St Andrew's Football Club was a short-lived 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 from the city of
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
The club was formed in 1874, based on the St Andrew's boys' club, whose members often played football on the Meadows. The first recorded matches for the club are from the 1875–76 season.
St Andrew's entered the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1876–77. Heart of Midlothian had also entered the Cup, but, having in effect disbanded, withdrew; a number of its players therefore joined St Andrew's in time to play in the competition.
In the first round, the club beat
Grasshoppers
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grassh ...
from
Bonnybridge
Bonnybridge (; ) is a village in the Falkirk (council area), Falkirk council area of Scotland. It is west of Falkirk, north-east of Cumbernauld and south-southwest of Stirling. The village is situated near the Bonny Water which runs through t ...
thanks to a second-half goal from Tom Purdie, who had been the Hearts' first captain.
Two weeks after the Cup tie, the club played in the Edinburgh Cup for the only time, and lost 1–0 to
the Swifts
''Swifts'' (also known as ''The Swifts'') is a heritage-listed late-Victorian architecture, Victorian Battlement, castellated Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival mansion located in the suburb of Darling Point, New South Wales, Darling Po ...
, in a match in which St Andrew's did not test Simpson in the Swifts goal once. One week after losing in the Edinburgh Cup, the club played in second round of the Scottish Cup, against St Clement's of
Dundee
Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
, the match taking place on neutral ground at
Kirkcaldy
Kirkcaldy ( ; ; ) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, making it Fife's second-largest s ...
. St Andrew's took the lead following an own goal in a "melée", and St Clement's claimed an equalizer from Sharp, to which St Andrew's objected; St Clement's scored again soon afterwards, to win the tie 2–1, the St Andrew's protest being dismissed.
The last game played under the St Andrew's name was a 0–0 draw with
Hanover
Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
on 4 November 1876.
At a club meeting towards the end of the year, the former Hearts players proposed that St Andrew's should change its name to Heart of Midlothian, to avoid confusion with the city of
St Andrews
St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...
, and on the basis that the Hearts name carried some value and distinction. The members agreed and Heart of Midlothian in essence took over the St Andrew's club, the next match the members played, in January 1877 (the return match with the Hanover), being under the Heart of Midlothian name.
Colours
The club played originally in navy blue and by 1876 had changed to white and blue.
Ground
In common with other early clubs in the city, the club played at the East Meadows.
Notable players
In its two Scottish Cup ties, the sides included the following Hearts players:
*Tom Purdie
*John Cochrane
*George Mitchell
*Bob Winton
*John Alexander
*John Sweeney
*Andrew Lees
*George Barbour