Kirriemuir F.C. was an
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...
club from
Kirriemuir
Kirriemuir, sometimes called Kirrie or the ''Wee Red Toon'' ( gd, An Ceathramh Mòr; IPA: nˈkʰʲɛɾəvmoːɾ, is a burgh in Angus, Scotland. It reaches back to earliest recorded times, when it is thought to have been a major ecclesiastical ...
in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
.
History
The club was formed in 1889 out of an athletics club, with a number of players from the other senior club in the town, the moribund
Lindertis, changing allegiance.
The club joined 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 August 1890, effectively in place of Lindertis, which did not renew its subscription; Kirriemuir had to overcome concern that it did not have its own private ground. The club's first competitive match, at
Brechin
Brechin (; gd, Breichin) is a city and former Royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. Traditionally Brechin was described as a city because of its cathedral and its status as the seat of a pre-Reformation Roman Catholic diocese (which continues today ...
in the first round of the
1890–91 Scottish Cup
The 1890–91 Scottish Cup was the 18th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Heart of Midlothian defeated Dumbarton 1–0 to win the trophy.
First round
* * Match Declared Void
*** St Johnstone Declared ...
, was a 4–3 win against the odds; all of the Kirriemuir goals coming on breaks. The club lost 3–0 in the second round at home to
Montrose, and had the misfortune to be drawn against the Gable Endies in the first round of the
Forfarshire Cup
The Forfarshire Cup is a football competition in Scotland competed for by teams in the Forfarshire Football Association from Angus, Dundee and Perth. The name of the competition is often baffling to some, as "Forfarshire" is an archaic and angli ...
, losing again.
Kirriemuir did not play in the proper rounds of the Cup again; from 1891 the Scottish FA introduced qualifying rounds, and later 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 Cup ...
, and Kirriemuir did not progress far enough again to make the main draw. Indeed, the club only won once more in the competition - 7–3 against
Strathmore of
Dundee in 1891–92, at the latter's new Logie Park ground, having been 2–0 down at half-time. The Kirrie came close to a win in the first round in 1893–94, leading perennial blockage Montrose 2–1 in the dying stages of their tie, but Montrose scored twice late to win 3–2.
It had a similar lack of success in the local competitions. The club played three times in the Forfarshire Charity Cups, which excluded clubs from Dundee, from 1890–91 to 1892–93, but only won two ties, both against
Coupar Angus
Coupar Angus (; Gaelic: ''Cùbar Aonghais'') is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, south of Blairgowrie.
The name Coupar Angus serves to differentiate the town from Cupar, Fife. The town was traditionally on the border between Angus and Pe ...
. It entered the county competition until 1896–97, again only winning one tie, against Friockheim in 1894–95. The consolation was that the 13–1 score was the club's biggest win; the downside was the second round saw the club's biggest defeat, 15–0 at Montrose.
The club gave up the unequal struggle in 1896. It was struck from the Scottish FA membership and, although still in the Forfarshire Association, did not send a team, or even word, to
Arbroath
Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902.
It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen.
...
, with regard to their first round tie in the Forfarshire Cup. This caused some embarrassment to Alexander Gow, who had been sent to the Forfarshire FA at the start of the season as the Kirriemuir representative, but whose club had not played a single match all season, and who could only suggest that - as "the introduction of professionalism had dome much towards the decadence of football" - the Scottish FA should send some surplus funds to the poorer county clubs. No such funds were forthcoming and Mr Gow's representation on the Forfarshire Association was the Kirrie's last presence in football.
Colours
The club originally played in blue jerseys and knickers. In 1894 it changed to red and blue.
Ground
The club played at Newton Park.
Nickname
One of the club's nicknames, the Auld Lichts, derived from a
Calvinist
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
sect which had a high proportion of believers in the Kirriemuir population.
External links
Forfarshire Cup results
References
{{Defunct Scottish football clubs, state=collapsed
Defunct football clubs in Scotland
Football clubs in Angus, Scotland
Association football clubs established in 1889
Association football clubs disestablished in 1897
Kirriemuir
1889 establishments in Scotland
1897 disestablishments in Scotland