King's Park Football Club were a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club who played in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct 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&nbs ...

(SFL) before the

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. Based in

Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...

, they joined the League in the 1921–22 season, following the reintroduction of the Second Division and were one of 11 new members for that season.

History

The club was established in 1875 in the King's Park area of Stirling, although they did not stay long in this locality.David Potter & Phil H. Jones, ''The Encyclopedia of Scottish Football'', Know the Score Books, 2008, p. 176 They first entered the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1879–80 season. Their best performance in that competition was in 1894–95 when they reached the quarter finals, losing 4–2 to Hearts. King's Park were founder members of the Scottish Football Alliance, a rival of sorts of the SFL, in 1891 but left after one season. They moved between various more minor leagues for several seasons before entering the re-established Central Football League in 1909, retaining their membership of this division until 1921 (barring a brief hiatus during the

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when they did not compete). At this point King's Park, along with most of their fellow Central league clubs, were invited to join the newly established Second Division of the SFL. Their finest season came in 1927–28, when they just missed promotion by one point. Their record victory was in a 12–2 league victory against Forfar Athletic on 2 January 1930. In this game Jim Dyet scored eight of the club's goals, a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact that it was his debut for the club.D. Pickering, ''The Cassell Soccer Companion'', London: Cassell, 1995. Indeed, Dyet's feat stands as the British record for goals on a debut to this day. The club's other great goalscorer of the 1930s was Alex Haddow, who hit five consecutive league hat-tricks in January and February 1932. Although overall they failed to make much impact on the league, they were four times winners of the Stirlingshire Cup. Although a middle-ranking Second Division club King's Park did at times make the headlines. Their league game against Dundee Hibernian on 20 October 1923 would be the last game that club would play under that name, they were renamed

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

two days later. The club became the centre of controversy in 1927 when a newspaper report suggested that their next opponents

Clydebank Clydebank () 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, Milton beyond) to the w ...

were about to go out of business and as a consequence the attendance at the match was minimal. As a consequence, King's Park held back Clydebank's cut of the gate until the Scottish League intervened. Although the issue was resolved it helped to increase support amongst the League administrators for cutting the number of clubs due to their volatile status.B. Crampsey, ''The First Hundred Years'', Glasgow: Scottish Football League, 1990.

The death of King's Park and the birth of Stirling Albion

When

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started King's Park, largely as a consequence of their geographical location, dropped out of competitive football. Nonetheless, the club continued to play friendlies and, like a number of Scottish clubs who could offer higher war-time wages than their English counterparts, welcomed a number of high-profile guest players including Andy Black and

Bill Shankly William Shankly (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish association football, football player and Manager (association football), manager who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool F.C., Liverpool. Shankly brought su ...

. The club was persuaded in 1940 to join a new Midland League for the coming season although local powerhouses

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

declined to compete and so the league did not happen. As a consequence, managing director Tom Fergusson put the club on hiatus in what was intended to be a temporary measure. The fortunes of the club were hit further in 1940 when Forthbank was bombed by the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

. The club did not play again after this, even though they applied to join the Northeastern League in 1944 (a request rejected due to their lack of a ground). Amid allegations of financial impropriety with regards to payment of guest players, the club folded before the end of the war, on the pretext of the damage done by the bomb. Football in the town did not disappear for long however as they were replaced by Stirling Albion, with ex managing director Tom Fergusson taking a leading role in the new club. Although they had not played since 1940 King's Park were not officially wound up until 1953 when the

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finally settled their claim for the bomb damage.

Colours

The club's traditional colours were maroon and white striped shirts, with shorts varying between black and white. The club adopted maroon and white for the first time in 1883 (as maroon jerseys and white knickers); beforehand the club mostly wore dark blue jerseys and knickers, with a red stripe on the latter.

Stadium

The club's Forthbank Park was one of a number of stadiums at the time to host animal racing, usually greyhounds but also

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. The

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

at the time was keen to put an end to this practice as, although the racing provided a financial lifeline to many smaller clubs including King's Park, they feared that it would lead to football becoming too reliant on gambling just like the races. An SFA inspection team deemed that the greyhound track at Forthbank encroached on to the pitch and as such it was removed, along with the source of income. Crowd trouble at a home match against St Johnstone in October 1921 led to King's Park playing a home match against Vale of Leven at

Dunblane Dunblane (, ) is a town in the council area of Stirling in central Scotland, and inside the historic boundaries of the county of Perthshire. It is a commuter town, with many residents making use of good transport links to much of the Central Be ...

's Duckburn Park.Paul Smith & Shirley Smith (2005) ''The Ultimate Directory of English & Scottish Football League Grounds Second Edition 1888–2005'', Yore Publications, p. 169 Forthbank suffered from a Luftwaffe bombing on 20 July 1940 and although temporary repairs were made to the partially destroyed stadium, only two further games were played there before both Forthbank and King's Park F.C. were closed down. There was compensation given eventually from the War Office in 1953, but it was paid to Stirling Albion F.C. Local businessman Thomas Ferguson started Stirling Albion F.C in 1945 and shortly purchased the Annfield estate to construct Annfield Stadium, which has now made way for housing once more. In 1992 they moved to Forthbank Stadium, sited about two-thirds of a mile (1 km) from the location of the original stadium Forthbank Park.

League history

* Scottish Football Alliance, 1891–92 * Midland Football League in Scotland,

1892 In Samoa, this was the only leap year spanned to 367 days as July 4 repeated. This means that the International Date Line was drawn from the east of the country to go west. Events January * January 1 – Ellis Island begins processing imm ...

–

1897 Events January * January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City. * January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a punitive expedit ...

* Central Football Combination,

–

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

*Scottish Football Alliance, 1905–06 * Scottish Football Union,

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

– 1909 * Central Football League, 1909–

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 * ...

1921 Events January * January 2 ** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil. ** The Spanish lin ...

–

1939 This year also marks the start of the World War II, Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Events related to World War II have a "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Coming into effect in Nazi Ger ...

Full Scottish Football League Second Division record

Key: Pl = Games played; W = games won; D = games drew; L = games lost; F = goals scored (for); A = goals conceded (against); Pts = points (2 for a win, 1 for a draw); Pos = final position in the table.

Club records

Records refer to the club's time as members of the Scottish Football League. *Record Victory: 12–2 v Forfar Athletic League Match 2 January 1930 *Most goals scored in a season: 109, 1929–30 *Fewest goals scored in a season: 46, 1922–23 *Most goals conceded in a season: 109, 1935–36 *Fewest goals conceded in a season: 46, 1924–25 *Most wins in a season: 18, 1934–35 *Fewest wins in a season: 8, 1928–29 *Most defeats in a season: 20, 1936–37 and 1938–39 *Fewest defeats in a season: 10, 1927–28 *Most draws in a season: 13, 1928–29 *Fewest draws in a season: 2, 1938–39 *Most points in a season: 44, 1927–28 *Fewest points in a season: 25, 1936–37 *Highest finish: 3rd place, Second Division, 1927–28 *Lowest finish: 17th place (out of 18), 1936–37 *Highest attendance: 8,911 v Airdrieonians, 1924–25 Scottish Cup.

Honours

League

Midland League The Midland Football League, officially known as the Capelli Sport Midland Football League since January 2025 for sponsorship reasons, is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midl ...

** Champions: 1892–93 *

Central League The or , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League i ...

**Champions:

1904–05 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' D ...

*Falkirk & District League ** Winners: 1900–01

Cup

* Stirlingshire Cup ** Winners: 1898–99, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1914–15, 1933–34 *Stirlingshire Consolation Cup ** Winners: 1905–06, 1919–20, 1920–21, 1923–24 *Stirling Charity Cup ** Winners: 1885–86, 1887–88, 1888–89, 1889–90, 1890–91, 1892–93, 1893–94, 1894–95, 1896–97, 1897–98, 1925–26, 1927–28, 1930–31, 1933–34 *Camelon Sports Tournament ** Winners: 1889 (via)

British Newspaper Archive The British Newspaper Archive website provides access to searchable digitized archives of British and Irish newspapers. It was launched in November 2011. History The British Library's Newspapers section was based in Colindale in north London ...

References

External links

Results and statistics
at ''Fitbastats'' {{Scottish Football League Defunct football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1875 Association football clubs disestablished in 1953 Football clubs in Stirling (council area) Scottish Football League teams 1875 establishments in Scotland 1953 disestablishments in Scotland Sport in Stirling (city)