Bathgate Football Club was a football club based at Mill Park in

Bathgate Bathgate ( sco, Bathket or , gd, Both Chèit) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston, Scotland, Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway (Scotland), M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Armadale, West Lothian, Armadale, Blackburn, ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. The club was a member of the Scottish Football League from 1921 until 1929.

History

The club was formed in 1893, as the result of a merger of Bathgate Rovers F.C. and Bathgate Athletic F.C., the latter club having split out of the former club at the start of the 1892–93 season, and as a result crippling both clubs. Rovers, who played at Boghead Park, allowed its lease over to expire at the end of the 1892–93 season. Consequently, a meeting was held at the Bathgate Institute, with a view to forming a new club for the town, and it was agreed to set up a fresh club, under the name Bathgate, which would endeavour (successfully) to re-gain use of Boghead, and which was made up of Rovers and Athletic players. The new club joined the

Central Football League There have been at least three competitions in Scotland known as the Central Football League The first was originally formed in 1896 by five clubs - Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline Athletic, Fair City Athletic, Kirkcaldy and St Johnstone. In 1897 this v ...

and other minor leagues, and moved to Mill Park in 1902. Bathgate returned to the Central League in 1919 and were one of several clubs incorporated into the Scottish Football League Division Two in 1921. The club initially performed well in Division Two, coming close to promotion in 1923–24. Bathgate soon found themselves dogged by financial problems, however. In 1924,

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club

Larkhall Thistle Larkhall Thistle Football Club is a football club from Larkhall, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Formed in 1878, "the Jags" are Scotland's oldest continuous Junior football club and currently compete in the . The team plays in red and white str ...

brought a case against Bathgate for poaching their players, as the junior clubs resented the fact senior clubs could take their players without adequate compensation.Crampsey, p78 Finances were further damaged by the severe downturn in gates during the 1926 miners strike. All of the West Lothian league clubs were made unsustainable by the decline of the local

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and

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industries.Crampsey, p83 Bathgate resigned from the league in March 1929. The club continued in the East of Scotland Football League, playing their final fixture on 16 April 1932. The club was formally dissolved in October 1938. Bathgate has since been represented in junior football by

Bathgate Thistle Bathgate Thistle Football Club are a Scottish football club, based in the town of Bathgate, West Lothian. They play in the . Nicknamed ''Thistle'', they were formed in 1937 and presently play their home games at Creamery Park, which has room ...

Colours

*1893–1904 Red & white striped shirts, white shorts. *1904–1938 Maroon shirts, white shorts.

League record

Bathgate did not complete the 1928–29 season and their results were expunged from the records.

Players

* :Bathgate F.C. players

References

External links

Bathgate
Historical Kits {{Scottish Football League Defunct football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1893 Association football clubs disestablished in 1938 Football in West Lothian Scottish Football League teams 1893 establishments in Scotland 1938 disestablishments in Scotland