Burnbank Athletic Football Club was 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

Burnbank Burnbank is an area in the town of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was formerly a separate Mining town, mining village before being absorbed into the town. Location and governance Burnbank, previously an i ...

area of

Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Hamilton (; ) is a large town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It sits south-east of Glasgow, south-west of Edinburgh and north of Carlisle. It is situated on t ...

. It played primarily 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 1885 until it went out of business in 1962, and 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 ...

on five occasions. The club started up again in 2004.

History

Burnbank Swifts

Formed in 1885 as Burnbank Swifts, the club was one of the most successful sides in the early years of the Junior game. They provided four of the team which played England in the first Scotland Junior international fixture in May 1889, with forward Jock Espie scoring the side's first ever goal. Espie later enjoyed a career in England with

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

and

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

while full-back

Bob Foyers Robert Foyers (22 June 1868 – 16 August 1942) was a Scottish footballer who played as a full-back. He played professionally for various clubs in Scotland and for Newcastle United in England, and was capped for Scotland at Junior and Seni ...

went on to play for

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

and the

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 ...

senior side. Having won the

twice in succession in 1888–89 and 1889–90, the club turned to Senior football and entered the

1890–91 Scottish Cup The 1890–91 Scottish Cup was the 18th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Heart of Midlothian defeated Dumbarton 1–0 to win the trophy. Teams First round Glasgow and Lanarkshire district Glengowan receive ...

. An 11–0 thrashing of United Abstainers was an auspicious debut and Burnbank eventually reached the fourth round before losing 1–0 to Royal Albert. The club finished the season on a high - beating Airdriehill 9–1 in the final of the Coatbridge Express Cup. Swifts accepted an invitation to join the inaugural season of the

Scottish Football Federation The Scottish Football Federation was an association football competition formed in 1891 which ran for just two seasons. The proposal for a competition came from seven clubs (Falkirk, King's Park, Royal Albert, Glasgow Wanderers, Pollokshaws, ...

in 1891–92, and was considered one of the title favourites, which seemed to be borne out by the team winning its first match (against Kilmarnock Athletic) 7–1. However the season proved to be disastrous, and the club quit the Federation at the end of the season. The Swifts flirted again with league football in 1895, joining the

Scottish Football Alliance The Scottish Football Alliance was a league football structure set up in Scotland in competition with the Scottish Football League. Its success in the early years of professional football in both England and Scotland made the Alliance the basis for ...

but again, only for one season.

Return to Junior football: Burnbank Athletic

The club returned to Junior football in 1898 and changed their name to Burnbank Athletic in 1900. This immediately preceded their third

victory in 1900–01 and Athletic went on to win the trophy twice more in 1910–11 and 1944–45. The club went out of business in 1962. Other former Burnbank players include

Tommy Cairns Thomas Cairns (30 October 1892 – 30 November 1967) was a Scottish footballer who played for Bristol City, Peebles Rovers, St Johnstone, Rangers, Bradford City and Scotland. Career Club Born in Merryton, Lanarkshire, Cairns made his name i ...

Bobby Shearer Bobby Shearer (29 December 1931 – 5 November 2006) was a Scottish professional football player and manager. Shearer represented Scotland in four full international games. Playing career Shearer, a right-back, played 423 times in all competitio ...

, Willie Telfer and Jimmy Watson who all went on to win full international caps for

later in their careers.

Colours

The club originally played in blue and white; after a season it changed to black and white, and from 1888 wore maroon shirts and navy shorts. On the club's return to junior football, it adopted black and gold, originally in stripes but gold shirts with black trim by the 1960s.

Scottish Junior Cup finals record

Honours

winners: 1888–89, 1889–90, 1900–01, 1910–11, 1944–45 **Runners-up: 1927–28, 1930–31 *

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 ...

winners: 1917–18 * Lanarkshire Junior League winners: 1896–97, 1900–01, 1901–02, 1902–03, 1903–04, 1911–12, 1915–16, 1928–29, 1940–41, 1946–47 *Lanarkshire Junior League Cup winners: 1928–29, 1958–59

Former players

1. Players that have played/managed in the top two divisions of the Scottish Football League or any foreign equivalent to this level (i.e. fully professional league).
2. Players with full international caps.
3. Players that hold a club record or have captained the club. * Joe Murray

References

Sources

Scottish Football Historical Archive
{{Defunct Scottish football clubs, state=collapsed Defunct football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1885 Association football clubs disestablished in 1962 1885 establishments in Scotland 1962 disestablishments in Scotland Football in South Lanarkshire Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Scottish Junior Football Association clubs