Galston F.C.

Football club infobox
clubname = Galston


fullname = Galston Football Club
nickname =
founded = 1891
ground = Portland Park
capacity =
chairman =
manager =
league = Scottish League
season =
position =
pattern_la1=|pattern_b1=|pattern_ra1=
leftarm1=3BB9FF|body1=3BB9FF|rightarm1=3BB9FF|shorts1=FFFFFF|socks1=3BB9FF

Galston F.C. were a Scottish football club based at Portland Park in Galston, East Ayrshire. [D. Pickering, "The Cassell Soccer Companion", London: Cassell, 1995, p. 127] The club were members of the Scottish Football League Third Division.

Formed in 1891 to play in the new Ayrshire Football League, they lasted in that competition for its four year run before joining the Ayrshire Football Combination. After three years without regular competition the club joined the North Ayrshire League, later appearing in the Scottish Football Combination and Scottish Football Union.

They eventually joined the Western league, which was incorporated by the Scottish Football League as its new Third Division for the 1923-24 season. Galston lasted the Division's three seasons, finishing 13th, 11th and 16th, although they resigned midway through the chaotic final season, unable to provide match guarantees. Indeed Galston had been so keen to increase the income from their meagre gates that were censured by the League for charging entrance fees below the minimum agreed league level, then in turn blamed for accelerating the collapse of the Third Division by being the first to pull out from it in February 1926. [B. Crampsey, "The First Hundred Years", Glasgow: Scottish Football League, 1990, p. 78] .

Ironically, they proved one of the lucky survivors and found themselves playing in first the West of Scotland Amateur league before being invited to join the Scottish Football Alliance from 1932 onward - a league made up of Senior Reserve teams and non-league sides which they'd been invited to join to generate more interest in a competition many Senior clubs were considering abandoning due to a lack of public interest.

However, in 1938, Hamilton Academicals proposed they and Beith F.C. were expelled and the league restricted to First Division clubs reserve teams only. Despite an impassioned plea by letter from club President James Abbott to every Scottish League side - pointing out they'd brought Beith and Galston in to prop up the league in the first place - only Ayr United, Clyde, Kilmarnock, Queen's Park and St Mirren voted to retain them and both sides were duly expelled.

Ironically, the Alliance was then abandoned and a new Reserve League set up, whereupon moves were made in 1940 for a new Scottish Football Alliance to be set up, among which the invitees were Galston and Vale Of Leven F.C., another side that had been shipwrecked by the collapse of the Third Division and whom had been in mothballs since 1929 over a lack of any Senior league to play in. Disaster stuck however after only a month's worth of games when World War 2 broke out and the league was put on indefinite hold. Without any Senior league to play in, and not interested in joining the Junior ranks, this marked the end of Galston FC.

Formed 1886. Defunct 1926. Reformed 1926. Defunct 1940.

Grounds: 1886-1894 Riverside Park. 1894-1940 Portland Park.

Colours: 1886-1923 Black & red hooped shirts, white or navy blue shorts. 1923-1926 Light blue shirts, white shorts. 1926-? Red & black hooped shirts, white shorts. ?-? Black & white striped shirts, white or black shorts. ?-1940? Maroon shirts, white shorts.

References

External links

* [http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Scottish_Football_League/Galston/Galston.htm Club history and kits]