Plains
Full namePlains F.C.
Founded1885
Dissolved1891
GroundMossfield Park
Hon. SecretaryThomas Hamilton[1]
Match SecretaryA. Brown

Plains Football Club was an association football club from the village of Plains, Lanarkshire.

History

Plains F.C. was the second senior club to come from the village, after Plains Blue Bell, which had become defunct by mid-1884. The club's first match was in March 1885, a 3–2 win at home to Armadale,[2] and its first competitive football came in the Lanarkshire Cup in 1885–86. Plains lost 4–0 at Dykehead in the second round; the match was marred by a broken leg to Dykehead's Williams,[3] although Plains were not so sympathetic, protesting in vain about the darkness and an offside decision - and that Williams (an ironmoulder from Glasgow) was ineligible to play.[4]

The club was struggling for finances in 1887, with a small membership and heavy ground rent,[5] and one solution was to join the Scottish Football Association and hope for lucrative Scottish Cup ties. The club duly joined in August 1887,[6] and did enjoy some luck in the draw in the 1887–88 Scottish Cup. The club's first round opponent, Tollcross, scratched, despite being expected to beat Plains,[7] and the club drew a bye in the second round.

In the third round, however, the club was drawn to visit Vale of Leven Wanderers, having its best-ever season after recruiting players from Vale of Leven.[8] A one-sided contest went the way of the Dumbartonshire side 9–0.[9]

Plains did not renew its Scottish FA subscription for 1888–89,[10] and indeed did not play again until re-joining the Lanarkshire Association for the 1890–91 season.[11] The club's last match of any note was a 6–0 defeat at Royal Albert in the Coatbridge Express club (for those eliminated from the Lanarkshire Cup) in March 1891,[12] and Plains finally gave up the ghost at the end of the season.[13]

Colours

The club played in a unique combination of navy, red, and brown.[14]

Ground

Plains' home ground was called Mossfield Park.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "advert". Airdrie Advertiser: 1. 15 August 1885.
  2. ↑ "Plains v Armadale". Lanarkshire Upper Ward Examiner: 6. 28 March 1885. Refers to Plains being a "new organisation", so a distinct entity to Plains Blue Bell.
  3. ↑ "Accident on the football pitch". Rutherglen Reformer: 8. 25 December 1885.
  4. ↑ "Lanarkshire Cup - Second Round". Rutherglen Reformer: 7. 25 December 1885.
  5. ↑ "Plains Football Club". Lanarkshire Upper Ward Examiner: 6. 21 May 1887.
  6. ↑ Scottish FA Minutes 1884–87. Glasgow: Scottish Football Association. 23 August 1887.
  7. ↑ "Notes by Athlete". Coatbridge Express: 4. 7 September 1887.
  8. ↑ "Notes from the West". Courier & Argus: 4. 16 December 1887.
  9. ↑ "Football". Stirling Observer: 9. 20 October 1887.
  10. ↑ Scottish FA Minutes 1887–90. Glasgow: Scottish Football Association. 21 August 1888. p. 55.
  11. ↑ "Lanarkshire Football Association". Lanarkshire Upper Ward Examiner: 6. 31 May 1890.
  12. ↑ "Football notes". Airdrie Advertiser: 6. 4 April 1891.
  13. ↑ "Football notes". Coatbridge Express: 4. 13 May 1891.
  14. ↑ M'Dowall, John (1887). Scottish Football Annual 1887–88. Glasgow: Hay Nisbet. p. 59.
  15. ↑ M'Dowall, John (1887). Scottish Football Annual 1887–88. Glasgow: Hay Nisbet. p. 59.
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