association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...
club from the town of
Stanley
Stanley may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Film and television
* ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film
* ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy
* ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short
* ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...
in
Perthshire
Perthshire ( locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the nor ...
.
History
The club claimed a foundation date of 1890, although its first recorded match dates from 1894, a 4–1 win at Perth District Asylum.
Stanley entered 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 Cup ...
for the first time in 1898–99, losing in the first round to
St Johnstone
St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an ol ...
. The club reached far enough in the Qualifying Cup to play in the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1901–02, it lost 6–1 at
Stenhousemuir
Stenhousemuir (; gd, Featha Thaigh nan Clach) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies within the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The town is north-northwest of Falkirk and directly adjoins to Larbert in the west, where the nea ...
, the Warriors scoring four times in the second half. The second time, two years later, the club was drawn to play
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 Foo ...
; faced with an inevitable defeat, the club withdrew "for a consideration", allowing the Bhoys to play a more lucrative
Scottish 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 sout ...
match.
The final time was in 1910–11, when the club was drawn at home to Queen's Park. The Glasgow club offered Stanley £20 to switch the tie to
Hampden Park
Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...
, and, when Stanley demurred, the Scottish FA was persuaded to inspect the ground for suitability; the ground having been passed fit, Queen's Park offered Stanley £40 to switch the tie, but Stanley demanded £60 minimum, so the tie went ahead at the Recreation Ground, in front of a crowd of 1,000. Queen's Park duly won 6–1, going in at half-time 5–0 up, and indulging in such "gallery play" that the Spiders' goalkeeper M'Kenna missed a penalty.
The club continued to enter the Scottish Cup until 1919, scratching from its first qualifying round tie with
Scone
A scone is a baked good, usually made of either wheat or oatmeal with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often slightly sweetened and occasionally glazed with egg wash. The scone is a basic component ...
. In 1920 the club became a Junior club, so was no longer eligible to enter the Qualifying Cup, and in 1930 an amateur club.
Local football
The club was a founder member of the
Perthshire League
The Perthshire League was a league association football tournament for teams in Perthshire, Scotland.
History
The League was set up on 8 January 1898 at a meeting at the White Horse Hotel in Perth, by representatives of five of the senior clubs, ...
in 1897–98. By 1908, the club had won the title four times, but it did not play in the league after the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...
as the league counted as a senior competition, so the club was not eligible once it turned junior.
The club had a considerable rivalry with Blairgowrie in the 1910s, with matches affected by violence and pitch invasions, apparently provoked by a Blairgowrie man replacing a Stanley man on 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 ...
's committee. The most outstanding example being a general mêlée in the Perthshire League game on 28 March 1914, in which the sending-off of Blairgowrie's Richardson, and his attempt to assault the referee, provoked a mass fight that saw Richardson prosecuted and fined £2.
As a Junior club, Stanley won the Constitution Cup twice, in 1924 and 1926, but struggled to find a suitable league competition, playing variously in the Perth District, Perth County, Strathmore, Midland, and Dundee & District Junior Leagues. On turning amateur in 1930, the club joined the Perthshire Amateur League, in which it played until 1958. After finishing bottom of the league in 1957–58, the club disbanded.
Colours
The club's colours were maroon shirts.
Ground
The club played at the Recreation Ground in the village. The area was surrounded by a 4' tall hedge, and the pitch itself 100 yards from the road, preventing passers-by from getting a free view.