Brora Rangers
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Brora Rangers Football Club are a Scottish football club from the village of
Brora Brora ( ; ) is a village in the east of Sutherland, in the Highland (council area), Highland area of Scotland. Origin of the name The name ''Brora'' is derived from Old Norse and means "river with a bridge". History Brora is a small industri ...
,
Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...
, in the
Highland council area Highland (, ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the United Kingdo ...
of Scotland. They play in the , of which they have been champions five times, having won their first title in 2013–14 and successfully defended it in the 2014–15 season. They were awarded the title in the 2019–20 and
2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
seasons which were incomplete due to the
coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
and would win it again on goal difference in 2024–25. They have won the
North of Scotland Cup The North of Scotland Cup is a knock-out tournament, knock-out tournament for association football, football teams in membership of the North of Scotland Football Association. The teams involved are based in the Highland, Highlands and Moray an ...
nine times and the
Highland League Cup The Highland League Cup is a knock-out tournament contested since 1946 by football clubs in the Highland Football League The Scottish Highland Football League (SHFL, commonly known as the Highland League) is a senior football league based in ...
on three occasions. Nicknamed ''the Cattachs'', Brora Rangers play at Dudgeon Park, Brora, and hold a rivalry with neighbours Wick Academy, in the Northern Derby.


History


Early history

Brora Rangers were founded in 1879. In 1933 they gained access to membership of 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 ...
and entered the draw for the
Scottish Qualifying Cup The Scottish Qualifying Cup was a football competition played in Scotland between 1895 and 2007. During that time, apart from a brief spell in the 1950s, it was the only way for non-league teams to qualify for the Scottish Cup. The Qualifying Cu ...
competition. They were accepted into membership of the
Highland Football League The Scottish Highland Football League (SHFL, commonly known as the Highland League) is a senior football league based in the north of Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Scott ...
in 1962. They won the North of Scotland Qualifying Cup competition in their centenary year, 1979, when they defeated
Peterhead Peterhead (; , ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is the council area's largest settlement, with a population of 19,060 at the 2022 Census for Scotland, 2022 Census. It is the largest fishing port in the United Kingdom for total landi ...
5–0 on 17 November after a replay at
Grant Street Park Clachnacuddin Football Club is a part-time, senior Scottish football club based in the city of Inverness, that currently plays in the . Clachnacuddin have won the most Highland Football League championships in the competition's history: a tota ...
,
Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...
, the teams having played a goal-less draw the previous week.


History since 2013

The club won their first ever
Highland Football League The Scottish Highland Football League (SHFL, commonly known as the Highland League) is a senior football league based in the north of Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Scott ...
title in the 2013–14 season after a 3–0 win against Keith on 5 March at
Kynoch Park Kynoch Park is a association football, football ground in Keith, Moray, Keith in north-east Scotland, which is the home ground of Highland Football League side Keith F.C. It is located on Balloch Road in the east of the town and has a capacity o ...
. They are the most northerly club to win the League title to date. They set several postwar Highland League records over the season: most points (95), greatest margin of victory in the league (20 points), highest win rate (31 out of 34), fewest goals conceded (16) and highest positive goal difference (+107). They ended the season with a 19-game unbeaten run which subsequently carried on into the 2014–15 season. With a draw against
Fraserburgh Fraserburgh (; ), locally known as the Broch, is a town in Aberdeenshire (unitary), Aberdeenshire, Scotland, with a population recorded in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census as 13,100. It lies in Buchan in the northeastern corner of th ...
in their 38th and final match of the year (across two seasons), Brora achieved the distinction of being unbeaten in league matches for the whole of 2014. Their unbeaten run in the Highland League eventually extended to 57 matches across three seasons, ending with a 3–0 defeat by Cove Rangers on 22 August 2015. For the 2014–15 season, they started in the second round of the
2014–15 Scottish Cup The 2014–15 Scottish Cup was the 130th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The tournament was sponsored by bookmaker William Hill in what was the fourth season of a five-year partnership. The defending champi ...
, and they played for the first time in the 2014–15 Scottish Challenge Cup but lost in the second round to East Fife 3–2. The club retained its Highland League title in the 2014–15 season, scoring a postwar record of 125 goals in a Highland League season, beating Inverness Thistle's previous postwar record of 124 in the 1969–70 season. With a record of 30 wins and 4 draws Brora ended the season as unbeaten champions, and were only the second club to complete an unbeaten season in the postwar era (following Caledonian in 1982–83). As Highland League champions, Brora entered the newly introduced
promotion playoffs Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...
against
Lowland League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) and the Park’s Motor Group Scottish Lowland League for sponsorship reasons is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits a ...
champions Edinburgh City. They won 4–2 in a
penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
after a 2–2 aggregate draw, with Stuart Kettlewell scoring the winner on 2 May. Brora played off against Montrose, the bottom-placed club in
Scottish League Two The Scottish League Two, known as William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill League Two for sponsorship reasons, is the fourth tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association football, foo ...
, for a place in League Two for the 2015–16 season. After winning their home leg 1–0, Brora suffered a 3–1 defeat in the away game, thereby losing 3–2 on aggregate to remain in the Highland League. The prospect of a future promotion to the national leagues has proven controversial due to the distances that players and supporters would be expected to travel to many of the away games. Before the 2014–15 season began, it had been suggested that supporters would be allowed to vote on whether the club should join the
Scottish Professional Football League The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As well ...
were it to qualify for promotion. However following Brora's successful defence of their Highland League title, chairman John Young said that the club had "looked at all options and there's no way we can avoid competing. We meet SPFL criteria for entry level so we can’t opt out, we’ve got to go for it." Besides the impact on the club, it has been suggested that Brora itself would benefit economically from players and supporters of Southern clubs visiting the town. The 2019–20 season was curtailed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, and Brora were declared Highland League champions. They were due to progress to the playoffs with the Lowland League winner and the bottom club in League Two, but they were never held. On 23 March 2021, in the
2020–21 Scottish Cup The 2020–21 Scottish Cup was the 136th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The tournament did not have a sponsor, after William Hill's nine-year partnership with the Scottish FA came to an end following the 2019 ...
, Brora upset runaway
Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...
leaders and the previous season's Scottish Cup finalists, Heart of Midlothian, 2–1 at Dudgeon Park, described as one of Scotland's biggest cup shocks of all time. For the second consecutive season, Brora were declared champions of the
2020–21 Highland Football League The 2020–21 Highland Football League (known as the Breedon Highland League for sponsorship reasons) was the 118th season of the Highland Football League, and the 7th season as the fifth tier of the Scottish football pyramid system. Due to the C ...
on a points per game formula due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The decision was announced by the
Highland Football League The Scottish Highland Football League (SHFL, commonly known as the Highland League) is a senior football league based in the north of Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Scott ...
on 30 March 2021.


Stadium

Brora originally played at Inverbrora Park, which is now the site of the Hunters of Brora woollen mills, before moving to Dudgeon Park in 1932. The ground's capacity is 4,000, including 200 seats. The record attendance was set in 2013 when over 2,000 people watched Brora play
Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...
in a friendly match.


Management team


Honours

*
Highland Football League The Scottish Highland Football League (SHFL, commonly known as the Highland League) is a senior football league based in the north of Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Scott ...
: ** 2013–14, 2014–15, 2019–20*,
2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
*, 2024–25 *
Highland League Cup The Highland League Cup is a knock-out tournament contested since 1946 by football clubs in the Highland Football League The Scottish Highland Football League (SHFL, commonly known as the Highland League) is a senior football league based in ...
: **2015–16, 2021–22, 2023–24, 2024–25 *
North of Scotland Cup The North of Scotland Cup is a knock-out tournament, knock-out tournament for association football, football teams in membership of the North of Scotland Football Association. The teams involved are based in the Highland, Highlands and Moray an ...
: **1980–81, 1990–91, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2019–20, 2022–23, 2024–25 *
Inverness Cup The Inverness Cup is a football competition for teams around Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. Originally, it was contested by the four Inverness based teams: Caledonian, Citadel, Clachnacuddin and Thistle, but became an invitational tourna ...
: **1994–95 * Scottish Qualifying Cup (North): **1979–80 *Awarded following a vote of the league's member clubs. Seasons 2019–20 and
2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
were incomplete due to the
coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.


References


External links

* {{Highland Football League Football clubs in Scotland Highland Football League teams Association football clubs established in 1879 1879 establishments in Scotland Sport in Sutherland Brora Football in Highland (council area)