Preston Athletic Football Club are a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

football club based in the town of

Prestonpans Prestonpans ( gd, Baile an t-Sagairt, Scots: ''The Pans'') is a small mining town, situated approximately eight miles east of Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Council area of East Lothian. The population as of is. It is near the site of the 1745 ...

East Lothian East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the hi ...

. The club are nicknamed the Panners and play their home matches at

Pennypit Park Pennypit Park is a sports complex located in the town of Prestonpans, East Lothian in Scotland. It consists of two sports fields, one for association football and the other rugby union. It is the home of East of Scotland Football League club Pre ...

. The team play in dark blue. They were founding members of the

Lowland Football League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the ...

in 2013, but after being relegated in 2017 now play in the .

History

Founded in 1945, they were originally a junior club and only entered the senior ranks in 1994 when they joined the

East of Scotland Football League The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) is a senior football league based in the east and south-east of Scotland. The league sits at levels 6–9 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the Lowland Football League. ...

. As a full member of 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 ...

, Preston are automatically eligible to enter the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2002–03, losing 1–0 at home to

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 ...

in the First Round. The club applied unsuccessfully to join the

Scottish Football 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 so ...

in 2000 and 2002. In 2008 Preston Athletic were one of five clubs to prepare an application for entry into the

following Gretna relinquishing their league status, however they were again unsuccessful after losing out to

Annan Athletic Annan Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football club based in the town of Annan, Dumfries and Galloway. The club was founded in 1942 and competes in Scottish League Two as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. T ...

. At the end of the 2016–17 season Preston Athletic were relegated to the East of Scotland League, having spent four seasons in the Lowland League.

Honours

First Division * Winners: 2001–02 * ''Runners-up (2):'' 1994–95, 2011–12 King Cup * ''Runners-up:'' 2017–18 Alex Jack Cup * Winners: 1994–95

Notable players and coaches

The first professional coach of Preston Athletic was

Paddy Buckley Patrick McCabe Buckley (31 January 1925 – 4 November 2008) was a Scottish footballer, who played as a striker for Bo'ness United, St Johnstone, Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in ...

, a former

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), ...

and

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 ...

striker whose son, Paddy Junior went on from Preston Athletic to play for

Third Lanark Third Lanark Athletic Club was a Scottish football club based in Glasgow. Founded in 1872 as an offshoot of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, the club was a founder member of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1872 and the Scotti ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Ro ...

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around ...

and

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games a ...

References

External links

* {{East of Scotland League Football clubs in Scotland Football in East Lothian Association football clubs established in 1945 1945 establishments in Scotland East of Scotland Football League teams Lowland Football League teams Scottish Junior Football Association clubs Prestonpans