Threave Rovers Football Club are a football club from

Castle Douglas Castle Douglas ( gd, Caisteal Dhùghlais) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies in the lieutenancy area of Kirkcudbrightshire, in the eastern part of Galloway, between the towns of Dalbeattie and Gatehouse of Fleet. It is in th ...

in Dumfries and Galloway,

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 ...

. Formed in October 1953, the club plays its home games at Meadow Park and plays in the .

History

Threave spent their early years engaged in friendlies and local cup competitions until they became a senior club in 1959 and replaced

Whithorn Whithorn ( �ʍɪthorn 'HWIT-horn'; ''Taigh Mhàrtainn'' in Gaelic), is a royal burgh in the historic county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, about south of Wigtown. The town was the location of the first recorded Christia ...

in the

South of Scotland Football League The South of Scotland Football League (SoSFL) is a senior football league based in south-west Scotland. The league sits at level 6 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Founded in 1946, it i ...

. They played for many years in the South of Scotland League, winning the championship seven times, before moving to the East of Scotland Football League in 1998–99, (while simultaneously running a reserve team in the South of Scotland League). They performed well in the more difficult East of Scotland League, finishing third in the 2003–04 season, before quitting that league and deciding to concentrate their full efforts on the South of Scotland League. They cited the financial burden of constantly travelling eastwards to games as the reason for this decision. However, despite it being generally held that the South of Scotland League is the poorer of the two competitions, they only finished fourth in their first

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

back in the South, despite having finished third the season before in the East. This was primarily down to losing their top players, who did not want to play at a lesser level of football, to Annan Athletic and Dalbeattie Star. In the

2007–08 Scottish Cup The 2007–08 Scottish Cup was the 123rd season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The winners were Rangers, who defeated Queen of the South in the final. The 2007–08 tournament saw a change in structure for the t ...

, they produced one of the biggest shocks when the club defeated Third Division side Stenhousemuir 1–0 in the second round. Their reward was a home tie with

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leagu ...

in the third round, but Threave lost the game 0–5. Threave won the league in the 2008–09 season. The 2009–10 season proved to be another successful one for Threave, who retained the league title, losing only one match all season. On Saturday 23 October 2010, Threave progressed to the third round of the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Edinburgh City at

Meadowbank Stadium Meadowbank Stadium (officially the Meadowbank Sports Centre) is a multi-purpose sports facility located in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh, Scotland. Built on the site of the earlier New Meadowbank and Old Meadowbank sports venues, it was or ...

. The third round draw saw Rovers once again pitted against old foes Stenhousemuir, and despite leading 2–0 at

Ochilview Park Ochilview Park is a football stadium in Stenhousemuir in the Falkirk council area of Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish League Two club Stenhousemuir, and is also currently shared by Scottish Championship club Queen's Park and Eas ...

, they were pegged back to 2–2 at the final whistle. Threave subsequently lost the replay 1–5 at Meadow Park on Wednesday 12 January 2011 (originally scheduled for Saturday 27 November 2010, the third round replay was delayed for over six weeks following 15 weather-related postponements). Tragedy struck the club through the game being postponed so many times. The 2010–11 season proved as successful as the last two when Rovers defeated rivals Dalbeattie Star in front of 350 spectators at Islecroft in the penultimate game of the season to complete a hat-trick of league wins. The Castle Douglas side also lifted the Potts Cup after winning a penalty shoot-out 3–0 against Crichton at Hospital Park, they also won the Cree Lodge Cup after beating St Cuthbert Wanderers 5–1 in the final. As an early adopter of the SFA club licensing system, Threave were invited to become inaugural members of the

Lowland Football League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the ...

in 2013. Rovers found it difficult to compete at this level, finishing second bottom in their first season, then bottom in the two subsequent years. At the end of the 2015–16 season, the club declined the opportunity to re-apply for membership of the Lowland League and rejoined the South of Scotland Football League. After a transitional season of finding their feet again back in the South of Scotland League, 2017–18 proved to be another memorable season, with the club gaining their 13th league title and winning two cups along the way. The team were managed since September 2018 by former player and team captain, Sam Warren. Warren left his position in March 2020 due to personal commitments and was replaced by former Rovers player, Vinnie Parker. Threave transferred to the

West of Scotland Football League The West of Scotland Football League (WoSFL) is a senior football league based in the west of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–10 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Founded in 202 ...

for season 2022–23.

Honours

League

**Winners (13) : 1964–65, 1968–69, 1971–72, 1978–79, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2017–18

Cup

*Southern Counties Cup/ Challenge Cup **Winners (6) : 1964–65, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1985–86, 1997–98, 2007–08 *South of Scotland League Cup **Winners (6) : 1971–72, 1980–81, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1993–94, *Potts Cup **Winners (8) : 1962–63, 1965–66, 1967–68, 1980–81, 1990–91, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2010–11 *Cree Lodge Cup **Winners (5) : 1960–61, 1992–93, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2017–18 *Tweedie Cup **Winners (7) : 1963–64, 1968–69, 1981–82, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1996–97, 2011–12 *Haig Gordon Memorial Trophy **Winners (7) : 1966–67, 1968–69, 1973–74, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1989–90, 2017–18 *Detroit Trophy – Overall Championship **Winners (13) : 1964–65, 1968–69, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1993–94, 1994–95, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2017–18

References

Notable former players

George Cloy George Cloy is former professional footballer who played his entire 12-year senior career with Dumfries club Queen of the South as a utility player. Cloy also played for Kello Rovers, Threave Rovers, Dalbeattie Star and Crichton. When late ...

External links

Official club website
{{Lowland League Football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1953 Football clubs in Dumfries and Galloway 1953 establishments in Scotland East of Scotland Football League teams South of Scotland Football League teams Lowland Football League teams Castle Douglas