Western Football Club was a 19th-century football club based in
Partick
Partick ( sco, Pairtick, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and to t ...
, in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
.
History
The club was formed out of a
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
club and was one of the original 16 teams to participate in the inaugural season of the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,[Alexandra Athletic F.C.
Alexandra Athletic Football Club was a 19th-century football club from Dennistoun, in Glasgow, which participated in the early years of the Scottish Cup.
History
The football club was founded in 1873 as an all-round athletics club, with foot ...](_blank)
and only behind
Queen's Park and
Clydesdale Clydesdale is an archaic name for Lanarkshire, a traditional county in Scotland. The name may also refer to:
Sports
* Clydesdale F.C., a former football club in Glasgow
* Clydesdale RFC, Glasgow, a former rugby union club
* Clydesdale RFC, South ...
, both of whom had large memberships.
The club was also active in the administration of the game, the club's R. M. Liddell acting as the
Scottish Football Association
The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the Sport governing body, governing body of association football, football in Scot ...
treasurer in its early days.
In the first round of the
first competition, in the 1873–74 season, the club lost 1–0 to eventual semi-finalists
Blythswood. The club took notice of the defeat and recruited a number of the Blythswood players for 1874–75. The club also experimented with
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
, playing out a goalless draw with
Southern
Southern may refer to:
Businesses
* China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China
* Southern Airways, defunct US airline
* Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US
* Southern Airways Express, M ...
, an association club which had abandoned the round ball game for the oval ''in toto'', in late 1873.
The only ties the club won came in
1875–76, beating
the Caledonian club
The Caledonian Club is a private club founded in 1891. It is located at 9 Halkin Street SW1, near Belgrave Square, Belgravia, London.
History
Founded in 1892 as a proprietary club, the Caledonian Club as it is today was formed in 1917 under ...
(of
Kelvinbridge),
Sandyford, and
Helensburgh, to reach the quarter-finals, which, that year, was the final seven. The club faced
the 3rd Lanark Rifle Volunteers, and, although Western had been good enough to draw with the Volunteers in 1874, the Cup tie was an easy win for the Volunteers. This was put down in part to the Western club losing several first team players for the tie, despite its high profile, and having to rely on several reserves, who had "an almost total lack of knowledge of the passing game".
The
following season, rather than face
Govan F.C., the club withdrew from the competition, suggesting that the club was struggling in the face of so many other clubs emerging. In 1877, the club faced a claim of £465 10/ in breach of contract, for the building of a club house on the cricket pitch, and that seems to have hastened the end of the club (both cricket and football), as no more is heard of either, and the club was definitely dissolved by 1878.
Colours
The club's colours were black and white stripes, which in the context of the time referred to hoops.
Grounds
The club originally played at Regent's Park in Partick, before moving in 1874 to the
Caledonian cricket ground at Holyrood Park, reckoned to be the best in Glasgow.
References
External links
Scottish Football Club Directory
{{Defunct Scottish football clubs, status = collapsed
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
Partick