Kirkintilloch Athletic Football Club was a 19th-century
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
club based in
Kirkintilloch
Kirkintilloch (; ; ) is a town and a Burgh of Barony (The Baron of Kirkintilloch) in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the Forth and Clyde Canal and on the south side of Strathkelvin, about northeast of central Glasgow. Historically ...
in
Dunbartonshire
Dunbartonshire () or the County of Dumbarton is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbar ...
.
History
The club was formed in 1885, at the start of the cricket season; it was the second club with the name. It quickly joined 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 ...
for the 1885–86 season, and its first match was a 3–1 win over the Livingstone club of
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
.
It was, unfortunately, poor preparation for its first
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Renton, the Scottish Cup holders and arguably the best team in the world; the visitors duly won 15–0. The local newspaper, perhaps miscounting, or out of kindness, gave the score as 14–0, and stated that the Kirkintilloch side "acquitted themselves fairly well".
The Athletic's problem was starting up as a football team in an area already saturated with clubs, and suffered some heavy beatings in the Cup by more established, and better-backed, sides; 9–0 by
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 1886–87, without even the consolation of the club receiving any gate receipts, as expenses took up the whole of the small gate; 7–1 by Jamestown in 1887–88; 5–0 by Methlan Park in 1888–89, who scored three goals in seven minutes, and 5–2 by Dumbarton Union in 1889–90.
The only win the club had in the Scottish Cup in this period was in 1887–88, beating town rivals Kirkintilloch Central 5–1; a friendly between the two in 1886 had to be abandoned, with the Athletics 3–0 up, after some of the 500 in attendance invaded the pitch in protest at a Central goal being disallowed.
Outside Dumbartonshire, the club looked a little better, only going down to
Clydebank
Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...
by the odd goal in seven in a replay in 1890–91. The Athletics had been handicapped at the start of the season, with regular goalkeeper Buchanan moving to Glasgow Thistle and having to rely on a "good, young" successor in Robert Reid. The club entered the Cup for the next three seasons, after the introduction of qualifying rounds, but never won through to the first round.
The club could find little respite in the local
Dumbartonshire Cup
The Dumbartonshire Cup was the championship trophy of the Dumbartonshire FA from its inception in 1884 until the organization disbanded in 1938. There was however an 'extra' playing of the competition in 1939, immediately after the outbreak of the ...
. With the bigger teams generally entering, the Athletic could pick off the smaller sides, but struggled against the bigger. The club's best run in the competition came in 1890–91, reaching the semi-final, and to general surprise holding Vale of Leven to a 0–0 draw; however in the replay the Vale scored 12 without reply.
One of the club's best results was a 4–2 win in a friendly with Dumbarton F.C. at the start of the 1889–90 season; it was the first match for Dumbarton after the takeover of Dumbarton Athletic, albeit only one Athletic player had carried over, and he was playing out of position.
A combination of factors in the early 1890s, chiefly the arrival of professionalism and the creation of 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 ...
, drove a number of clubs out of business; the Dumbarton Cup was reduced to 6 entrants by 1894–95. The Athletics' last game in the competition had been in the previous season, and the last reported match a defeat by Dumbarton Rangers in 1893.
Colours
The club originally wore royal blue shirts and white shorts. In 1887 it changed the royal blue to navy blue, and in 1889 the shorts to match the shirt.