Pumpherston Football Club are a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in

Pumpherston Pumpherston is a village in West Lothian, Scotland. Originally a small industrial village housing works for the nearby shale mine and works, it now forms the eastern part of the new town of Livingston, which was constructed to the west of Pumph ...

, near

Livingston, West Lothian Livingston (, ) is the largest town in West Lothian, Scotland. Designated in 1962, it is the fourth post-war New towns in the United Kingdom, new town to be built in Scotland. Taking its name from Livingston Village, a village of the same name ...

. Their home ground is Recreation Park, with one of the largest pitches in Scottish football. The club colours are gold and black.

History

The original Pumpherston club was formed in 1896. A club by the name of Pumpherston Rob Roy were probably the first Junior club in the village, existing for a few years in the early 1900s before Pumpherston Rangers joined the Linlithgowshire Junior League for the 1911–12 season. Success followed for the next three seasons with two East of Scotland Junior League titles, two Renton cup wins, two Leith Burgh Cup wins and a Dalmeny Cup.

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

intervened but they won the Renton Cup again in 1919 when football resumed. However, at the end of 1927–28 season with league re-organisation and the number of West Lothian clubs dwindling, they decided to turn amateur and leave the Juniors. It was 26 years later than Pumpherston Juniors joined the Edinburgh & District League for season 1954–55. Their first success came in 1957 when they defeated

Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic Bonnyrigg Rose Football Club is a Scottish football club from the town of Bonnyrigg. Formed in 1881 and nicknamed ''the Rose'', the team plays in the , having been relegated in 2024–25. Their home ground is New Dundas Park, and they have ...

Albyn Park Broxburn Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the town of Broxburn in West Lothian. They play their home games at Albyn Park. The team currently competes in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, having moved from th ...

to win the Thornton Shield and the following season they shocked Junior football by going all the way to the

Scottish Junior Cup The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA). The competition has been held every year since the inception of the SJFA on the 2nd October 1886 and, as of the 2023–24 ed ...

final under the leadership of captain Vince Halpin. On the way to the Final they defeated West Calder United, Dalkeith Thistle,

Tranent Tranent is a town in East Lothian (formerly Haddingtonshire), in the south-east of Scotland. Tranent lies 6 miles from the boundary of Edinburgh, and 9.1 miles from the city centre. It lies south of the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road that r ...

, Thornton Hibs, and

Parkhead Parkhead () is a district in the East End of Glasgow. Its name comes from a small weaving hamlet (place), hamlet at the meeting place of the Great Eastern Road (now the Gallowgate and Tollcross Road) and Westmuir Street. Glasgow's Eastern Necro ...

. The Semi-Final against

Baillieston Baillieston () is a working class suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. It is about east of the city centre. It also gives its name to Ward 20 of Glasgow City Council and forms part of the Glasgow East constituency of the UK Parliament. Geographical ...

in front of 10,000 at

Brockville Park Brockville Park was a football stadium located on Hope Street in Falkirk, Scotland, north-west of the town centre. It was the home of Falkirk F.C. from 1885 until the end of 2002–03 Scottish football season.

was drawn, but they won the replay at

Celtic Park Celtic Park is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium and the home of Scottish Premiership team Celtic F.C., Celtic, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest List of football stadiums in Sco ...

the following week to send them to

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

, where they lost 2–0 to Shotts Bon Accord in front of 33,000. They were a solid mid-table club but in 1962–63 they narrowly lost the West Section title to

Sauchie Sauchie is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies north of the River Forth and south of the Ochil Hills, within the council area of Clackmannanshire. Sauchie has a population of around 6000 and is located northeast of Alloa and ...

who went on to win the play-off against Newtongrange Star, the same season they lost Brown Cup Final to Dunbar United. The following year also saw a third-place finish. They came from nowhere in 1969–70 to win the West Section, edging out Linlithgow Rose and Bo'ness United, but lost the Championship play-off to Mid/East Section winners Arniston Rangers. The early 1970s saw erratic form, 1971–72 saw them finish third, the following season they were 15th and bottom, and the season after that, with the leagues re-organised into A and B Divisions they missed out on promotion by a single goal. They also had a run to the 5th round of the Scottish Junior Cup before being eliminated by Glasgow Perthshire. However that was their last sniff of success as the financial situation at the club was deteriorating and midway through season 1976–77 they folded. The club was re-formed and joined the East Region in 1990–91, once again bringing Junior football back to Recreation Park. The club had a few promotions and relegations in that time. In 2017/18 the club won there first silverware since reforming in 1990 winning the Premier South League. The following year they won the League and League cup double.They joined the East of Scotland pyramid system at tier 9 where they are playing at the moment in the Third Division

Club staff

Board of directors

Coaching staff

Source

Current squad

As of 31 October 2022

Managerial history

^p Player managers.

Honours

Pumpherston Rangers *East of Scotland Junior League Champions: 1913–14, 1914–15 *Renton Cup: 1912–13, 1913–14, 1918–19 *Leith Burghs Cup: 1912–13, 1913–14 *Lumley Cup: 1912–13 *Dalmeny Cup: 1913–14 *St.Michaels Cup Runners-up: 1924–25 *Linlithgowshire County Cup Runners-up: 1926–27 Pumpherston Juniors *

Runners-up: 1957–58 * East Junior League West Division Champions: 1969–70 *Thornton Shield Winners: 1956–57 * Lothians Second Division Runners-up: 2003–04 * East Region South Division Runners-up: 2012–13 *RL Rae Cup Runners-up: 1960–61 *St.Michaels Cup Runners-up: 1960–61 *Brown Cup Runners-up: 1962–63

References

External links

Official club site

Facebook

Twitter
{{SJFA East Region Football clubs in Scotland Scottish Junior Football Association clubs Football in West Lothian Association football clubs established in 1990 East of Scotland Football League teams Livingston, West Lothian