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 ...
ground in
Bathgate
Bathgate ( or , ) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston, Scotland, Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway (Scotland), M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Linlithgow, Livingston, and West Calder. A number of villages fall under ...
, Scotland. It was the home ground of Bathgate Football Club from 1902 until they folded in 1938.
History
Bathgate Football Club moved to Mill Park in 1902.Paul Smith & Shirley Smith (2005) ''The Ultimate Directory of English & Scottish Football League Grounds Second Edition 1888–2005'', Yore Publications, p164 The ground was initially an enclosed field with embankments on either side of the pitch, but a grandstand was later erected.
In 1921 Bathgate were elected into Division Two of 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 ...
, and the first SFL match was played at Mill Park on 27 August 1921, a 0–0 draw with local rivals Armadale in front of 4,000 spectators. The club's highest recorded league attendance occurred later in the season when 5,000 watched a 0–0 draw with
Alloa Athletic
Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They compete in as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League.
According to the official club hist ...
on 2 January 1922. Just over a month later the ground's probable record attendance was set when 8,000 attended a 1–0 win against
Falkirk
Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...
in the second round of the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,following season when a crowd of 5,000 watched a 4–2 win over Armadale on 1 January 1923. The overall record of 8,000 was equalled for a Scottish Cup third round match against
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 the . They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United Football Club ...
on 20 February 1926, with the visitors winning 5–2.
Midway through the 1928–29 season the club resigned from the SFL; their last home match was a 3–1 defeat by King's Park on 16 February 1929; the attendance of 200 was the club's lowest recorded attendance during their time in the SFL. The club was dissolved in 1938 and the site was subsequently used for housing.