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
Doune
Doune (; from Scottish Gaelic: ''An Dùn'', meaning 'the fort') is a burgh within Perthshire. The town is administered by Stirling Council. Doune is assigned Falkirk postcodes starting "FK". The village lies within the parish of Kilmadock and ma ...
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 ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
.
History
Vale of Teith was founded in 1877 and took its name from the river flowing through the town.
The club's first competitive fixtures came in the
Callander
Callander (; gd, Calasraid) is a small town in the council area of Stirling, Scotland, situated on the River Teith. The town is located in the historic county of Perthshire and is a popular tourist stop to and from the Highlands.
The town se ...
in the next. As the early rounds of the Cup were drawn on a regional basis, and the Perthshire entry was restricted to four clubs, the same fixtures came out of the hat in 1879–80 and the Vale again lost to Rob Roy in the second round.
The Vale's best run in the competition came in 1881–82, when it reached the fifth round, gaining revenge over Rob Roy with a six-goal win. In the fifth (last 16), the Vale was drawn at home to
Shotts
Shotts is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located almost halfway between Glasgow () and Edinburgh (). The village has a population of about 8,840. A local story has Shotts being named after the legendary giant highwayman Bertram de ...
, but lost 5–0, going behind after four minutes, turning around 3–0 down at half-time, and conceding two M'Laughlan goals in the second half, which completed his hat-trick.
The Vale nearly equalled that feat in 1882–83, losing 3–2 at home to
Hurlford
Hurlford (Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile Àtha Cliath'') is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It has a population of 4,968. Hurlford's former names include Whirlford and Hurdleford. The village was named Whirlford as a result of a ford crossing ...
in the fourth round.
The club played in the first
Perthshire Cup
The Perthshire Cup was an association football cup competition for clubs in the county of Perthshire, Scotland. The competition was founded in 1884 and was last competed for in the 1974–75 season.
Format
The competition was a knock-out tournam ...
final against
Dunblane
Dunblane (, gd, Dùn Bhlàthain) is a small town in the council area of Stirling in central Scotland, and inside the historic boundaries of the county of Perthshire. It is a commuter town, with many residents making use of good transport links ...
in 1884–85, held at Fair City Athletic's ground at Hillyland. A Stokes goal after four minutes gave the Vale the lead; an apparent goal from a M'Ewan corner was disallowed on the basis that the ball had gone straight in from the kick, which at the time was not permitted, despite the Vale claiming that the ball had deflected in off MacPherson of Dunblane. M'Ewan and Robertson put the Vale 3–0 up after 20 minutes, but Dunblane scored three times in the first 20 minutes of the second half, and Laidlaw scored the winner for the Heather with eight minutes to go. The Vale's protest against the disallowing of the MacPherson "goal" was disallowed.
The following season saw the side gain its biggest Scottish Cup win, 9–1 over
Oban
Oban ( ; ' in Scottish Gaelic meaning ''The Little Bay'') is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William. During the tourist season, t ...
in the first round of the Scottish Cup (as well as having two goals disallowed), but the club lost 8–1 in the third round at
Dundee Harp
Dundee Harp Football Club was a football club based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded in 1879, the team went out of business in 1894.
History
Dundee Harp was founded to provide a focus of sporting interest for the city's large Roman Catholic commun ...
, the home side having three goals disallowed. The club scratched from the Perthshire Cup tie in 1885–86 against Dunblane because of a snowstorm, albeit one factor might have been a 9–1 defeat to the Heather in friendly the month before.,
The club seemed then to go into stasis until 1890, being formally struck off 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 ...
register before the 1886–87 season for non-payment of subscriptions, and again from 1896 to 1898. During its brief period of competition at the start of the 1890s, the club earned its biggest competitive win, 10–1 against Comrie in the first round of the Perthshire Cup in 1892–93, scoring six times in the second half despite losing Neil through injury at the interval. Although the club entered the Perthshire Cup from 1893 to 1894 to 1895–96, the only match it played in the competition in that period was an 8–2 defeat at home 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 ...
in 1895.
Revival
The club fell into abeyance once more after the St Johnstone defeat. It was formally revived at the start of 1898, although it did not play competitively until 1901.
The Vale's final run from 1901 to 1907 was its most competitive at a local level, reaching the Perthshire Cup final in 1902–03, 1906–07, and 1907–08, although it never won through 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 ...
into the Scottish Cup again. The closest the club came to winning the Perthshire Cup was in its penultimate final, losing 1–0 after extra time to St Johnstone in a third replay held at Turretbridge Park in
Crieff
Crieff (; gd, Craoibh, meaning "tree") is a Scottish market town in Perth and Kinross on the A85 road between Perth and Crianlarich, and the A822 between Greenloaning and Aberfeldy. The A822 joins the A823 to Dunfermline. Crieff has bec ...
; the Saints had missed a penalty in the second.
The club's last Perthshire Cup Final, in which the club put in an unexpectedly poor performance, and was beaten 5–1 by St Johnstone, was the club's final competitive match.
Doune Castle
By the late 1900s, the club's finances were so poor that, at the end of the 1907–08 season, the local amateur dramatic society donated £5 2s surplus from a play to the club. The club also asked the Perthshire FA for a share in the proceeds of the 1908 Cup final, which was refused.
The only route out was to re-start the club under the new name Doune Castle. At the start of the 1908–09 season, the Perthshire FA accepted the new club as a member. Under that name, the club finally won its only trophy; the 1908–09 Perthshire Consolation Cup, for clubs eliminated from the main cup before the final, beating Breadalbane 1–0 "after a dour struggle" at St Johnstone's Recreation Park.
The next season, the club was drawn at home to
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 the third round of the competition in 1909–10, and was not expected to have much difficulty with the visitors; however, Scone scored twice in the first five minutes, half-back Tunnoch was sent off just after half-time following a "dispute" with Scone goalkeeper Macpherson, and the Castle goalkeeper Allan was forced to go off with injury. Scone eventually won 4–0; Tunnoch was banned for the season and Doune Castle ordered to pay Scone railway fares, failing which the club would be suspended. That indeed seems to have been the club's final match.
Colours
The club's colours were royal blue jerseys with white knickers and 1" blue and white striped hose.
The club was forced to re-play a Perthshire Cup tie with the Vale of Allan club from
Kinbuck
Kinbuck is a hamlet in Stirlingshire, Scotland. It lies by the Allan Water and the Stirling-Perth Railway line. It is four miles north of Dunblane.
Facilities
Despite a campaign to save it, Kinbuck Primary School was controversially closed in 1 ...
in 1885 because of a protest about the lack of uniformity in the Teith outfits - two players wearing a dark blue, and Ferguson wearing blue and white stripes - even though there was no clash with the Allan.
Ground
The club originally played at Tullochan Knowe. Before the 1903–04 season the club moved to Moray Park.
Notable players
*George Buchanan, who joined Heart of Midlothian from the club
*Alexander Sloan and John Fleming, who joined Doune Castle from King's Park in 1908