East Kilbride Thistle F.C.

East Kilbride Thistle Football Club are a Scottish football club, based in the town of East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire near Glasgow. Nicknamed The Jags, they were formed in 1968 and play at the Showpark, situated in the Village area of the town. Currently playing in the West of Scotland League Conference C. They wear all black; their change strips are all red, or white tops with red or black shorts.

East Kilbride Thistle
Full nameEast Kilbride Thistle Football Club
Nickname(s)The Jags
Founded1968
GroundShowpark,
Maxwell Drive
East Kilbride
Capacity2,300
ManagerIain Diack
LeagueWest of Scotland League Conference C
2019–20SJFA West League One, 15th of 16
WebsiteClub website

History

Thistle won the West of Scotland Cup for the first time in 1974. They defeated Cambuslang Rangers 3–1 in the Final. They reached the Final again two years later. This time they lost 1–0 in a replay to Arthurlie.[1]

The club's greatest achievement to date is when they won the Scottish Junior Cup in May 1983, beating Bo'ness United at Ibrox Stadium. The final result was 2–0 to Thistle, with goals from skipper Joe Reilly and Kenny Gordon.

Thistle's previous manager was former St Johnstone and Hamilton Academical striker John Brogan, who took charge along with Martin Clark on a co-manager basis in November 1999. Clark left to coach Celtic's youth players in 2002, but Brogan remained in sole charge and won the Sectional League Cup at Partick Thistle's Firhill Stadium, Glasgow in 2002 with a 2–0 win over Bellshill Athletic, thanks to goals from Martin McVey and Stephen Brogan.

Brogan later returned the club to Firhill for another Sectional League Cup Final in 2005 but were unfortunate to lose to Neilston 4–3 on penalties, after a 0–0 draw. However it wasn't all bad news when the club won promotion to Super League Division One, from Central District League Division One, with a 3–0 win over Clydebank in the last game of the season on 1 May 2006.

John Brogan left the club in June 2008, and was replaced by former players Colin Mitchell and Ian Penman, as manager and assistant manager respectively. In 2008 Thistle also launched their own youth development structure, which sees coaching an teams from under 4s up to under 21s for both boys and girls.

In November 2010, Mitchell and Penman were replaced as team management by Jimmy Kerr and Tony Gallagher. In 2012 following relegation back to the Central District First Division, most of the playing staff, along with the management team left the club. After a season of turmoil on and off the pitch which resulted in relegation to the Central District Second Division, Thistle regrouped and started looking forwards to the future, the appointment of Alan Wardlaw as manager in late 2013 led to a change in fortunes for the club and they managed to win a few games, including a home league win for the first time in over 2 years. The team are managed from the end of the 2014–15 season by Billy Campbell.[2]

Internationalists

On 16 April 1972, Christie and Meechan played for Scotland Juniors in a 2–2 draw against England at Saracen Park (home of Ashfield), whilst playing for East Kilbride Thistle.[3] Willie Pettigrew was another Thistle player capped at Junior level with Scotland while with the club, who would later go on to gain full international honours with Scotland later in his career.

Honours

Cup
Honour Winners Runners-up
Scottish Junior Cup1982–83
West of Scotland Cup[4]1973–741975–76
Evening Times Trophy (Central League)[5] 1974–75, 1975–76, 1981–821979–80
Central Sectional League Cup[4]1974–75, 1982–83, 2002–03
Evening Times Cup Winners Cup1982–83
Erskine Hospital Cup[4]1971–72
Central Drybrough Cup[4]1972–73
Red Hackle Trophy[4]1974–75
Whitebread Trophy[4]1974–75
Langs Trophy[4]1978–79
Tommy McGrane Cup20092005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014

League

SJFA West Region

West of Scotland region is one of the three major reformed regional league systems after merger of Ayrshire and Central Region Junior Leagues in 2002.

Honour Winners Runners-up
Central Division One2005–06

SJFA Central Region

Central district region was one of the six major reformed regional league systems in 1968 after the merger of the Central and Lanarkshire Junior Leagues until 2002.

Honour Winners Runners-up
Central League A Division[5]1974–75, 1975–76, 1979–80, 1981–821972–73, 1973–74, 1980–81
Central League B / First Division[5]1977–78, 1992–93
Central League Second Division[5]1998–99, 2000–01
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References
  1. West of Scotland Cup Finals 1927–2004 www.stuart.mcaulay.dsl.pipex.com.
  2. Thomson, Paul (9 April 2015). "New boss Billy Campbell targets league title next season". Daily Record. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  3. "History". SJFA. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
  4. "The 1970s – Thistle Come Of Age And Top The Junior Ranks". ekthistlefc.co.uk. 1 July 2008. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  5. "Central Junior League 1931–2002". Scottish-football-historical-archive.com. Retrieved 15 March 2013.

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