Kirkcaldy United F.C.
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Kirkcaldy United Football Club was a football club from
Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; ; ) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, making it Fife's second-largest s ...
in
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 ...
.


History

The club was founded as Kirkcaldy Amateurs at the start of the 1901–02 season, in the aftermath of the failure of Kirkcaldy F.C., one of the town's two senior clubs. The other,
Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club has won f ...
, was elected to the
Scottish League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 k ...
in 1902, which immediately made the prospects of another senior club surviving in the town much more difficult. Nevertheless, in 1903, the club turned professional under the name Kirkcaldy United; the club president, Robert Sinclair, became the president of the new Fife Football Association, also set up the same year, which split from the Eastern Association and affiliated directly with 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 ...
. The club joined the Northern League in 1904, and, in its first season as a member, won through to the fourth round of the
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 ...
, which entitled it to play in the first round proper of the
Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Crieff Morrisonians 3–1, coming from 1–0 down and missing a first-half penalty, before an equalizer from Fisher in the 70th minute and two late goals within a minute from Shaw and Cowie put the United into the second round. In the second round, at home to First Leaguers
Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...
, the United held out until a quarter of an hour to go, including withstanding a missed penalty, when Gray scored the only goal of the game; the United was handicapped by regular goalkeeper Dorward being injured before the match and Young, a junior at Vale of Wemyss, stepped in. The club only won through to the main stages of the Scottish Cup twice more, in 1909–10 and 1913–14, losing in its only ties to Queen's Park and Stevenston United respectively, although the club did hold Queen's Park to a surprise 0–0 draw 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 ...
, thanks to the heroics of Dorward in goal. After two mid-table seasons in the Northern League, the club had a banner year in 1906–07. It won the 8-team
Fife Cup The Fife Cup is a Scottish regional football competition for clubs in the historic county of Fife. The competition was founded by the Fifeshire Football Association in 1882. The competition was originally known as the "Fifeshire Cup" from 1882†...
for the first time, beating
Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...
3–1 in the final at
Stark's Park Stark's Park is a football stadium in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. It is the home ground of Raith Rovers, who have played there since 1891. The ground has an all-seated capacity of . History Raith started using the ground in 1891 and it seats . It i ...
in front of 2,160 people; the strength of the tournament being demonstrated by each of the other teams being Scottish League members present or future. The same season, the club won the Northern League, jointly with the Dundee 'A' (i.e. reserve) side. The United had finished its fixtures one point clear of Dundee, who had not been able to play the newly-defunct Hearts of Beath; after expunging all fixtures, the United and Dundee were level on points, and the Fifeshire FA agreed to award the title jointly to the pair. Possibly as a result of this success, Raith Rovers proposed a merger of the two Kirkcaldy sides in 1908, but it did not proceed. In 1909 the club was one of several of the Northern League sides which joined the
Central League The or , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League i ...
, a de facto third division in Scotland, which, between 1909 and 1915, featured 21 teams in total; three were reserve sides, and 17 of the other 18 would end up as members of the Scottish League. The only club which never made it was Kirkcaldy United. The United did apply in 1912–13, when runner-up in the Central League, and having won the Fife Cup a second time by beating East Fife 5–2 in the final, but the two clubs facing re-election were both re-elected. Kircaldy United went into abeyance in 1916, pending the end of
World War 1 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 ...
, but was never revived.


Colours

The club originally played in black and white, changing to blue and white in 1913.


Grounds

They played their early games in Steedman's Park, moving to an open field at Overton Park in 1903. In 1905 they moved into their new home, a purpose-built park named Scott's Park, and brought the fixtures and fittings over with them. It was situated at the corner of Factory Road and Kidd Street. After World War 1 this section of Factory Road was renamed Beatty Crescent. The record crowd at Scott's Park was 12,000, for the
1909–10 Scottish Cup The 1909–10 Scottish Cup was the 37th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The cup was won by Dundee who defeated Clyde 2–0 in the second replay final, after drawing 2–2 and 0–0. As of 2025, it is the onl ...
first round replay tie with Queen's Park, which the visitors won 6–1, the scores having been level at 1–1 at half-time.


External links


Northern League results and tables


References

{{Football in Fife Defunct football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1901 Association football clubs disestablished in 1916 1901 establishments in Scotland 1916 disestablishments in Scotland Football clubs in Fife Kirkcaldy