Kings Park (Scotland)
The story of King's Park Football Club is one of a
club that fell victim to circumstance more than being wronged by an owner. When
on the night of the 19th/20th July 1940 one of only
two bombs to drop on the city of Stirling in the entire war landed on the north
terracing of the Forthbank stadium. However, before we get to that we really
should look at the history of a club who's name alone brings up thoughts of
righteousness and regal splendour.
King's
Park FC were formed in 1875. As with a lot of Scottish clubs from around this
time. There are nearly no where anything to confirm the exact date of formation
but 1875 is the genuinely accept date. They get there name from the King's Park
area of Stirling where the committee for the club first met. Even though they
were formed in the King's Park area they didn't stay there long by 1879 they
were playing at Forthbank Park later to become Forthbank Stadium. The club
would remain there for the rest of there time in existence.
King's Park like most other clubs around that time
started life playing in friendlies including ties against Queen's Park, Third
Lanark, Dumbarton, Vale of Leven, Blackburn Olympic and Darwin of England
amongst others. It wouldn't be until the 1879-1880 season that King's Park
would first take part in the Scottish Cup.
In 1890 the Scottish Football League was
established. Twelve of the countries most prominent clubs were written too to
attend a meeting in Glasgow to establish a league in a similar form to the
English Football League a couple of years before. King's Park were furious at
not being invited to join.
So,
in 1891 King's Park along with Airdrieonians, Ayr, East Stirlingshire, Morton,
Kilmarnock, Linthouse, Northern, Partick Thistle, Port Glasgow Athletic, St
Bernard's and Thistle. Met to form the the Scottish Football Alliance.
The Scottish Football Alliance did in different
forms exist on and off right up until 1957 when it was finally disbanded. It
was condemned never to really put up a successful fight to the SFL as the country’s
biggest clubs from the biggest cities were in the SFL plus in the early days of
organised leagues players could move incredibly easily and the SFL would allow
professionalism legally from 1894 but all the clubs had two sets of books prior
to that date. One for inspection from the league to show all players were
amateur and one that was the actual books which showed players wages.
The Scottish Football Alliance was also handicapped
when in 1892 due to teams not having set fixture lists and teams often opting
to play in glamour and mostly lucrative friendlies instead of playing league
games lead to a large number of the founding members leaving the alliance and
begin negotiation with the SFL to create a second tier of Scottish football.
In
1893 this second tier came into existence and between 1893 to 1897 when the
alliance was first disbanded (only to come back in 1905 but as a sort of
reserve league for the bigger team). Almost all alliance teams did join the
SFL.
King's Park didn't. They did leave the Scottish
Football Alliance in 1892 through but no reason is really given as to why. It
is argued that it may have been financial as they were the furthest north side
and the price of travelling to games was building up for a club that was
struggling to pull in the fans.
Another reason could be that in 1891 in a meeting
in Larbert just to the south of Stirling a number of clubs from
Clackmannanshire and Fife meet to create the Midland Football League. The teams
that night were Alloa Athletic, Alva, Bridge of Allan, Camelon, Clackmannan,
Cowdenbeath, Dunblane, Dunfermline Athletic, Grangemouth and Raith Rovers. In
1892 both King's Park and East Stirlingshire joined the league.
In
1892-93 King's Park won the Midland Football League. Their only league title in
there entire existence. Whilst playing in the Midland Football League King's
Park had there best run in the Scottish Cup beating Lochee United 5-2 in the
first round and beating Dumbarton 2-1 at home before going out in the quarter
final to Hearts 4-2.
In 1897 the Midland Football League merged with the
Central Football League (a league of teams from the same area as the Midland
Football League). To form the Central Football Combination. King's Park stayed
with the league until 1905-06 when for one season they rejoined the Scottish
Football Alliance but soon after they joined the Scottish Football Union until
1909.
When in 909 they along with most of the founding
members of the Midland Football League they helped to reform the Central
Football League remaining there until the outbreak of the First World War.
After
the war the SFL stated that they wouldn't be bringing back the second tier so
in 1919 the Central Football League was back and so were King's Park but only
for a short period as finally in 1921 the SFL brought back the second tier and
this time King's Park were allowed to join and in doing so they would remain
there until 1939.
King's Park was a solid mid table second division
side. They did make the headlines on the 20th October 1923 when
they played Dundee Hibernian in a 2-3 loss at home. Famous because two days
later Dundee Hibernian would change there name to Dundee United.
The club’s best season in the leagues would be
1927-28 when they lost out on promotion by just 1 point to Third Lanark
finishing third in the league scoring an impressive 84 goals in the season. A
couple of years later they started setting records. First was a 12-2 league victory
over Forfar Athletic on the 2nd January 1930 when Jim Dyet
scored 8 goals on his debut for the club. A British record to this day. In
January and February of 1932 Alex Haddow scored five league hat tricks in five
matches.
For the rest of the 1930's the club would remain
distinctly mid table in the second tier of Scottish Football. During the 1930's
Hugh MacPherson father of legendary football commentator Archie MacPherson
played for the club as did the father of former Scotland manager Craig Brown.
When the Second World War broke out in autumn of
1939 all professional football leagues were suspended. King's Park did play a
few wartime friendlies which included guest players such as Andy Black, Bob and
Bill Shankley among other famous names. In 1940 the club was approached to join
a new Midland Football League but when Dundee pulled out the attraction was
gone and the league didn't start. As a result, the managing director of King's
Park Tom Fergusson put the club into a temporary hiatus.
This temporary hiatus was made somewhat more
permanent when on the night of the 19th-20th July
1940 a Luftwaffe pilot released one of the only two bombs to fall on Stirling
during the war. The pilot returning from a raid on the docks of Clydeside
realised the bombs over the outskirts of Stirling to lighten the return flight.
The only bomb fell harmlessly onto a field just upturning some potatoes the
other fell onto the Northern terracing of Forth Bank Stadium destroying it and
putting a 30 foot creator in the pitch.
The pitch was just about put back together enough
to play a few “loose” games but it was obvious that it would never do. In 1944
the club had an application to join the North Eastern League turned down due to
lack of stadium.
After this an with allegations of how the wartime
players were paid the club decided to fold. Football wouldn't be missing for
long as in 1945 Stirling Albion were formed with former King's Park director
Tom Fergusson taking a major role in the forming of the new club.
Even though the club had folded during the war the
club were not wound up until 1953 when the war office finally settled the claim
fro mthe club over the bomb damage done in 1940 .The payment was made the
Stirling Albion.they play to this day.
As for the stadium Stirling Albion FC purchased an
estate and build Annfield Stadium where theclub would remain until 1992 when
they moved to Forthbank Stadium around half a mile away from the original
Forthbank Stadium.
In the modern day Stirling Albion play in Scottish
League Two at the Forthbank stadium an absolutely amazing wee ground and highly
worth a visit. So once you've seen the castle and Wallace monument get down to
Forthbank and see Stirling's team play