Plains Football Club was an

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 from the village of

Plains In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, an ...

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

History

Plains F.C. was the second senior club to come from the village, after Plains Blue Bell, which had become defunct by mid-1884. The club's first match was in March 1885, a 3–2 win at home to Armadale, and its first competitive football came in the

Lanarkshire Cup The Lanarkshire Cup was an annual competition open to football teams in the Lanarkshire area. The competition is now defunct. The Lanarkshire FA was dissolved in June 1999 when it was merged with the Ayrshire and Renfrewshire FAs to form the Wes ...

in 1885–86. Plains lost 4–0 at Dykehead in the second round; the match was marred by a broken leg to Dykehead's Williams, although Plains were not so sympathetic, protesting in vain about the darkness and an offside decision - and that Williams (an ironmoulder from Glasgow) was ineligible to play. The club was struggling for finances in 1887, with a small membership and heavy ground rent, and one solution was to join 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 ...

and hope for lucrative

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1887–88 Scottish Cup The 1887–88 Scottish Cup was the 15th season of Scotland's most prestigious Association football, football knockout competition. Renton F.C., Renton won the competition for the second time after they beat Cambuslang F.C., Cambuslang 6–1 in th ...

. The club's first round opponent, Tollcross, scratched, despite being expected to beat Plains, and the club drew a bye in the second round. In the third round, however, the club was drawn to visit Vale of Leven Wanderers, having its best-ever season after recruiting players from

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 ...

. A one-sided contest went the way of the

Dumbartonshire Dunbartonshire () or the County of Dumbarton is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbartonshire borders Perthshire to the north, Stirling ...

side 9–0. Plains did not renew its Scottish FA subscription for 1888–89, and indeed did not play again until re-joining the Lanarkshire Association for the 1890–91 season. The club's last match of any note was a 6–0 defeat at Royal Albert in the Coatbridge Express club (for those eliminated from the Lanarkshire Cup) in March 1891, and Plains finally gave up the ghost at the end of the season.

Colours

The club played in a unique combination of navy, red, and brown.

Ground

Plains' home ground was called Mossfield Park.

References

{{Defunct Scottish football clubs, state=collapsed Defunct football clubs in Scotland Association football clubs established in 1885 1885 establishments in Scotland Association football clubs disestablished in 1891 1891 disestablishments in Scotland Airdrie, North Lanarkshire Football in North Lanarkshire