Kilbirnie Ladeside Football Club are a Scottish

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 ...

club, from

Kilbirnie Kilbirnie () is a small town of 7,280 (as of 2001) inhabitants situated in the Garnock Valley area of North Ayrshire, on the west coast of Scotland. It is around southwest of Glasgow and approximately from Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley and ...

North Ayrshire North Ayrshire (, ) is one of 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and s ...

. Based at Valefield Park, they currently play in the

West of Scotland Football League The West of Scotland Football League (WoSFL) is a senior football league based in the west of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–10 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. Founded in 20 ...

. Their main rivals are Beith Juniors. The club nickname, ''The Blasties'', derives from a

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

poem, ''The Inventory'', written in 1786. However, a more likely reason for the nickname is the proximity of the club to the nearby blast furnaces of the former Glengarnock Steelworks.

History

Kilbirnie won their first

Scottish Junior Cup The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA). The competition has been held every year since the inception of the SJFA on the 2nd October 1886 and, as of the 2023–24 ed ...

title in 1952 with a 1–0 victory over Camelon Juniors at

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

, with over 69,000 fans in attendance. The team's Goalkeeper on the day was Tom McQueen, father of future Scotland international Gordon McQueen. In 2020, Kilbirnie moved from the SJFA, to join the pyramid system in Scottish football as one of the inaugural members of the

. On 10 October 2020, the club announced they would not be participating in the inaugural season of the West of Scotland League due to concerns relating to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

pandemic, citing the inability of fans to be able to attend games as a huge issue for the club.

Valefield Park

Valefield Park is home to Kilbirnie Ladeside. The average attendance is around two hundred (varying for cup games).

History

The Blasties' (the nickname of Kilbirnie Ladeside) original home of Ladeside Park on Mill Road was partly built on by the army during World War II and the club relocated to Valefield, the home of Glengarnock Vale, another local side. Vale did not re-appear after the war and Valefield Park became Ladeside's permanent ground. The name 'Ladeside' derives from the lade that runs near the ground from the old Nether Mill at Knoxsville Road near the Miller's Knowe.

Structure

Although the ground is small it can comfortably hold up to six hundred spectators. On the north-west side there are two main stands which were both constructed at the start of the new millennium. The ground has around four main turnstiles, two of which are located on Kirkland Road.

Current squad

Club staff

Honours

* Winners: 1951–52, 1976–77 * Runners-up: 1986–87

Other honours

* West of Scotland Cup winners: 2007–08 * Scottish Junior League winners: 1903–04 * Ayrshire League champions: 1975–76 * Western League champions: 1947–48, 1949–50, 1951–52, 1967–68 * Ayrshire Cup: 1912–13, 1923–24, 1947–48, 1949–50, 1971–72, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1986–87 * Western/Ayrshire League Cup winners: 1923–24, 1931–32, 1938–39, 1988–89, 1994–95, 2009–10, 2016–17

Notable former players

* George Stevenson,

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 ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. * Ernie McGarr,

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

and Scotland.Dark Blue Dons - Ernie McGarr
''afc.co.uk'', 13 February 2007, Retrieved 24 June 2011

References

External links

Official site

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{{Authority control Football clubs in Scotland Scottish Junior Football Association clubs Association football clubs established in 1901 Football in North Ayrshire 1901 establishments in Scotland West of Scotland Football League teams Kilbirnie Kilbirnie Ladeside F.C.