Whitehill Welfare F.C.

Football club infobox
clubname = Whitehill Welfare


fullname = Whitehill Welfare Football Club
nickname =
founded = 1953
ground = Ferguson Park, Midlothian
capacity = 4,000
chairman = Derek Waterson
manager = Garry Aitchison
league = East of Scotland Football League
season = 2007–08
position = East of Scotland Football League, 1st
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Whitehill Welfare F.C. is a football club currently playing in the East of Scotland Football League. Founded in 1953, they play their home matches at Ferguson Park in the village of Rosewell.

The earliest records of Whitehill Welfare indicate that the team first appeared in season 1905/06 under the name Rosewell Rosedale, replacing the defunct Rosedale Rovers, and playing in the Midlothian Juvenile League. The highlight of this team's life, it appears, was to reach the Scottish Juvenile Cup Final, and an incident in August 1939 where the police investigated an attack on the Rosewell goalkeeper, accused of letting the side down during a 10-2 defeat!

1953-1979

Although Rosedale continued operating until 1957, it was in 1953 that Whitehill Welfare FC was formed, the founding fathers being a group of employees from the now defunct Whitehill Colliery, Rosewell. In the early years, Whitehill were the chopping block for the more fancied clubs. Although reaching the Scottish Juvenile Cup semi-final in 1959, they did not really come to the fore until 1964 when they won every trophy in the Mid and East Lothian Section Juvenile League.

1979-Present

By 1979 there were only six Juvenile clubs left in Whitehill's league, and so the Welfare decided it was time for it too to go Senior. This resulted in the team joining the East of Scotland League in August 1979, a league which they were to top at the end of their first four seasons. Indeed, Whitehill have won the league championship no less than ten times since joining. Membership of the Scottish Football Association also has the advantage of allowing the club the opportunity to win through to the first round of the Scottish Cup. In this competition, Whitehill Welfare have knocked out Albion Rovers (1986/87), earned replays against 3 league sides, and seen perhaps the team's finest hour, meeting Celtic on 28 January 1996. This match resulted in a very respectable 3-0 defeat, having held Celtic to 0-0 for 39 minutes, and coming very close at one point to equalising.

Current squad

As of 27 June 2007.

External links

* [http://www.whitehillwelfare.com Club website]