Swifts Football Club, also known as Edinburgh Swifts, was a
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 ...
.
History
The club was formed as a split from the 3rd Edinburgh Rifle Volunteers F.C. towards the end of the 1875–76 season. At least seven of the club's early players, including the 3rd E.R.V. club secretary (and half-back) Frank Watt, who took up the same role with the Swifts, left the Volunteers to form the Swifts.
The split may have been caused by different views on inclusivity. The 3rd E.R.V. had close links with Councillor John Hope, who had founded the
Foot-Ball Club
The Foot-Ball Club was a football club in Edinburgh, Scotland, formed in 1824. The club met in the summer months to play a form of football. Nevertheless, the organization can claim to be the earliest recorded club playing football of any kind. A ...
of Edinburgh in 1824, and who had formed a Volunteer regiment which had merged with the 3rd in 1867. Hope's trenchant opposition to
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
had seen
Hibernian F.C.
Hibernian Football Club (), commonly known as Hibs, is a professional football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team competes in the , the top division of Scottish football. The club was founded in 1875 by members of Edinburgh's Irish commu ...
excluded from the Edinburgh Football Association., Watt was of a different view, and had agitated for including Hibernian within the football fraternity.
The Swifts' first reported match was a 1–0 defeat on the Meadows to
Heart of Midlothian F.C.
Heart of Midlothian Football Club, commonly known as Hearts, is a professional football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team competes in the , the top division of Scottish football. Hearts, the oldest football club in the Scottish capital, wa ...
in April 1876. It entered both the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Edinburgh Cup in 1876–77; in the latter, the club suffered an acrimonious semi-final defeat against the 3rd E.R.V., having to play a replay with ten men, after the original match had been played on a pitch that had been marked out to the wrong dimensions.
Its
1876–77 Scottish Cup
The 1876–77 Scottish Cup – officially the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – was the fourth season of Scotland's most prestigious Association football, football knockout competition. Entries to the competition again increased wi ...
run was more fruitful, with the club reaching the fourth round (made up of 12 clubs) for the only time, helped by the disqualification of West End of Glasgow from the third round after the clubs had drawn 1–1 in
Cowlairs
Cowlairs () is an area in the Scottish city of Glasgow, part of the wider Springburn district of the city. It is situated north of the River Clyde, between central Springburn to the east and Possilpark to the west.
Administratively, in the 21 ...
. The club was drawn to play at home to Lennox F.C., who had only conceded 2 goals all season. Despite having to play the second half with ten men through injury, Lennox won 4–0, with two goals per half; full-back Kennedy - whose corner led to the first goal - was particularly praised for his play.
In the first round of the
1877–78 Scottish Cup
The 1877–78 Scottish Cup – officially the Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup – was the fifth season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. For the first time, over 100 teams took part in the competition whic ...
, the Swifts gained revenge over the 3rd E.R.V., winning 2–1 in a replay; the Volunteers protested that they had claimed a goal for a shot that clipped the tape, the referee ruling that the ball had then gone over, but the protest was dismissed.
By the end of the decade however the growth in football had left the club behind. Its last game in the Edinburgh Cup was in 1878–79, a 2–1 defeat to Edinburgh Thistle F.C. in the first round, with the Swifts disputing both Thistle goals and the game "ending in an angry squabble". It withdrew from its last entry in the Edinburgh Cup in 1879–80 and lost 5–0 at Brunswick F.C. in its last Scottish Cup tie in the same season, the Swifts side still being substantially the same players who had founded the club three years before. The club may have played low-level football for a few years afterwards, but there is no further record of the Swifts as a senior club.
Colours
The club played in dark blue shirts with a white Maltese cross, white knickers, and red hose.
Ground
The club originally played on a public park, i.e. the East Meadows. For the start of the 1876–77 season the club had secured a ground at Roseburn Park. By 1878 the club was playing at Powburn.