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 ...
team located in the town of
Greenock
Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...
,
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire () (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Renfrewshire is located in the west central Lowlands. It borders East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire, and lies on the southern ba ...
.
History
The club was founded in 1877, under the name Greenock (Southern). It turned senior in 1881 by joining 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 ...
under the name Southern.
The club entered the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1881–82 to 1885–86. Its best run in the competition was in 1884–85, when it reached the third round for the only time. In the first round the club beat Paisley Athletic 3–2 away; in the second, it drew twice with
Pollokshaws
Pollokshaws () is an area on the South side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is bordered by the residential neighbourhoods of Auldhouse, Glasgow, Auldhouse to the east, Eastwood, Glasgow, Eastwood and Hillpark, Glasgow, Hillpark to the south ...
, which, under the rules of the competition, meant both sides passed into the third round of fixtures. At that stage the club was drawn at Morton and lost 5–0, a turning point having a goal disallowed for a prior foul when 3–0 down.
It first entered the
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 team ...
in 1882–83, and that year was its best run, reaching the quarter-finals; however that was after one win and one bye. In the last eight, the club lost 8–0 at St Mirren.
The club's 1885–86 season demonstrated the gap between the top clubs and the rest had grown to an impossible extent. In the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Neilston
Neilston (, , ) is a village and List of civil parishes in Scotland, parish in East Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is in the River Levern, Levern Valley, southwest of Barrhead, the last remaining town in greater Glas ...
; an early indication of the erosion in the team's resources being that Southern only had ten men. In the Renfrewshire, the club gained its best competitive win in the first round, 9–2 against Glenpatrick, but in the second round suffered its worst defeat, 14–1 at Morton.
Southern'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 law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...
, Greenock Rovers, Lyle Athletic, Northern (Greenock), Morton, and the 1st R.R.V.; between them, they had 320 members, but St Mirren in nearby Paisley had 300 members alone. Southern had but 40 members that season and by 1887 all but three of these clubs had folded. Southern was one of them - along with geographical stablemates Northern, Southern was struck from the Scottish FA membership roll in August 1886, and the Renfrewshire the following month.
Colours
The club originally wore navy jerseys, white knickers, and navy stockings. In 1883 the club changed to 1" hooped black and white jerseys, white knickers, and black and white stockings.
Ground
The club originally played at Finnart Park, a 10-minute walk from the station. In 1882 the club moved to West End Park. In 1884 it moved to Berrylands Park, a 2-minute walk from Upper Greenock railway station.