Motherwell Shamrock 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

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lana ...

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scot ...

, active in the early 1890s.

History

The club was formed in early 1890 as a split from Carfin Shamrock; the club's first secretary, John Timminey, had been Carfin's secretary in 1889, and Carfin captain (and club co-founder) "Dodger" Breslin threw in his lot with the new club. The club's first match was against a

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

select in April 1890, watched by the

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *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 ...

President, who was checking to ensure none of the Celtic players was appearing for a rival Irish diaspora club without permission. The Motherwell side tried to get an invitation to the Airdrie Charity Cup, on the basis that it now had a large number of Carfin players, but the charity committee stayed loyal to the Carfin; in any event, under the rules of the competition, the Motherwell players were mostly Cup-tied, for having represented Carfin in other tournaments in the earlier part of the season. The Shamrock 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 and was expected to win its debut

Scottish FA Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Fairfield Fairfield may refer to: Places Australia * Fairfield, New South Wales, a western suburb of Sydney. **Electoral district of Fairfield, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly * Fairfield, Queensland * Fairfield, Victoria ...

club of Glasgow, but the visitors scored five in the first half and ran out 7–3 winners. Perhaps worse for Motherwell was that Carfin Shamrock held Celtic to a draw in the second round. Two months later, Shamrock held

Albion Rovers Albion Rovers Football Club is a semi-professional football team from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League Two, the fourth tier of the Scot ...

to a draw in its first

Lanarkshire Cup The Lanarkshire Cup was an annual competition open to football teams in the Lanarkshire area. The competition is now defunct. List of winners 1879–80 - Stonelaw 1880–81 - Thistle 1881–82 - Hamilton Academical 1882–83 - West Benhar 1883� ...

tie, due to the Rovers "skylarking" when in an easy two-goal lead, but lost 8–1 in the home replay, and scratched from its entry to the Consolation Cup to "no surprise". The club's moment had passed before it was even founded; the rise of League football, the unexpected continuance (at least temporarily) of Carfin, and the all-encompassing growth of Celtic were all mortal blows to the Shamrock. The club had already lost its ground to Dalziel Rovers in March 1891, and ceased to exist at the close of the 1890–91 season, although an attempt to revive the name saw an application for re-admission to the Scottish FA in August 1892, to no avail.

Colours

The club wore green and white vertically striped shirts, and dark blue knickers.

Ground

The club's ground was Ladywell Park.

References

{{Defunct Scottish football clubs, status=collapsed Motherwell Shamrock F.C. Association football clubs established in 1890 Association football clubs disestablished in 1892 1890 establishments in Scotland 1892 disestablishments in Scotland Football in North Lanarkshire Irish diaspora sports clubs in Scotland