Caledonian FC (Scotland)
Formed in 1885, Caledonian FC wore blue shirts and played their football at
Telford Street Park. Along with city rivals, Inverness Thistle, they were
founding members of the Highland League, a competition that they won a record
eighteen times, the first coming in the 1895-96 season.
In 1982-83, the club won the Highland League without losing a single game, a
record only matched by Brora Rangers in 2015-16. Along with their 18 Highland
League titles, Caley, as they were nicknamed, also won 13 Scottish Qualifying
Cups (North), 20 North of Scotland Cups, 3 Bells Cups, 5 Highland League Cups
and 19 Inverness Cups. That is 60 trophies in 109 years. But all their success
still couldn’t get them elected into the Scottish Football League. There was
still a view that highland clubs were not beneficial to the Scottish Football
League due to how far away they were. There was a perception that the journey
for clubs from Glasgow, Edinburgh and other Scottish cities and towns was not
worth it, unless the club they were visiting was big enough, and unfortunately,
Caledonian just weren’t big enough. So, the idea of a merger with their city
rivals came about. Throughout their history, the club did apply to join the
Football League as their original form, but it was finally decided it would be
better off merging and forming a new club, and that is what happened.
Sadly, this successful club disappeared when merging with city rivals,
Inverness Thistle FC to form Inverness Caledonian Thistle in 1994. The merger
did not go down well with the clubs’ fans, some of whom refused to acknowledge
the new club and still don’t to this day.
Their fans still have fond memories of winning all of that silverware but will
also have the memories of the 1982 Scottish Cup run. The club went on a run in
the 1992 edition of the competition when they reached the 4th round, meeting
Premier Division side, St Johnstone and holding them to a 0-0 draw at home,
forcing a replay in Perth. However, in front of 10,000 fans, they lost out,
3-0.
One of the most
notable players to have played for Caledonian FC was Sergei Pavlovich Baltacha,
who played for the club in 1993-94, the season before they merged with
Inverness FC. In fact, he continued to play with the newly formed Inverness
Caledonian Thistle. Baltacha made 45 appearances for the Soviet Union, and as a
defender, only scored two goals for them. He also played for Ipswich Town for
two seasons, whilst having spells with St Johnstone. He was born in the
Ukraine, and played for Metalist Kharkov whilst also spending eight years with
FC Dynamo Kyiv, making 245 appearances for them.
Before the merger, Caledonian FC’s last game played was against Huntley, which
ended 1-1 on May 14th, 1994. That was the end of the club known as Caledonian
FC. There have been calls for the club to be reformed but nothing has happened
since, however, with Inverness Caledonians financial woes getting worse as of
this time of writing, maybe now could be a good time to bring the club back,
even at a lower league level, or a Highland league level iin this case.