Rovers Football Club was a 19th-century football club based in
Glasgow.
History
The club was founded on 22 April 1873. The club may have emerged from a rugby club known as Queen's Park Rovers which is recorded to have had a fixture at the start of the year. It was very active in its first season of football, claiming 10 wins from 19 games.
Rovers was one of the original 16 teams to participate in the inaugural season of the
Scottish Cup, although it was considered in the second rank of sides, only being considered fit opposition in friendlies for the
Eastern F.C.
Eastern Football Club was a 19th-century football club based in Glasgow, Scotland. They were one of the founder members of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and one of the sixteen teams to participate in the inaugural season of the Scot ...
second XI. It took part in Scottish Cup tournaments between
1873–74 and
1877–78, reaching the quarter-finals on two occasions. The first time the club reached the last eight was in
1874–75, and it did so without playing a match in the tournament - accepting a walkover from
Hamilton F.C. in the first round and receiving a bye in the second round, before scratching to eventual winners
Queen's Park.
The following season the club reached the quarter-finals - that season, the final seven - on merit, with wins over the Glasgow side
West End and the
3rd Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers F.C., but losing to
Vale of Leven; the game at
Alexandria ended early because of bad light but Rovers agreed that the result should stand.
In 1877, the club took over the
Winton club of
Mount Florida. However the club does not seem to have survived the season, with Winton reforming as Apsley; in its final season, its membership had dropped to 40, making it one of the smaller sides in Glasgow.
Rovers F.C. should not be confused with other Scottish teams of the same name, such as Rovers F.C. (1872–1882) in
Edinburgh, or Rovers F.C. (1888–1889) in the
Scottish Highlands.
Colours
The club originally played in blue jerseys with a white cross, white knickerbockers, and blue stockings, supplied by Forsyths of Renfield Street. It is not known whether the cross was a
Maltese cross
The Maltese cross is a cross symbol, consisting of four " V" or arrowhead shaped concave quadrilaterals converging at a central vertex at right angles, two tips pointing outward symmetrically.
It is a heraldic cross variant which developed f ...
, which was a popular design on football jerseys at the time, or a
saltire. In 1877 it changed its stockings to blue and white.
Grounds
The club played at the following grounds:
*1873–75: South Side Park/
Queen's Park, Glasgow
Queen's Park ( gd, Pàirc na Banrìghinn, sco, Queen's Pairk) is a park situated on the south side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland, between Strathbungo, Shawlands, Battlefield, Mount Florida, and Crosshill The park lies about south of the ci ...
*1875–76: Lorne Park, also the home of
Ramblers
*1876–78: Victoria Road, Glasgow
External links
Scottish Football Club Directory
References
{{Football in Scotland
Defunct football clubs in Scotland
Football clubs in Glasgow
Association football clubs established in 1873
Association football clubs disestablished in 1878
1873 establishments in Scotland
1878 disestablishments in Scotland
Govanhill and Crosshill