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 ...
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
and are now playing in the nearby village of Stonehouse. Formerly a member of the
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct 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&nbs ...
The formation of the club dates back to 1878, when two Larkhall pit sides joined to form one team. These pits were owned by a Capt. Johns and he named the team after his boat the ''Royal Albert''. The club spent over fifty years in Senior football, and qualified for the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1890–91 competition where they reached the fifth round before losing to
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 Foot ...
in front of a record crowd of 5,000 at their Raploch Park ground.Paul Smith & Shirley Smith (2005) ''The Ultimate Directory of English & Scottish Football League Grounds Second Edition 1888–2005'', Yore Publications, p210 In the same season,
centre half
In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring.
Defenders fall into four main categ ...
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
international when he was capped against
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
in March 1891. Royal Albert also have the distinction of scoring the first ever penalty kick in the history of football, James McLuggage scoring against Airdrieonians in a local cup tie on 6 June 1891 (four days after the rule was introduced by the
International Football Association Board
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is an international self-regulatory body of association football that is known for determining the Laws of the Game, the regulations for the gameplay of football. It was founded in 1886 in or ...
).
The club competed in various leagues such as the Scottish Football Federation, Scottish Football Alliance, Scottish Football Combination, Scottish Football Union and Western Football League before becoming a founder member of Scottish League Division Three in 1923. After the Third Division was abandoned in 1926, Albert briefly returned to the Scottish Football Alliance and Provincial Football League before being wound up in 1927 and re-forming as a Junior club the following year. The Royal Albert name continued to appear in 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 Cu ...
until 1936 and they qualified for the tournament on two further occasions, their last game being a 16–0 thrashing by Partick Thistle in January 1931.
Royal Albert initially competed in Junior football with some success and twice reached the semi-final of 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 ...
in 1930 and 1940 but fared less well in modern times, with the club playing in the bottom tier of the Central Region/District league set-up for 45 consecutive seasons from 1972 until 2018. Albert won the last West of Scotland League Central District Second Division championship title in 2017–18 to qualify for the new SJFA West Region League One and in doing so, lifted the club's first honour for 81 years.
Some notable players in the Junior era to step up from the club include Bobby Hogg (
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 Foot ...
Motherwell
Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...
) with both playing for
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1961
Events January
* January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union.
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...
with Dunfermline Athletic and Davie White who played for and managed Clyde before managing Rangers. Hogg is also Royal Albert's most capped Junior international with three caps in 1931,
The team have been managed since June 2016 by former player Jamie Nesbitt. Nesbitt succeeded Ian McCluskey, who had filled the role for the previous 12 years.
Ground
Albert's first ground was Raploch Park which was lost to a housing development in the 1960s. The club moved to the Robert Smillie Memorial Park in 1964 but were forced to vacate this ground at the end of the 2006–07 season as it was demolished in order to re-develop Larkhall Academy. The club ground-shared with local rivals Larkhall Thistle until 2013. After a proposed move to nearby Ashgill fell through, the club have moved to Tileworks Park, former home of Stonehouse Violet, on a permanent basis.
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 Cu ...
**1921–22, 1923–24
*Western Cup
** 1921–22, 1922–23
*
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 ...
** 1888–89, 1889–90, 1893–94, 1895–96
* Lanarkshire Consolation Cup
** 1891–92, 1894–95
* Motherwell Charity Cup
** 1885–86, 1887–88
* Airdrie Charity Cup
** 1888–89, 1890–91
* Larkhall Charity Cup
** 1889–90, 1892–93, 1893–94, 1906–07, 1909–10