Northern Football Club was a Scottish football team located in the town of

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of ...

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Re ...

History

The club was founded in 1880. Despite the existence of the Glaswegian club

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

, the Greenock club's official name was simply Northern as well, and it was admitted to membership of the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility fo ...

in 1883 as Northern;. Outside Renfrewshire the club was usually referred to as Greenock Northern. Its first competitive football came in 1883–84, with entries to the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Renfrewshire Cup The Renfrewshire Cup was an annual association football competition between teams in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The final was generally a Renfrewshire derby contested between the two largest teams ...

. The club won its first match in both competitions, and lost in the second round in both. In the

1883–84 Scottish Cup The 1883–84 Scottish Cup was the 11th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Queen's Park won the competition for the seventh time after Vale of Leven could not field a team on the date fixed for the final due to ...

, the club beat

Sir John Maxwell ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

5–3 at home in the first round, and survived a protest from the visitors as to the state of the Bogston pitch. In the second the club went down 6–1 at Johnstone Rovers. In the Renfrewshire, Northern "made short work" of the junior side Greenock Caledonia, winning 4–0 at home, but lost a close game with

Arthurlie Arthurlie is an area of the town of Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, Scotland. History of Arthurlie The lands of Arthurlie were held in medieval times by the Stewart family, a branch of the noble Stewarts of Darnley. Later the lands became the prop ...

in the second round. Northern entered both competitions for the next two years, and lost in its first fixture every time, albeit only losing by the odd goal in seven to the much bigger St Mirren in the 1884–85 Renfrewshire, considered something of "a moral victory" for Northern. Northern's problem was that the Greenock football market was saturated. In 1884, the town had a number of clubs, including senior clubs

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

, Greenock Rovers, Lyle Athletic, Southern (Greenock), Morton, and the 1st R.R.V.; between them, they had 320 members, but St Mirren in nearby Paisley had 300 members alone. Northern had 50 members that season and grew to 70 in 1885, but by 1887 all but three of these clubs had folded. Northern was one of them; after a defeat to

in March 1886, "lt is stated freely that the Northern Football Club is thing of the past, it cannot be the fault of their energetic match secretary, Mr Alexander". Along with Greenock geographical stablemates Southern, it was struck from the Scottish FA membership roll in August 1886, and the Renfrewshire the following month, its players "throwing in heirlot with the Morton". The club was resuscitated briefly as a Junior club.

Colours

The club's colours were royal blue jerseys, white knickers, and red hose.

Ground

The club played at Bogston Park, a 5-minute walk from the

Bogston railway station Bogston railway station is on the Inverclyde Line, at Bogston in the East end of Greenock in Inverclyde council area, Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of G ...

. It shared the ground with Lyle Athletic.

External links

Scottish Cup results

References

{{Defunct Scottish football clubs Defunct football clubs in Scotland Football in Renfrewshire Association football clubs established in 1880 Association football clubs disestablished in 1886 1880 establishments in Scotland 1886 disestablishments in Scotland Football in Inverclyde Greenock