association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
club originally based at
Pollokshields
Pollokshields (, Scots language, Scots: ''Powkshiels'') is an area in the Southside of Glasgow, Scotland. Its modern boundaries are largely man-made, being formed by the M77 motorway to the west and northwest with the open land of Pollok Count ...
, in
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 ...
.
History
The club was founded in 1874 and took its name from the rock of
Ailsa Craig
Ailsa Craig (; ) is an island of in the outer Firth of Clyde, west of mainland Scotland, upon which microgranite has long been quarried to make curling stones. The now-uninhabited island comprises the remains of a magmatic pluton formed d ...
, and its first reported matches come from the 1875–76 season. It was one of the smaller Glasgow clubs, with a membership of 30 in 1876, more only than
Shawfield
Shawfield is an industrial/commercial area of the Royal Burgh of Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located to the north of the town centre. It is bordered to the east by the River Clyde, to the north by the Glasgow neighbourhood of Oat ...
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1877–78, losing 2–0 to
Lenzie
Lenzie () is a small affluent town by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in the East Dunbartonshire council area and the historic county of Dunbartonshire in Scotland. It is about north-east of Glasgow city centre and south of Kirkintilloch. At ...
. Ailsa also lost in the first round the following year, 7–0 at
Govan
Govan ( ; Cumbric: ''Gwovan''; Scots language, Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of southwest Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the sout ...
, although the
North British Daily Mail
The ''Daily Record'' is a Scottish national tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. The newspaper is published Monday–Saturday and its website is updated on an hourly basis, seven days a week. The ''Record'' sister title is the '' Sunday Mail''. ...
report incorrectly referred to Ailsa as "Woodburn".
In the
1879–80 Scottish Cup
The 1879–80 Scottish Cup – officially the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – was the seventh season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. With 142 entrants, this season saw the largest number of teams to c ...
, the club reached the third round; after a walkover in the first, Ailsa beat Rosslyn 3–1, but lost 6–0 at Clyde in the third, even though Clyde played with ten men for the second half.
It was the club's last Cup fixture. Although it did enter the
1880–81 Scottish Cup
The 1880–81 Scottish Cup – officially the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – was the eighth season of Scotland's most prestigious Association football, football knockout competition. Defending champions Queen's Park F.C., Queen's ...
, it scratched to the Good Templars Harmonic.
A new Ailsa club, with no known link to the original, played in
Anniesland
Anniesland () is a district in the West End of the Scottish city Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde, and centres on the major road junction of the Great Western Road (A82) and Crow Road/Bearsden Road (A739), known as Anniesland ...
in the 1892–93 season.
Colours
The club's colours were pale blue and white 1-inch hooped shirts and stockings, with white knickerbockers.
Ground
The club originally played at a private ground in Pollokshields. In 1878 the club moved to Buckingham Park off Copeland Road,
Govan
Govan ( ; Cumbric: ''Gwovan''; Scots language, Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of southwest Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the sout ...