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 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
club based in the village of
Lennoxtown
Lennoxtown (, ) is a town in the East Dunbartonshire council area and the historic county of Stirlingshire, Scotland. The Campsie Fells are located to Lennoxtown's north. The town had a population of 4,094 at the 2011 UK census.
History
The ...
,
Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling ( ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling.Registers of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties.
It borders Perthshir ...
.
History
The club was founded in 1883, with the club's initial honorary and match secretaries living in Crosshill Terrace in Lennoxtown. Honorary secretary Thomas Rodger had held the same role with Campsie Glen, one of the previous senior clubs in the town, and the club took over Campsie Glen's Lennox Park ground. The club promptly joined 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 made its
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,a month later.
First Stirlingshire Cup final
The club went out in the first round, but later that season was a founder member of the Stirlingshire Association and played in the first
Stirlingshire Cup
The Stirlingshire Cup is an association football cup competition for clubs in the counties of Stirlingshire, Clackmannanshire & Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The competition was founded in 1883 and was contested annually by senior member clubs of the ...
in 1883–84; it had more success in the local tournament, reaching the semi-final, only losing 2–1 to a
Falkirk
Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...
side able to call on the resources of a membership over three times as large - the Campsie side "exhibited the passing game as few clubs in the shire can do". The success stimulated the revival of another senior club in the town ( Central) in 1884.
The club went one stage further in 1884–85, reaching the final by beating the two largest teams in the county; King's Park 1–0 away from home in a replay, thanks to an early goal from Alex Stewart, with Campsie having to run a gauntlet of King's Park's younger supporters throwing dirt at their carriage back to the station, and East Stirlingshire in a semi-final replay. The win over the Shire was particularly sweet, the 5–1 score avenging a defeat in the first round of the
1884–85 Scottish Cup
The 1884–85 Scottish Cup – officially the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – was the 12th season of Scotland's most prestigious Association football, football knockout competition. Renton F.C., Renton won the competition for the ...
. Although favoured in the final against
Camelon
Camelon (; , ) is a large settlement within the Falkirk council area, Scotland. The village is in the Forth Valley, west of Falkirk, south of Larbert and east of Bonnybridge. The main road through Camelon is the A803 road which links th ...
, who had had a far easier run in the competition and relied on a protest to overturn an earlier defeat, Camelon won 2–1 after extra time in a second replay. Campsie protested that a goal was wrongly disallowed after the Camelon team dragged their goalkeeper Nisbet - with the ball - to the side of the goal during a scrimmage, but to no avail.
Campsie's local form had not been repeated in the Scottish Cup, not winning a tie until 1886–87, when it put double figures past
Dunipace
Dunipace () is a village in the west of the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The village is south of Stirling and north-west of Falkirk. The village is situated on the north bank of the River Carron and adjoins the town of Denny, to the sout ...
in the first round, and put up a tremendous fight at
Vale of Leven
The Vale of Leven () is an area of West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, in the valley of the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven. Historically, it was part of The Lennox, the name of which derives from the Gaelic term ''Leamhnach'', meaning ''fie ...
in the third round, only losing 7–4; Campsie even took the lead, and although the club went 6–1 down, it pulled back to 6–4 with ten minutes to go, before the Vale made the game safe - the Campsie performance having such "dash and judgment" that the Vale supporters started to cheer Campsie on. The match saw Vale play a 2–3–5 formation against Campsie's regular 2–2–6, despite the new formation being criticized for its defensiveness.
Scottish Cup quarter-final
The club's best Scottish Cup run came in 1888–89, with the club reaching the quarter-final; ironically it proved to be deleterious for the club, as following the season it suffered a number of departures as players were poached by quasi-professional or English clubs, star forward William Dempsey for instance moving to Hibernian. The highlight of the run was a 3–1 win over Heart of Midlothian, but in the quarter-final the 3rd L.R.V. proved too strong, Alex Kain scoring the only Campsie goal in a 6–1 defeat at
Cathkin Park
Cathkin Park is a municipal park in Glasgow, Scotland. The park is maintained by the city's parks department, and it is a public place where football is still played. The park contains the site of the second Hampden Park, previously home to the ...
.
Stirlingshire Cup win
The introduction of qualifying rounds from 1891–92 meant that Campsie had to win through to play in the first round proper, and the club only did so in 1892–93, suffering a heavy defeat in the first round proper to
Motherwell
Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...
. The previous season however saw the club win the Stirlingshire Cup for the only time, beating Falkirk 4–1 in the final at King's Park's Forthbank ground; inside-left Smith opening the scoring and Pattison making it two, before the Bairns pulled one back with a "very suspicious offside goal", before two second-half goals made the game safe. Captain Macfarlane and striker Danny McVicar both decided to retire after the match.
End of club
Falkirk gained revenge over Campsie in the second round of the Stirlingshire Cup in 1892–93; Campsie won the tie, but Falkirk's protest that a Campsie player was barred because of an appearance in an Army Cup tie meant the tie replayed, this time Falkirk winning out. Campsie in turn protested Falkirk for alleged professionalism, but withdrew the protest because of lack of proof, and Campsie did not play competitive football again.
Campsie entered the Scottish Cup in 1893–94, but scratched to Camelon in the first qualifying round. The club's final demise came in 1894, along with fellow Stirlingshire senior sides Vale of Bannock, Denny, and Bridge of Allan, as professionalism - with reliance on gate money - meant the clubs in smaller towns could no longer compete with clubs with bigger catchment areas and league placings.
Colours
The club's home colours were dark blue jerseys and knickers, with red socks, until 1890 when they changed to light blue, first wearing them against Dalmuir Thistle in August.
Ground
The club originally played at Lennox Park, in the east end of the village, half a mile from Lennoxtown station and 1¼ miles from Campsie railway station, and using the High Street for changing facilities. By 1889 the club was playing at the Alum Works Park, which during the summer was the home of the Campsie cricket club.
Honours
*Stirlingshire Cup
**Winner: 1891–92
**Runner-up: 1884–85
Notable players
* Quintin Macfarlane, full-back and captain of the club through the 1880s, and in the Stirlingshire Cup triumph, who was often "borrowed" by other clubs when there was no clash with a Campsie fixture, and who represented the Stirlingshire FA in county matches.
* Joe McQue, half-back, who played in the Stirlingshire Cup win in 1892