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
In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...
located in
Strathblane
Strathblane (, ) is a village and List of civil parishes in Scotland, parish in the registration county of Stirling, situated in the southwestern part of the Stirling (council area), Stirling council area, in central Scotland. It lies at the foo ...
,
Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling ( ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling.Registers of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties.
It borders Perthshir ...
.
History
The club was founded in 1877 and its earliest recorded fixture was against the 10th D.R.V. in December 1877.
Strathblane was one of the first six senior clubs to be founded in Stirlingshire. It was a regular entrant to the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1878–79 for 7 seasons.
Its first match in the competition was its biggest win, by 8 goals (plus one disputed) to 1 over Bonnybridge Grasshoppers. Its best run came in 1879–80. The club beat
Lenzie
Lenzie () is a small affluent town by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in the East Dunbartonshire council area and the historic county of Dunbartonshire in Scotland. It is about north-east of Glasgow city centre and south of Kirkintilloch. At ...
1–0 in the first round,
Falkirk
Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...
by the same score in a "very pleasant and enjoyable game" in the second, and Campsie Glen in the third, to become the "champion club of Stirlingshire" and be the county's representative in the national stage, consisting of 22 clubs. The gap between the top clubs of the
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
and
Dumbartonshire
Dunbartonshire () or the County of Dumbarton is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbartonshire borders Perthshire to the north, Stirling ...
areas, and the "country" clubs, was demonstrated by the club then losing 10–1 at Queen's Park. Nevertheless "the Strathhians" icreceived praise for their play "in many respects eingsuperior to that shown by several clubs with bigger reputations who have had to succumb to the Queen's Park this season", the blame for the scale of the defeat being put on a goalkeeper who "was not the smartest, and seemed to get confused when trying to help his team".
The club's Cup record followed a pattern of Strathblane generally winning matches against other Stirlingshire clubs and losing to those outside the county. Its biggest defeat in the competition came in 1882–83; after another first round win over Lenzie, Strathblane lost 12–1 at Jamestown in the second.
As an early member of the Stirlingshire Football Association, founded in 1883, the club played in the first
Stirlingshire Cup
The Stirlingshire Cup is an association football cup competition for clubs in the counties of Stirlingshire, Clackmannanshire & Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The competition was founded in 1883 and was contested annually by senior member clubs of the ...
in 1883–84. Two wins took the club into the semi-final, where it lost 2–1 to
East Stirlingshire
East Stirlingshire Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish association football club based in the town of Falkirk. The club was founded in 1881 and competes in the , the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system. The club's origins can b ...
.
The club consistently had 30–35 members, which meant it was overtaken by clubs such as Falkirk and King's Park. Its matches also dried up, with only half-a-dozen played in 1881–82 and 1883–84; as a minor side from a small village, Strathblane was not an attraction for friendly matches.
Its last fixture in the Scottish Cup was a 3–2 defeat at
Stenhousemuir
Stenhousemuir (; ) 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 nearest rail access is located ...
in the first round in 1883–84 and Strathblane withdrew from the
1884–85 Scottish Cup
The 1884–85 Scottish Cup – officially the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – was the 12th season of Scotland's most prestigious Association football, football knockout competition. Renton F.C., Renton won the competition for the ...
when drawn to face Falkirk. It did play in the Stirlingshire Cup, but lost 1–0 to Grahamston in its only tie. The
Scottish Football Association
The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...
struck the club from the membership list before the 1885–86 season.
Colours
The club played in black and white hooped jerseys and white knickers.
Grounds
The club originally played at Cuilt Park, 2 minutes' walk from Blanefield railway station. In 1884 the club moved to a new ground, Blanefield Park, a quarter of a mile from the station.