Kilbowie Park, also known as New Kilbowie Park, was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

stadium in

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It was the home ground of

. New Kilbowie was built for Clydebank Juniors in 1939. In 1964, Clydebank merged with

East Stirlingshire East Stirlingshire Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish association football club based in the town of Falkirk. The club was founded in 1881 and competes in the , in the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system. The club's origins ca ...

and entered the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

. A record attendance of 14,900 was set by a visit of Hibernian in February 1965. Floodlights were first used in a match against

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

in the same month. The merger collapsed after a legal battle, but Clydebank entered the league in their own right in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

. Clydebank were promoted to the Premier Division in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

. A covered plastic-seated stand was built, which was funded by selling star player

Davie Cooper Davie is a surname and a form of the masculine given name David. It can refer to: Surname * Alan Davie (1920-2014), Scottish painter and musician * Alexander Edmund Batson Davie (1847-1889), Canadian politician and eighth Premier of British Col ...

for £100,000 to

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

. To avoid having to apply legislation affecting stadium safety, the club installed wooden benches that reduced the capacity to 9,950. This was below the 10,000 limit at which the legislation started to apply and technically made Kilbowie the first all-seater stadium in the United Kingdom. Clydebank played their last competitive game at Kilbowie against Hamilton Academical in 1996 (1-3). The last game at Kilbowie was a testimonial match later that summer for

Ken Eadie Kenneth William Eadie (born 26 February 1961 in Paisley) is a Scottish retired footballer who played for, amongst others, Clydebank, Airdrieonians and Queen of the South during his career. Career Eadie played as a striker and spent the long ...

, against Rangers (2-3). The ground was sold by club owners, the Steedman family, in 1997. Clydebank endured several seasons groundsharing at

Cappielow Cappielow, also known as Cappielow Park supported by Dalrada Technology UK for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League club Greenock Morton, w ...

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

and Boghead Park in Dumbarton. Land was purchased on Great Western Road on the outskirts of the town to construct a new stadium for the club, but the necessary approval was never obtained. The sale of Kilbowie Park was the catalyst for the club's decline, which was finally ended in 2002. The club was purchased from its administrator by Jim Ballantyne, who moved it to Airdrie, North Lanarkshire and renamed it

Airdrie United Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United ...

. This was done to replace the

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United ...

club, which had been liquidated earlier in 2002. Clydebank F.C. was reformed as a junior club by the United Clydebank Supporters and it now plays at Holm Park in Yoker. Kilbowie was purchased by Vico Properties plc, who developed a retail scheme and restaurants on the ground. A single piece of rubble of the old stadium is now on view at the Scottish Football Museum in

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

References

; Sources * {{Coord, 55.90383, -4.403479, display=title Clydebank F.C. (1965) Defunct football venues in Scotland Sports venues in West Dunbartonshire Scottish Football League venues Sports venues completed in 1939 1939 establishments in Scotland Sports venues demolished in 1997 1997 disestablishments in Scotland

See also

References