Maryhill Harp Football Club were a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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 based in the

Maryhill Maryhill () is an area in the north-west of Glasgow in Scotland. A former independent burgh and the heart of an eponymous local authority ward, its territory is bisected by Maryhill Road, part of the A81 road which runs for a distance of ro ...

area of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, who played in

Scottish Junior Football Association The Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA) is an affiliated national association of the Scottish Football Association and is the governing body for the junior grade of football (soccer), football in Scotland. The term "junior" refers to the ...

competitions from 1923 until they went out of business in 1967. Before 1939, the club were known as Maryhill Hibernians. They won the

Scottish Junior Cup The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA). The competition has been held every year since the inception of the SJFA on the 2nd October 1886 and, as of the 2023–24 ed ...

once, in 1928.

History

Maryhill Hibernian were formed in 1923 and admitted to the

Scottish Junior League The Scottish Junior Football League (SJL) was a Scottish football competition that, through various incarnations, existed from 1892 to 1947. It was based in the west of Scotland and largely consisted of Junior clubs that were not considered good ...

(SJL), using Kelvinvale Park in Maryhill as their home ground. Their greatest season came in 1927–28 and coincided with the

Intermediate dispute The Intermediate dispute was a major split in Scottish football which lasted from 1925 to 1931 and concerned the compensation that Junior clubs received when one of their players moved to a Senior football league side. Although largely confined to ...

in the Junior game. With several more successful clubs such as

Baillieston Baillieston () is a working class suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. It is about east of the city centre. It also gives its name to Ward 20 of Glasgow City Council and forms part of the Glasgow East constituency of the UK Parliament. Geographical ...

, Duntocher Hibs and

Yoker Athletic Yoker Athletic Football Club are a Scottish football club based in Clydebank near Glasgow. Yoker is an area of Glasgow adjacent to Clydebank, however Yoker's stadium lies just outside the Glasgow boundary. Nicknamed the ''Whe Ho'', the club wer ...

defecting from the SJL to the Intermediates, plus no Intermediate representation in the Junior Cup, Hibernians won a league and cup double. Their 6–2 victory over Burnbank Athletic at

Firhill Firhill Stadium, also known as Wyre Stadium at Firhill for sponsorship reasons, is a football and former rugby union, rugby league and greyhound racing stadium located in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland which has been the home of Partick ...

remains the highest scoring Junior Cup final in the competition's history. Willie Gray, who scored four of the goals, was already Hibs first Scotland Junior internationalst, being capped against Ireland in March 1928. He and fellow scorer Joe Riley both joined

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

the following season along with goalkeeper David Nicol. Hibs added a second SJL championship title in 1932–33 but the dispersed nature of the league, with clubs from towns such as

Dunoon Dunoon (; ) is the main town on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located on the western shore of the upper Firth of Clyde, to the south of the Holy Loch and to the north of Innellan. As well as forming part of the cou ...

and

Rothesay Rothesay ( ; ) is the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in the council area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies along the coast of the Firth of Clyde. It can be reached by a Caledonian MacBrayne ferry from Wemyss Bay, which also offers an ...

, and the ebbing away of local opposition to other leagues, was becoming financially untenable. After a few struggling years, the club submitted their resignation to the league in May 1939 and declared their intention to apply for membership of the

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 ...

. The SJL however, refused to accept the resignation and the incumbent Hibs committee chose to close the club down in early June 1939. Immediately, a new club Maryhill Harp was founded by former Hibernians officials and by the end of June 1939, they had intimated their intention to apply for the Central League using Hibs' former Kelvinvale Park. At the Central League AGM however, the Harp application surprisingly failed at the first ballot and the club were obliged to re-apply to the SJL, who readmitted the club. Within months, the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

affected football activities dramatically. Wartime travel restrictions badly hampered the running of the SJL and by February 1940, the league announced it would close down. A small wartime league was constituted in March 1940 and this ran for a second year in 1940–41 before the SJL went into complete abeyance for the rest of the war. The club were finally admitted to the Central League in 1941–42. Their first season was a relatively successful one, winning their league section only to lose to

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 ...

in the championship play-off. Latterly, Harp enjoyed moderate success, although they reached the final of the West of Scotland Cup in 1954–55, losing in a replay to Douglas Water Thistle. The end for the club was signalled in January 1967 when

Glasgow Corporation Glasgow City Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Ghlaschu'') is the local government authority for Glasgow City council area, Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Glasgow was formerly governed by a corporation, also kno ...

compulsory purchased Kelvinvale Park for new housing. Harp played their final match on 7 June 1967 against Greenock Juniors losing 1–0. Although the area of the ground has been completely redeveloped, Kelvinvale was located around present day Kilmun Street / Ledgowan Place. Hibs/Harp was generally run on a low cost basis and supplied players for wealthier Junior clubs and Senior teams. The club had a fruitful relationship with

who loaned out many youth prospects and picked up the occasional player themselves. As well as the three aforementioned players from Hibernians' Junior Cup winning side, Celtic also signed

Charlie Napier Charles Edward Napier (8 October 1910 – 5 September 1973) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic (winning the Scottish Cup in 1931 and 1933), Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday, Falkirk (unofficial wartime competitions only) and Stenho ...

and Peter Scarff the following year with the latter winning one cap for the full

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

team. In the Harp era, players exchanged between the two clubs included Hugh Long,

Willie Miller William Ferguson Miller MBE (born 2 May 1955) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, who made a club record 560 league appearances for Aberdeen. Sir Alex Ferguson described Miller as "the best penalty box defender in th ...

, Duncan MacKay,

Bertie Auld Robert Auld (23 March 1938 – 14 November 2021) was a Scottish football player and manager. He was a member of Celtic's Lisbon Lions, who won the 1967 European Cup Final. As a player, he made more than 200 appearances in the Scottish League ...

Frank Haffey Francis Haffey (born 28 November 1938) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Celtic and the Scotland national team. Career Remembered as one of Celtic's great and more eccentric keepers, Haffey made 201 appearances for ...

and Jimmy Quinn with all but Quinn becoming full Scotland internationalists.

Honours

winners: 1927–28 *

winners: 1927–28, 1932–33

References

Sources

Scottish Football Historical Archive
{{Defunct Scottish football clubs Defunct football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1923 Association football clubs disestablished in 1967 1923 establishments in Scotland 1967 disestablishments in Scotland Scottish Junior Football Association clubs Football clubs in Glasgow Maryhill