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 ...
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...
West Lothian
West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geographically by the Av ...
.
History
The club played its first recorded match in October 1881, a 1–0 win over the first Broxburn Shamrock club. For the first season of activity the club was often referred to as the Queensferry Bellstane Birds. The club's name derives from a carving in the town centre depicting an owl on a stone bell, representing the original bell which signifed the start of the market.
Although not a large club, the Birds were influential in football in
Linlithgowshire
West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geographically by the Avo ...
, considered "the most enterprising club that has ever been in the county"; the Linlithgowshire FA was set up in 1884 by the Birds' James Carlow, who approached
Lord Rosebery
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1st Earl of Midlothian, (7 May 1847 – 21 May 1929) was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from March 1894 to June 1895. Between the death o ...
to provide patronage for a cup as a prize for local clubs. Lord Rosebery was also a patron of the club, along with other connected individuals, such as
Lord Hopetoun
John Adrian Louis Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, (25 September 1860 – 29 February 1908) was a British aristocrat and statesman who served as the first governor-general of Australia, in office from 1901 to 1902. He was ...
and future Prime Minister
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman ( né Campbell; 7 September 183622 April 1908) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. He served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 t ...
.
The Birds took a momentous step by joining the
Scottish Football Association
The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility fo ...
in August 1886, entitling the club to enter the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1886–87 until 1890–91, the last year before the Scottish FA introduced qualifying rounds. The only time the club won a tie was in 1889–90, when it beat the
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
side Norton Park 6–3. The club's reward was a second round home tie with Heart of Midlothian. 800 Hearts fans followed their club to Queensferry, and were shocked when Duffy gave the home side the lead "amid deafening cheers". However, by half-time the visitors were 2–1 to the good, and the game finished 4–1 in their favour.
The club never won a trophy of note, four times being runner-up in local competitions. In the 1888–89 Percival King Cup, for clubs in the east of Scotland, the Birds lost to
Broxburn
Broxburn ( gd, Srath Bhroc, IPA: �s̪ɾaˈvɾɔʰk is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, on the A89 road, from the West End of Edinburgh, from Edinburgh Airport and to the north of Livingston.
Etymology
The name Broxburn is a corruption of ...
in the final at Champfleurie; the Birds suffered their defeat in good part, delighted at having reached the final. In 1889–90, the Birds had an unwanted triple, losing to the same side in the Linlithgowshire Cup final in February 1890, this time suffering a 7–0 defeat. One week later the club lost again in the King Cup final, this time to Armadale, by 5–2. And six weeks after that, the Birds lost 3–0 to
Bo'ness
Borrowstounness (commonly known as Bo'ness ( )) is a town and former burgh and seaport on the south bank of the Firth of Forth in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Historically part of the county of West Lothian, it is a place within the Fal ...
in the final of the Consolation Cup at Champfleurie for the East of Scotland Shield.
The club's best chance of success was in the one-off Linlithgowshire Charity Cup in 1885–86; the club walked off the pitch in the semi-final with Armadale, after Armadale had been awarded an equalizer for a scrimmage that did not get within "''three feet'' of the goal" (emphasis in original report). Armadale beat the Bathgate Volunteers 9–0 in the final.
The club's final reported match was a 3–1 defeat at home to the second Broxburn Shamrock in the King's Cup in November 1894. The name was revived for other clubs afterwards, including one active from 1896 to 1898. The club also had an unexpected afterlife in the
Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal.
* South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...
, as some Queensferry men started a football club there in 1896, under the Bellstane Birds name.