Leith Athletic - The History...
The orginal club...
LEITH ATHLETIC FC
A Short History
The original Leith Athletic were founded in June 1887 following a public meeting in premises in the Kirkgate and their first ever game was a Scottish Cup tie away to Bo'ness on 3 September 1887 which resulted in a 1-4 defeat. The club's first home was the newly opened Hawkhill Recreation Grounds just off Lochend Road. In these days the club's fixture list, other than the Scottish Cup, consisted only of friendlies and local cup ties but for season 1891/92 Athletic were invited to join the fledgling Scottish League, then about to enter its' second season with an increase from 10 to 12 clubs and they finished a very creditable fourth.
Hawkhill remained the club's rented home for their first two seasons but they got a home of their own for the start of the 1889/90 season when they made the short move to the other side of Lochend Road to Bank Park which was accessed from a footpath that ran along the side of the Eastern Cemetery from Easter Road. The club won the prestigious Rosebery Charity Cup in 1890/91, beating Hearts 3-2 in the final at Logie Green and that result made people sit up and notice as it was the same Hearts team that had won the Scottish Cup earlier in the season.
Athletic were on the move again in time for the start of the 1894/95 season to Beechwood Park. In actual fact, the move was once again a very short one as the new ground was almost on the same footprint of land but with the pitch turned round by 90 degrees to now run north to south and moved by about fifty yards north with an entrance on Lochend Road. It was around this time that the club started to be referred to by the nickname of the 'Zebras' on account of their black and white striped shirts. Sadly though, there was an unhappy ending to the Zebras first season at Beechwood Park as they failed to get re-elected to Division 1 after finishing second bottom and they were replaced by Division 2 winners Hibs.
The club remained in the second tier of Scottish football up until the end of season 1914/15 but ground-wise they continued to lead a nomadic existence. The building of a new branch line of the North British Railway into Leith Central Station meant vacating Beechwood Park at the end of the 1898/99 season but there was some consolation with the securing of the Rosebery Charity Cup for a second time and again it was Hearts who fell, 1-0, in the final at Logie Green. It was back to their original home of Hawkhill for the next two seasons and 1900/01 brought the club's only East of Scotland Shield success, seeing off Hearts 3-2 in the final played at Easter Road.
Not for the first time, Athletic found themselves in serious financial difficulties as the start of the 1901/02 season approached and their failure to negotiate a new lease at Hawkhill was swiftly followed by the club, which had become a Limited Company in June 1893, going into liquidation. The Leith public rallied round their club though and a hastily arranged public meeting led to a new committee being formed. The new committee acted quickly and were able to persuade the Scottish League to allow the newly constituted club entry into the League and they even managed to negotiate a delayed start to their Division 2 fixtures to enable them to try to secure a home ground. Near neighbours Hibs came to the rescue and allowed Athletic to play their early season fixtures at Easter Road before they were able to secure a lease on a piece of land in the Powderhall area from the Heriot Trust to play on from November. Their new ground became known as Logie Green but was a completely different ground to the original Logie Green, venue of the 1896 Scottish Cup final between Hibs and Hearts, which had disappeared after the area was developed and built on.
The Logie Green years initially saw the reconstituted club grow and develop and season 1905/06 brought the club double success - a first winning of the Scottish Qualifying Cup, beating Beith 2-0 in the final at Clyde's Shawfield ground, was followed up by finishing as Scottish League Division 2 Champions. Once again though the fates were against the Athletic, promotion was not automatic in those days and sadly they couldn't muster enough votes at the Scottish League AGM to bring a return to Division 1 and that despite the Division being increased from 16 to 18 clubs.
Season 1909/10 saw Athletic again finish at the top of Division 2 but this time on the same number of points as Raith Rovers and the League declared both clubs to be 'Joint Champions'. Yet again though there was no joy at the League AGM and it was Raith Rovers who secured the required votes to gain elevation to Division 1. There was some consolation though with a second win in the Scottish Qualifying Cup, beating Bathgate 4-0 in the final at Easter Road.
Season 1914/15 brought a three-way tie at the top of the League but in a round-robin play-off Cowdenbeath emerged as Champions over Athletic and Edinburgh rivals St Bernards. The following season saw Division 2 disbanded for the duration of World War 1 - Athletic took part in the Eastern League in 1915/16 but it was not a financial success and the club took the decision to close down for the duration of hostilities. There were some attempts to resurrect the club in time for the 1919/20 season but it wasn't until the following season that the Athletic took to the field again and that was for friendlies and cup ties only as they failed to gain entry to any League competition. Home now was Chancelot Park just off Ferry Road and there was some success with the winning of the East of Scotland Consolation Cup, beating Coldstream 1-0 in the final played at Union Park, Berwick.
May 1921 brought yet another disappointment from the Scottish League when Athletic's application to rejoin Division 2 was rejected and rather strangely the club decided to take part in the Western League in season 1921/22 which meant games against opponents from the West of Scotland including Ayrshire. Early season home games were played at Hawthorn's Recreation Ground in the Wardie area but the club switched back to Chancelot Park from November. The Scottish League AGM in May brought yet another rejection for the club's latest application to join Division 2 and this time they elected to take part in the Eastern League for season 1922/23 - ever the nomads, the club actually had several homes during the season, playing games at Chancelot Park, Wardie Park, Easter Road and Bathgate Park, just off New Street in the Canongate. The club won the King Cup for the one and only time, beating Berwick Rangers 2-1 in the final at Tynecastle.
Athletic were invited to join the newly-formed Division 3 in 1923/24 but instead elected to join the Scottish Alliance which meant all their League opposition consisted of the Reserve XI's of Division 1 clubs with Wardie Park once again the club's home. It was all change yet again in 1924/25 - Athletic had a change of mind and joined Division 3 and on the ground front there was a return to Logie Green.
Logie Green had in the main been a happy home for the Athletic and season 1925/26 brought another Scottish Qualifying Cup victory, beating Solway Star 3-1 in the final played at St Mirren Park, Paisley. Athletic finished runners-up in Division 3 but yet again there was disappointment at the Scottish League AGM - a number of clubs had failed to play all their fixtures and the Scottish League ruled that automatic promotion could not apply. Athletic were denied promotion to Division 2 on the casting vote of the Chairman and just to add insult to injury it was Forfar Athletic, who had finished in third place who got the vote and even worse, Division 3 was then disbanded.
So, season 1926/27 saw Athletic return to the Scottish Alliance, starting off at Logie Green but then moving to Powderhall from January. The end of the season brought joy at the Scottish League AGM for once though with Athletic winning the vote over Nithsdale Wanderers to gain a place in Division 2 for 1927/28. The club continued to call Powderhall it's home but the ground wasn't always available and some games were played at St Bernard's Royal Gymnasium ground in Stockbridge plus one Scottish Cup tie at Easter Road.
It was on the move again for 1928/29, this time to Marine Gardens at Seafield, now the site of the LRT Bus depot. It was the biggest of Athletic's many homes but with little cover for spectators it could be a very cold and wet ground and another drawback was that there was no direct bus or tram service from Leith. On the field though things were going well and 1929/30 saw Athletic snatch the Division 2 title from East Fife on goal average - both clubs were promoted to Division 1. Athletic found it hard going back in the top division, finishing 17thin 1930/31 and then bottom of the heap in 1931/32 to slide back into Division 2. There was some consolation at the season's end though with Athletic securing another victory in the Rosebery Charity Cup, beating Hearts 2-1 in the final at Tynecastle.
The club continued their Division 2 existence at Marine Gardens for the next few seasons but dwindling crowds were, as ever, causing increasing financial difficulties and they were desperate to secure a more central ground. In May 1936 the Council granted the club a lease at Meadowbank - at that time, Meadowbank consisted of two grounds, one known as New Meadowbank was basically an athletics ground albeit with a football pitch in the middle and situated roughly where today's Meadowbank stadium is; the other, known as Old Meadowbank, was situated just fifty yards or so towards Jock's Lodge and consisted of a well-worn football pitch with changing rooms which was used by various Juvenile sides.
Throughout the summer of 1936, club officials, greatly assisted by members of the Leith Athletic Supporters' Club, worked tirelessly on the ground, laying a new pitch on top of 400 tons of top soil. Attendances improved and season 1938/39 brought another Rosebery Charity Cup victory, this time with a 2-0 win over Hearts in the final at Easter Road. World War 2 was just over the horizon though and League football was abandoned just 4 games into the 1939/40 season. The club tried to continue with friendlies but didn't play any games from November onwards until the end of season Rosebery Charity Cup in May.
The club didn't operate at all during 1940/41 and an attempt to recommence in 1941/42 by playing in the North Eastern League proved a financial disaster and the decision was taken to give up playing until the cessation of hostilities. In one way the decision was forced upon the club though, with the Army commandeering Old Meadowbank for use as a supply and transport depot. It would be season 1946/47 before Athletic would take to the field again and the Scottish League, as seemed to frequently be the case, had a nasty surprise in store for the club - instead of restoring them to Division 2, as had been promised when League football was abandoned in 1939, Athletic were placed in Division C, the third tier, where some of the competing sides were the Reserve XI's of Division A clubs. Just to compound the difficulties the club faced they had to restart life at New Meadowbank as their Old Meadowbank ground had effectively been destroyed by all the heavy Army transport vehicles using it during the War.
The end of the 1946/47 season brought yet another twist with Athletic, along with Cowdenbeath, voted into Division B for season 1947/48. There was more good news when the club negotiated a new 10 year lease of Old Meadowbank and secured compensation from the Army for the damage done during the war. Once again the Supporters' Club supplied much of the labour in the rebuilding of the ground during the summer months - a new pitch was laid, new terracing was built and St Bernard's old stand from the Royal Gymnasium ground was dismantled and then rebuilt at Old Meadowbank. The journey to the heady heights of Division B didn't last long however and Athletic returned to Division C for the 1948/49 season which brought a victory in the Scottish Qualifying Cup South, with a 3-2 win over Montrose at Recreation Park, Alloa. By then, Old Meadowbank also boasted a speedway track and the ground also became home to the Edinburgh Monarchs speedway team.
The Scottish Qualifying Cup South was retained in 1949/50, this time with a 5-2 win over Brechin City at Annfield, Stirling. The Scottish League AGM in June 1950 brought the now almost taken as the norm bad news for the club when a proposal to increase Division B from 16 to 20 clubs, by promoting the four 'League' as opposed to Reserve XI sides playing in Division C, was narrowly defeated in a vote. It was a cause Leith Athletic would continue to lobby and campaign on as they remained aggrieved that the promises given back by the Scottish League back in September 1939 had been broken but they got little support - in truth, this latest setback was the beginning of the end.
Division C football with the majority of League fixtures being against Reserve XI' s held little attraction for supporters, unless the game was against Hibs or Hearts 2ndXI, and dwindling crowds and the resultant financial problems put the club's very future in doubt. Despite that though they remained ambitious and in December 1952 Athletic installed floodlights at Old Meadowbank, the first club in Edinburgh to do so and a crowd of 12,000 attended the first floodlit fixture, an East v West friendly on 13 January 1953. By that time though the Scottish League Management Committee had already rejected the club's application to play their home fixtures under floodlight on a Friday night to avoid clashing with Hibs and Hearts games and maybe attract along a few more spectators. Opposing clubs were willing but the Scottish League saw no future in football being played under floodlights.
If the club had gambled and lost with their floodlight initiative their next confrontation with the Scottish League was to prove disastrous. In an effort to force the League's intransigence over the 1939 broken promise Athletic refused to take part in Division C for season 1953/54. When the club refused to back down they were expelled from the Scottish League and the threats of legal action fell on deaf ears. They were able to initially retain their SFA membership though and in the hope that a good Cup run or even just a plum draw against a big club might give them the necessary finance to restart the following season, Athletic entered the Scottish Cup, giving the SFA an undertaking they would compete no matter the draw. Not for the first time though 'Lady Luck' wasn't smiling and the draw brought a long trip to Highland League side Fraserburgh. The Directors, assisted by an honorary manager in the shape of the Scottish Players' Union Secretary, arranged three trial matches in early January and managed to cobble together a team from non-contract players and free transfers and they put up a battling display before going down by 4-5. The financial gamble had failed and the cost of the trip, including an overnight stay in Aberdeen, actually resulted in a loss. The pain of defeat can only have been compounded when the next round draw brought Fraserburgh a home tie against Hearts which, had it been Athletic's tie at Old Meadowbank, might just have generated enough income to keep the club alive.
The club still retained their SFA membership and again entered the Scottish Cup for 1954/55 but after drawing Selkirk in a preliminary round they scratched from the competition and that action led to the loss of their SFA membership. The club went into voluntary liquidation on 17 May 1955 but there was one final sting in the tail - at the Scottish League AGM just a few weeks later the members voted for League reorganization and the non-reserve clubs from Division C found themselves voted into Division B for the new season. It was what Leith Athletic had campaigned for since football restarted after the War but it had come just too late to save the club but no one could doubt that the proud old club from the Port had fought valiantly throughout its' life against one setback after another and in doing so surely upheld the Port's motto of "Persevere".
There were a couple of failed attempts to revive the club over the years and then in 1996 the famous old name of Leith Athletic was back as the club was reformed at youth level and the black and white striped jerseys were seen in the old Port again. The club grew from strength to strength at youth level and then in 2008 a tie-up with Edinburgh Athletic saw the name of Leith Athletic back in the senior ranks of the East of Scotland League for the start of the 2008/09 season.