.
The club re-joined the Southern Counties League in 1921. Despite no club actually completing their fixtures, the title was awarded to Mid-Annandale FC whose successor club still competes in the SoSFL, even though Solway Star were in second place and only two points behind with three games in hand.
Whether narked at what would appear to be the rather high-handed decision to award the competition to the Mids or whether because they got a sense of which way the wind was blowing, after only one season the club directors resigned the SCL and joined the Western League in time for the start of the 1922-23 season. In June 1923, the Western League was incorporated into the Scottish Football League as its newly formed Third Division.
The club marked its entry in the SFL with a 0-2 defeat at Galston before recording their first win the following week, a 2-1 home win at Kimmeter Green Park, Peebles Rovers the defeated side. Their inaugural season as a league club can be neatly parcelled as they lost four of their next five games including a record defeat for the season by 1-5 at Montrose leaving the club languishing 13th of 16 clubs. By the beginning of December however, a dramatic turnround of form saw them beat Helensburgh 2-1 at home followed by a run of 10 games without defeat.
Although the signs were promising, the season faded towards a disappointing conclusion following a home defeat at the end of February, Nithsdale Wanderers leaving Kimmeter Green with both points courtesy of a 1-0 win and Star lost five of their last six games and finished up firmly anchored in the bottom half of the table in 11th place.
Despite the stuttering start to their league history, the following season 1924-25 proved to be the club's best as they completed the campaign undefeated at home, losing only five times on their travels. They missed second spot to local rivals Queen of the South on goal average only, the crucial game being the penultimate of the season in which they only gained a draw with lowly Dykehead. The dropped point summed up the reasons for their failure to gain promotion admirably well since Star conceded the same number of goals as the Doonhamers (Queen’s nickname) but having scored only 41 times, they had scored 27 fewer than their Dumfries rivals.
As a result, Queens went up into the second division thereby missing the demise of the short lived third tier and went on to complete an uninterrupted membership of the SFL whereas Star went on to become one of the fifteen clubs to leave the SFL and one of the twelve never to return. However, before the drama of the season’s end Star recorded their biggest league win to date, defeating the hapless Dumbarton Harp by 7-1. Unfortunately, Harp folded mid-season having completed only 17 games and their results were expunged from the official records.
Star also reached the third round of the Scottish Cup. In front of a record crowd for Kimmeter Green Park, thought to have been as many as 7000, they lost 0-2 to Celtic, who went on to win the competition for the eleventh time.
The 1926-26 season started with a resounding 1-6 home defeat at the hands of Vale of Leven. Having shown signs of improvement during the subsequent weeks the side went 12 games without recording a win, starting with a 2-4 defeat at Montrose in November. The run was only stopped during the final week of February when they returned the compliment with a 2-1 win at Vale of Leven.
There was still time for Star to reprise the record win expunged with the demise of Dumbarton Harp by walloping Peebles Rovers FC 7-1, but this was a temporary bright spot in an otherwise undistinguished season which culminated in the club’s final ever league game, a 1-1 draw at Lochgelly United. Star completed the season in 11th place having played 29 of the scheduled 30 games following the resignation of Galston FC in January after they had only completed 15 of their fixtures.
There is little further to tell. With the collapse of the third division, Solway Star found themselves in the Scottish Alliance, before dropping into the Southern Counties League, by now on its sixth iteration. The club resigned its place in the SCL in 1933 to allow it to concentrate on cup football. As an aside, the desire of most clubs to compete in cup rather than league football caused the final collapse of the SCL itself only 4 years later.
The club added a second Southern Counties Cup win during the 1937-38 season to the competition first won during 1912-13, a season in which they also won the Potts Cup. In addition, they were also winners of the Southern Counties Charity Cup as well as the Southern Counties Consolation Cup, both achievements coming during the 1913-14 season.
The club made occasional forays into the Scottish FA Cup all of which ended in a thrashing at the hands of league clubs. The one bright spot came in their final excursion into the competition when they recorded a 3-1 first round victory at Larbert Amateurs before succumbing to a 1-9 reverse at Cowdenbeath on the 13th February 1937 this, despite having taken a 7th minute lead. The club finally folded in 1947 with the ground being returned to agricultural use, something that remains to this day. The only sign that a football club ever existed in this part of town can be found in the name Kimmeter Place, a street on a residential housing estate subsequently built nearby.
The club’s complete league record is as follows: -
Scottish Football Division 3 P89 W33 D25 L31 F133 A138 P91
Highest position 3rd 1924-25
Record win 7-1 v Peebles Rovers (SFL Div 3)
Record defeat 1-9 v Cowdenbeath (SFA Cup)
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Post by woznorthyorksexile on Aug 3, 2023 17:00:04 GMT
In the piece about Vale of Leven, the issue of professionalism in the Scottish game was raised so, as promised, here’s some more of the story.
Professionalism in Scottish football.
Before diving headlong into the controversy surrounding professionalism in the early years of the game, it is probably worth looking at the background to the sport and how it developed because there are some similarities between it and the game in England.
It is ironic that a game that has become a mass spectator sport all over the world irrespective of the social status of its audience should have its foundations firmly rooted in that most elitest of institutions, the English Public School system. It was here that the games of Rugby and Association football were developed during the 19th century often, it is said, to provide an outlet for children cooped up within the confines of a boarding education, to let off steam. Children elsewhere had no such difficulty since, particularly in industrial towns, many of them were working 12 hours a day from age 8.
By the middle of the century both sports, but Association in particular, were becoming more widely popular in England although there were probably as many sets of rules as there were public schools. By the 1850’s these had been largely reduced to two, namely the Cambridge version, and the Sheffield version. Thus was the Football Association formed to simplify the rules into one set. The FA‘s first meeting took place in October 1863.
It is worth pointing out that whilst the game played on Boxing Day 1860 between Sheffield FC, officially recognised by FIFA as being the world's oldest football club and Hallam FC who unsurprisingly claim to be the world’s second oldest club is considered to be the first game ever to have been played, it took place under Sheffield rules, rules in which both teams fielded 16 players, there being no offside and pushing players to the ground was perfectly legal!
Meanwhile, back in 1864, the first game under the newly codified rules took place in Battersea Park in London on the 9th January. One set of FA members were so appalled at the changes made under the single set of rules that they took the hump, sloped off and by 1871, came up with Rugby Union. Although a fascinating tale in itself, for my purposes, it is sufficient to say that by 1867, the sport was spreading like wildfire, including north of the border and the first Association Football Club was formed in Scotland.
Queens Park FC took their name from the nearby Glasgow Corporation Park of the same name, named in honour of Mary Queen of Scots rather than Queen Victoria, as is sometimes erroneously stated. The reason for this being that in 1568, the Battle of Langside took place on what became one edge of the park. Defeat led directly to Mary’s escape south, first to “protective custody” in Carlisle and finally to execution at Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire.
Queens Park played on this ground, now the site of the New Victoria Hospital, until 1873, before moving to the first Hampden Park, a short distance away. At first, they had no-one to play so undertook what they regarded as “missionary” work to spread the football gospel as far as the Scottish railway system would allow. Reflecting the origins of the game in the English Public Schools, all the players were amateurs drawn largely from Glasgow’s well-off middle classes.
It’s worth pointing out at this stage that by way of recognition for their sterling efforts, Queens Park were invited to participate in the FA Cup competition during its inaugural season of 1871-72. Not only that, but in recognition of the cost of travel, they were given a bye into the semi-finals, a game which ended in a draw against eventual winners Wanderers FC, the replay being forfeit as the Queens Park club returned home due to the additional cost of the overnight stay required to play the replay the following day.
Interestingly, Queens Park had cancelled a “tour” of the Scottish Borders so that they might travel to London to play in the FA Cup, a tour which was never re-arranged. It is tempting to offer this as the reason why Rugby Union remains the more popular sport in the borders region. So, briefly, such is the background to the game in this country. Amateur, and proud of it and, whilst penned in 1892, and written with cricket in mind, one is tempted to recall the words of Henry Newbold’s poem Vitai Lampada about this selfless commitment to "duty",
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat, Or the selfish hope of a season's fame, But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote "Play up! play up! and play the game"!
The controversy around professionalism was caused by the SFA’s first set of rules for the Scottish Cup, which like the SFA constitution, had been drawn up by Queen’s Park’s middle-class members. They had imposed their own highly selective amateur views on these early rules. Queen’s were supported by other Glasgow clubs which were also largely middle class or drawn from the Volunteer movement (Third Lanark Rifle Volunteers, of which more in a later piece).
One rule in the SFA constitution was crystal clear and seems to have been agreed by all members namely, that clubs could not pay players for playing football. At the outset that was a sensible rule because clubs did not have the money to pay their players. The income which soon flowed in went to pay off the debts incurred in setting the clubs up such as buying and / or laying out grounds, acquiring kits, balls etc. It was almost 20 years before that rule was changed, and long before then it was more breached than observed.
The John Ferguson affair.
The rules for Scottish Cup games were invoked to bar Ferguson from playing, prevented anyone who had been paid for participating in any sport whatsoever from playing in a Scottish Cup tie. Like many other players, Ferguson was an accomplished athlete with a national reputation.
Before he came to football Ferguson had carved out a secondary career as a runner, winning many high-profile races and being paid for them. Far from denying this, he was quite proud of it. A local lad, and Jamestown-born (just the other side of the river Leven from his club), he had been sent out to work in the local print industry at 9 years of age and now in his 20’s he was delighted to supplement his wages with prize money from his running, as indeed were other members of the Vale team who did not enjoy the same high profile as Ferguson. When Dumbarton, Vale’s first scheduled opponent in the inaugural competition claimed there were “one or two others that we could also protest about” in the Vale team they were quite right, and their club never denied it.
What John Ferguson and his Vale colleagues did do, then and for as long as they lived, was to point out the inherent absurdity in that rule. Under its terms, anyone who had ever received a few pence for winning a Sunday School race should also be barred. Having stated their position, in an act of magnificent dignity, they declined to carry that line of argument any further. Instead, Vale of Leven quietly withdrew from the competition, refusing to play without John Ferguson and as a result, they did not take part in the Cup in its first two seasons.
Some would say that the hypocrisy of the newly-formed SFA set the early example that others subsequently followed with some zeal. It came into sharp relief when right in the middle of the dispute when the “blazers” made what was, in the circumstances a stunning decision.
Ferguson was selected to play for Scotland in the third international game against England, in 1874! This made him the first Scottish club player from outside of Glasgow to play for Scotland. How on earth could it have been permissible for him to play for Scotland, but not ok for him to turn out for the Vale in the Cup? Quite simply, when playing for Scotland he didn’t threaten Queen’s Park, Dumbarton or any other Scottish club, and as an added bonus the “blazers” could bask in the reflected glory from a good performance by Ferguson and he went on to deliver a number of those for Scotland.
The way around the problem was to copy the way of all politicians of every stripe before or since namely, look the other way and pretend nothing happened. This piece of performance art continued until the 1880’s when the problem became so large, it could no longer be ignored.
The cause of the difficulty lay south of the border when, in 1885 it became permissible for English clubs to pay their players. Thus, the great Preston North End side, the “Invincibles” who won the inaugural Football League competition and FA Cup, completed the season unbeaten having won 18 and drawing 4 of their 22 league games as well as winning their 5 cup games. They achieved this feat with a team which included 6 Scottish players all of whom had travelled south specifically to avoid the Scottish ban. That however, will be the subject of the final piece about professionalism in the Scottish game.
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