Abercorn F.C.
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Abercorn Football Club was a football (soccer) club based in Paisley, Scotland. They were formed on November 10, 1877 with an initial membership of 200, a few months after St Mirren had been formed in the town. The team's strip (uniform) colours were blue and white stripes.
Home matches were initially played at East Park (1877-79) before moving onto Blackstoun Park (1879-89). In 1887 they managed to make their first semi-final of the Scottish Cup, losing out to Cambuslang by an embarrassing 10-1 scoreline, which is a joint record margin defeat for the semi-final stage of the Scottish Cup. They would repeat the achievement of reaching the cup semi-finals in each of their next two seasons.
In 1889 they moved to Underwood Park, and it was whilst playing there they became initial members of the Scottish Football League in season 1890-91. The club finished the inaugural season of the league in seventh place out of ten, but had the satisfaction of finishing ahead of St Mirren, who ended in eighth place.
In 1899 the club moved from Underwood Park to their Old Ralston ground.
The club remained continuous members of the Scottish Football League until 1915, when they transferred to the Western League. Their time as a full League club was fairly undistiguished, their only real achievements being the winning of two second division championships. Consequently St Mirren were able to establish themselves as Paisley's primary club, with Abercorn very much being the town's second team. Nonetheless, of the Scottish Football League's former members, they are the sixth longest serving club after Airdrie, Third Lanark, St Bernard's F.C., Leith Athletic and Clydebank.
The last big achievement of the club was winning the Scottish Qualifying Cup in the 1912/13 season. During their run in this competition the club got its highest attendance at their New Ralston ground--which they had moved to in 1909--when 7,000 spectators attended the semi-final match with Nithsdale Wanderers.
The club played in the Western League from 1915-16 until 1919-20 when their lease on their New Ralston ground ended. It is unclear why no new ground was secured, but this effectively spelled the end of Abercorn. Despite not being entered in any league competition they played one game in season 1920-21, a Scottish Cup defeat away to Vale of Leven. 2,000 spectators witnessed this, the last game that Abercorn played, which resulted in an 8-2 victory for Vale of Leven.
Abercorn retained membership of the Scottish Football Association until March 29, 1922 when they were disbarred for failing to secure their own private home ground. Effectively though the club was defunct in 1920 when it played its last game.
Formed 1877. Defunct 1920.
Grounds: 1877-1879 East Park. 1879-1889 Blackstoun Park. 1889-1899 Underwood Park. 1899-1909 Old Ralston. 1909-1920 New Ralston.
Colours: 1877-1881 Royal blue & white striped shirts, white shorts. 1881-1883 Navy blue shirts, white shorts. 1883-1908 White shirts, navy blue shorts. 1908-1916 Royal blue & white striped shirts, royal blue shorts. 1916-1920 Royal blue & white striped shirts, white shorts.
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