Dean Football Club, sometimes referred to as Kilmarnock Dean, was an
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 ...
club from
Kilmarnock in
Ayrshire
Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine, North Ayrshi ...
.
History
The club was founded in 1874 and took its name from a castle near Kilmarnock. As the club had its meetings at Robertson's Temperance Hotel, it may have had links with the
Temperance Movement
The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...
. The club only ever played 7 competitive fixtures; 4 in the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,[Ayrshire Cup
The Ayrshire Cup was an annual association football regional competition in Scotland. The cup competition was a knockout tournament between football clubs in the historic county of Ayrshire. The Ayrshire Cup was first held in 1877–78, with t ...](_blank)
. The club lost 6 of these fixtures. The biggest recorded win for the club is a 3–0 home win against
St Andrew's of Kilmarnock in a friendly in 1875.
Its Scottish Cup results grew progressively worse in its first three years of entry. In
1876–77, the club was let down by its nominated umpire, in a 3–2 defeat against
Girvan
Girvan ( gd, Inbhir Gharbhain, "mouth of the River Girvan") is a burgh and harbour town in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Girvan is situated on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde, with a population of about 6,450. It lies south of Ayr, ...
played at
Eglinton Park
Eglinton Park is a public park located in the North Toronto neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a few blocks west of the Eglinton Subway Station. It is bounded on the south end by Eglinton Avenue West, on the north by Roselawn Aveunue. Th ...
in
Ayr
Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...
; the Dean players disputed the winner for Girvan, which the Girvan umpire had given as a goal, but, as the Dean umpire could not make up his mind either way, the referee gave the goal.
The following season the club lost 6–0 at
Kilbirnie, the home team penning Dean in its goal area for 35 minutes before the first goal. In
1878–79 the club suffered its worst defeat, 9–0 to
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
.
Its last Scottish Cup tie, in
1879–80, against
Mauchline
Mauchline (; gd, Maghlinn) is a town and civil parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland. In the 2001 census Mauchline had a recorded population of 4,105. It is home to the National Burns Memorial.
Location
The town lies by the Glasgow and South Wes ...
at Holm Quarry (the home of
Kilmarnock Athletic), ended 3–1 to the village side, Alex Robertson scoring Dean's only competitive goal when the club was 2–0 down.
The club's first Ayrshire Cup tie came in the first season of the competition. Dean was favoured to beat the newly founded Hawthorn club at home, but, in a "very fast" game, the visitors won 1–0. In 1878–79, the club lost 1–0 at the village side of
Coylton Coila.
In the 1879–80 competition the club finally avoided a defeat, drawing 0–0 against Mauchline in the first round, but the club was then disqualified, as the
Ayrshire Football Association Ayrshire Football Association or Ayrshire Football League or ''variation'', may refer to:
* Ayrshire Football League (1891-1895;1900-1901)
* Ayrshire Football Combination (1893-1897)
* Ayrshire and Renfrewshire Football League (1903-1905)
* Ayrshir ...
found the club at fault for not arranging a replay within the competition deadline.
The club did not enter the Ayrshire Cup again, and the last known reference to the club is its being drawn at home to
Auchinleck Boswell in the
1881–82 Scottish Cup
The 1881–82 Scottish Cup – officially the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – was the ninth season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. A total of 147 teams entered the competition, five more than the previ ...
.
Colours
The club wore royal blue shirts and white knickerbockers.
Ground
The club played at Hillhead, off Kilmaurs Road.
References
{{Defunct Scottish football clubs, state=collapsed
Dean
Dean may refer to:
People
* Dean (given name)
* Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin
* Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk
* Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean
Titles
* ...
Sport in Kilmarnock
Association football clubs established in 1874
Association football clubs disestablished in 1881
1874 establishments in Scotland
1881 disestablishments in Scotland