Larbert Amateurs Football Club was a football club from
Larbert
Larbert ( gd, Lèirbert/Leth-pheairt, sco, Lairbert) is a small town in the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town lies in the Forth Valley above the River Carron which flows from the west. Larbert is from the shoreline of the Firth of ...
, in
Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling, gd, Siorrachd Sruighlea) is a historic county and registration countyRegisters of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties. of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling.
It borders Perth ...
,
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 ...
, which reached the second round of the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,World War 1, but the formal Larbert Amateurs club was set up at the start of the 1923–24 season, at a meeting on 28 August 1923, the club joining the eastern division of the Scottish Amateur League.
Stirlingshire Cup
The club's only success in the amateur system was reaching
Scottish Amateur Cup
The Scottish Amateur Cup is a nationwide knockout tournament supported and organised by the Scottish Amateur Football Association. The Scottish Amateur Cup is contested by hundreds of football clubs every year. The first and second rounds are r ...
final in 1924–25, losing 1–0 to
Coldstream
Coldstream ( gd, An Sruthan Fuar , sco, Caustrim) is a town and civil parish in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. A former burgh, Coldstream is the home of the Coldstream Guards, a regiment in the British Army.
Description
Coldstream l ...
, Tocher scoring the only goal after 20 minutes. From 1925–26 to 1939–40, the club entered the
Stirlingshire Cup
The Stirlingshire Cup is an association football cup competition for clubs in the county of Stirlingshire, Scotland. The competition was founded in 1883 and is contested annually by senior member clubs of the Stirlingshire Football Association. Th ...
. The club played in 16 ties in the main competition and the Consolation Cup for clubs eliminated before the final, and lost 14 of them.
The only two ties it won were against Falkirk Amateurs in the Consolation in 1932–33 (a 4–1 win, helped by Jack of Falkirk being sent off just before half-time for arguing against a penalty award) and against King's Park in the Consolation in 1925–26. Because of a bye and the withdrawal of
Alloa Athletic
Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire.
Formed as Alloa in 1880, the football club shortly changed its name to Alloa Association, and then to Alloa At ...
, the latter match was the competition final, meaning that the Amateurs' first win in the competition also brought the club its only trophy. The original match (at
Brockville
Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically independent of the county. It is included with Le ...
) ended in a 2–2 draw, and the Amateurs won the replay, at the same venue, 3–2, with two goals from Maitland in the first half, and Peter Ure scoring the winner a few minutes from time.
Scottish Cup
In 1931, following a satisfactory inspection of the playing field and its enclosure, 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 ...
. This entitled the club to enter 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 ...
, with a view to winning far enough through the competition to play in the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1936–37, the club lost in the first round 3–1 at home to Solway Star, the visitors scoring 2 late goals as the Amateurs tired. The tie was played a week ahead of other ties as
Celtic
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*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foo ...
had been drawn at
Stenhousemuir
Stenhousemuir (; gd, Featha Thaigh nan Clach) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies within the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town is north-northwest of Falkirk and directly adjoins to Larbert in the west, where the nea ...
and the Amateurs wanted to avoid the fixture clash.
The following season, the club was drawn away at fellow amateur side
Moorpark
Moorpark is a city in Ventura County in Southern California. Moorpark was founded in 1900. The town grew from just over 4,000 citizens in 1980 to over 25,000 by 1990. As of 2006, Moorpark was one of the fastest-growing cities in Ventura County.. ...
, and enjoyed an easy 5–2 win, R. S. Richardson scoring twice in the first half to set the side on its way; the only downside being that the crowd of 300 only generated gate receipts of £15. The second round draw gave the club a home tie with
Morton Morton may refer to:
People
* Morton (surname)
* Morton (given name)
Fictional
* Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3''
* A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise
* A character in the 2008 film ''Horton ...
, which caused the club to investigate switching the tie, on the basis that Victoria Park was too hemmed in and overlooked by housing to cope with a First Division side. The Scottish FA refused permission to change the venue entirely, but allowed the match to be hosted at Falkirk Amateurs' Watling Park, with Larbert being responsible for all costs as the nominal home team.
In the tie itself, the Amateurs, despite being only in the second division of the Amateur League, nearly pulled off a shock result, Wilson giving the side the lead after ten minutes, but the tie turning on the stroke of half-time, when Morton was given a penalty on the insistence of the linesman over Larbert claims for a free-kick (J. Reid being booked for his protesting); Morton ended up 3–2 winners thanks to a goal in the 74th minute. Unfortunately for the club, the extra expense of switching grounds proved to be unnecessary - the attendance for the tie was precisely 93, paying £4; the next lowest attendance in the round was 3,000 at
Hamilton Academical
Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championship, having been relegated from the 2020–21 Scottis ...
. Even worse, the Scottish FA censured Larbert for not having a suitable ground, and gave the club two months to put it in order; the club launched a public appeal for the £50 required, but it only acted as a stay of execution, the club being struck off the roll of members in April 1939 for not having a suitable ground.
The end of the club
Despite rumours before the start of the 1939–40 season that the club was in trouble, with a number of key individuals having left their posts, there was enough of an influx of new members to make the club's future look "decidedly bright". However,
World War 2
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
interrupted the season, and the club went into abeyance for the war years. By 1942 the club was in arrears with its subscription to the Stirlingshire County Football Association, and, although the club was still considered an association member at the end of the war, it never re-started operations.
Colours
The club's original colours were black and blue. From 1933 - and probably from 1926 - they were red and white hoops, with black and white as a change kit. The kit worn by the club in its tie with Morton was white with a single red hoop and red knickers.
Ground
The club originally shared
Ochilview
Ochilview Park is a football stadium in Stenhousemuir in the Falkirk council area of Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish League Two club Stenhousemuir, and is also currently shared by Scottish Championship club Queen's Park and East o ...
with Stenhousemuir. The Warriors' joining of the
Scottish League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a 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 km sout ...
in 1927 made such arrangements untenable, and the club sought a new ground. In 1928 it occupied a new pitch, which the club called Blackmyre Park, next to Ochilview, but the situation remained unsatisfactory.
The club secured a new home in 1930, on a pitch next to the Torwood Foundry, gifted to the club by the club's honorary president (and director at the Foundry) Peter Forbes Jones. The club called the ground Victoria Park, as the pitch lay alongside Victoria Road, and the club brought over the pavilion from Blackmyre Park. The pitch area survives as Stewartfield Park.
Honours
Scottish Amateur Cup
*Runner-up: 1924–25
Stirlingshire Consolation Cup
*Winner: 1925–26