Denny F.C.
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Denny F.C. was a football club from Denny,
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


Denny

The club was formed at a meeting at the Good Templar hall in Denny on 14 January 1889, with Mr David Shanks of Beechfield appointed as president. The club's formation sparked a debate at the Falkirk Literary Society in February as to whether the club could be a success; its first match, in March, against
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 ...
semi-finalists Kilsyth Wanderers, ended in defeat, but only by 4–3, Denny having had a two-goal lead at half-time. Denny had close links with
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 ...
, its closest senior member; in 1890–91, the Dunipace match secretary William Smellie took on the duties for both clubs, before in 1891–92 solely devoting himself to Denny. However, there was comment that the town was too small to support two clubs, with Dunipace nearly going under in 1890, and even at that date there was local media encouragement for the clubs to merge. The club was formed too late to enter the main competitions in 1888–89, but it did take part in the Stirlingshire Charity Cup, although its first match was a 3–2 defeat to the Vale of Bannock. Despite local curiosity as to seeing a side which had not previously played in Stirling, the crowd only paid a gate of £5. Denny was admitted as a member 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 ...
in August 1889. It therefore entered the
1889–90 Scottish Cup The 1889–90 Scottish Cup was the 17th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Queen's Park defeated rivals Vale of Leven 2–1 in a replayed final. Calendar Teams All 158 teams entered the competition in the ...
, as well as the Stirlingshire Cup for the first round. In the national competition, the club lost 5–1 at
Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They compete in as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. According to the official club hist ...
, despite the home side's performance being described as "listless"; Denny earned its first competitive win in the county cup a month later, beating Barnsmuir 8–0, 7 of the goals coming in the second half, and 4 in the last fifteen minutes. In the second round Denny lost 6–1 at Gairdoch, Denny having scored an equalizer on the hour, but going behind again almost from the kick-off and never recovering. The club gained some consolation with its biggest competitive win in the Charity Cup, 13–1 over Stirling Garrison, but lost in the semi-final 6–0 against King's Park at
Bridge of Allan Bridge of Allan (, ), also known colloquially as ''Bofa'', is a former spa town in the Stirling (council area), Stirling council area in Scotland, just north of the city of Stirling. Overlooked by the National Wallace Monument, it lies on th ...
; the match attracted the biggest crowd of the competition, and the game turned in the five minutes before half-time, in which King's Park scored its first three goals. The defeat was the club's last appearance in the charity competition. The club got a home draw in 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 ...
against Alva; the crowd of 500 was Denny's highest recorded, but the majority left disappointed as the
Clackmannanshire Clackmannanshire (; ; ), or the County of Clackmannan, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, Council areas of Scotland, council area, registration counties, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland ...
side won 4–0. Again the Stirlingshire Cup provided some consolation, with a 7–1 win over
Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...
thanks to a "rattling" performance after going behind inside a minute, and a narrow 1–0 quarter-final defeat to
Grangemouth Grangemouth (; , ) is a town in the Falkirk (council area), Falkirk council area in the central belt of Scotland. Historically part of the Counties of Scotland, county of Stirlingshire, the town lies in the Forth Valley, on the banks of the Firt ...
, in which Denny again conceded early, and dominated the game, but could not force an equalizer. However the club would never win in the competition again. Denny won a Scottish Cup tie for the first time in 1891–92, 4–2 at Laurieston, the result considered one of the surprises of the round and credited to the back play of Shanks; however this was merely the first qualifying round, as from this season the Scottish FA had introduced a preliminary stage. Denny won through to the fourth and final preliminary stage, but lost 10–0 at a strong
Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...
side. This time Shanks "had lost interest in the game early in the second half", by which time Denny was 4 down. The 1893–94 season was the club's last, the rising tide of professionalism and the various leagues was killing off smaller clubs over the countryside, and Denny was one of several Stirlingshire clubs to go bust at this time. Denny was one of seven clubs to form the Stirlingshire League that season, but it was never quite finished, Denny being joint second when the season was wound up, and the league did not continue. The signs were ominous at the start of the season; although the club played above itself to gain an unlikely draw at home to the
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 first preliminary round of the Scottish Cup, each side scoring 3 times when playing with the wind, the club had to scratch from the replay. The gulf to the more professional clubs was shown in the first round of the Stirlingshire, Denny losing 8–2 to King's Park; the original tie had to be turned into a friendly after the referee failed to turn up, and the Dennites' apology for accusing the referee Mr French (of
Third Lanark Third Lanark Athletic Club was a Scottish football club based in Glasgow. Founded in 1872 as an offshoot of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, the club was a founder member of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1872 and the Scottish ...
) of incompetence during the official tie was so insufficient that Mr French complained to the Scottish FA, Denny's explanation that it had been misinterpreted not being accepted. The club's formal end came when it was struck from the Scottish FA roll in August 1894.


Denny Athletic

In August 1895, the club re-formed itself as Denny Athletic, at the same ground and Mr Henderson reprising his role as club secretary, and applied successfully to join 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 ...
as a new member. At the same time the club set up a
Junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...
club, Denny Athletic Juniors, which also operated out of Hill Park, and, at junior level, had more success than the senior club, constantly turning a profit. The revived senior club had a similar lack of success to its predecessor. It never won a tie in the Stirlingshire Cup; its only success in the competition came in the first round of the new Consolation Cup in 1896–97, beating Grasshoppers 8–6 on aggregate, the second tie being marred when Robert Burns of Grasshoppers and Lawrence M'Laren of Athletic were ordered off for fighting.g It also only won one
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 ...
tie in its entries - its first tie, against Rumford Rovers in 1895–96. At the end of its first season, Denny Athletic applied to join the
Midland League The Midland Football League, officially known as the Capelli Sport Midland Football League since January 2025 for sponsorship reasons, is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midl ...
, but only gained 2 votes, five short of the minimum required. At the end of the 1898–99 season, Denny announced that it was resigning from the Scottish Football Association, thus ending its tenure as a senior club. Embarrassingly, the Stirlingshire FA President at the time, a Mr Lindsay, was there as representative of Denny, but the Dunipace agreed that he could represent the "other" Denny club instead, so retain his seat. The Junior club continued until 1915, when the expense of running a team during
the First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
proved too much.


Colours

The club wore dark blue jerseys and white knickers. On its revival, it adopted "light" blue jerseys, described after one season as simply blue.


Ground

The club originally played at Lea Park in Denny. In 1890 it moved to Hill Park, the first game at the new ground on 18 January being a 5–3 friendly win over Gairdoch.


Notable players

* John Ramsay, formerly of Morton, was the club's first captain. * Willie Loney, played for Denny Athletic from 1898 until signing for
Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...
in August 1900


External links


Stirlingshire Cup results


References

{{Defunct Scottish football clubs, state = collapsed Denny Association football clubs established in 1889 Association football clubs disestablished in 1894 1889 establishments in Scotland 1894 disestablishments in Scotland