| information at time of demise |
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| Full name | Airdrieonians Football Club | ||
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| Nickname(s) | The Diamonds The Waysiders |
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| Founded | 1878 as Excelsior F.C. | ||
| Dissolved | 2002 | ||
| Ground | Excelsior Stadium Airdrie, Lanarkshire (Capacity: 10,171) |
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| League | Scottish First Division | ||
| 2001–02 | Scottish First Division, 2nd | ||
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Airdrieonians Football Club, more commonly known as Airdrie, were a Scottish professional football team from the town of Airdrie, in the Monklands area of Lanarkshire.
The club became defunct at the end of the Scottish Football League 2001–02 season, despite the team finishing as runners-up in the SFL First Division to Partick Thistle and therefore only narrowly missing out on promotion to the Scottish Premier League.
During their one hundred and twenty four year existence the "Diamonds", as they were nicknamed, won the old Scottish Division Two three times, the Spring Cup once and the Scottish Challenge Cup on three occasions. The club also competed in four separate Scottish Cup finals; winning the competition in 1924.
Airdrieonians were the first club in the Scottish League to fold since 1967, when Third Lanark went bankrupt.
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The team was founded in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire in 1878 as Excelsior Football Club, changing its name to Airdrieonians in 1881.
The club enjoyed its most successful era in the 1920s following the signing of Hughie Gallacher from Queen of the South in 1921. Airdrie finished in second place in the Scottish League Championship four years in a row in between 1923 and 1926 as well as winning the Scottish Cup in 1924. Following this victory, in early summer 1925, the club visited Norway and Sweden, and made a big impression. Translations of local newspaper reports, and some photographs of the tour, are still available.[1] Gallacher was on board until 8 December 1925 when he departed to similarly terrorise defences in England. It was while at Airdrie in 1924 that the future member of the Wembley Wizards won his first international cap.
Airdrie spent much of the post war era "yo-yoing" between the top flight and Second Division. They reached the Scottish Cup Final in 1975, losing 3–1 to Celtic, and also the Texaco Cup Final of 1972, losing 2–1 on aggregate to Derby County.
During the 1990s, with Alex MacDonald at the helm, Airdrie, having been members of the Premier Division in the 1991–92 and 1992–93 seasons, were regularly considered challengers for promotion and recognised as one of the bigger clubs in First Division. MacDonald also guided the Diamonds to two Scottish Cup finals. The first appearance coming on 9 May 1992 when the club faced Rangers in front of 44,045 strong crowd at Hampden Park. Unfortunately for Airdrie on this occasion however, a goal each from Mark Hateley and Ally McCoist earned the blue half of Glasgow a 2–1 victory and sent the MacDonald's side home empty-handed. When the Diamonds returned to the national stadium three years later for their second attempt at Scottish Cup glory they would this time face the other half of the Old Firm in the form of Celtic. But MacDonald and Airdrie would once again fall at the final hurdle as they lost 1–0 to a Pierre van Hooijdonk goal. Notably, this match took place on 27 May 1995; a mere seven years before the club went out of business
Though there was due heartache caused by the club's defeat in the 1992 Final, Airdrie fans still had something positive to think about as they left Hampden that day.
With Rangers having won the Premier Division and therefore qualifying for the Champions League it meant Airdrie, as 1992 Scottish Cup runners-up would represent Scotland in the 1992–93 Cup Winners' Cup. This would be the club's first appearance in any European competition in their history.
Airdrie were drawn against Czech side Sparta Prague in the First Round and the first leg of the tie was to take place at Broomfield. The Diamonds would lose this encounter 1–0 and then go on to suffer defeat in the Czech capital with the scoreline reading 2–1 in Sparta's favour. The club consequently lost the overall tie by an aggregate score of three goals to one and were eliminated from the competition.
Airdrie's only goal in the tie, subsequently the club only in any European competition, was scored by Kenny Black, who later went on to become manager of Airdrieonians reincarnation Airdrie United.
For most of its history, Airdrieonians played at Broomfield Park in Airdrie town centre. The final game at Broomfield took place in May 1994 after which the ground, having been sold to supermarket chain Safeway, was demolished to make room for their new store. The club's intention was to make use of the funds generated from the sale to build a new, 10,000-capacity, all-seated stadium and therefore make the club eligible for entry into the top tier of Scottish Football should they win the First Division. The plan was fraught with problems, however, and acquiring planning permission for the new ground proved difficult. As a result of this Airdrie went on to groundshare with Clyde at Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld for four seasons with the club eventually moving into its new home, the Shyberry Excelsior Stadium, in time for the 1998–99 season. Airdrieonians played their home games there until they were liquidated in 2002.
It is arguably this stadium re-location and the difficulties generated by it that was Airdrie's first step towards oblivion. The mismanagement of the entire situation by the club's board, as well as North Lanarkshire Council's lengthy delay in granting planning permission caused Airdrieonians financial situation to reach critical level. This was not helped by the low attendances at Excelsior Stadium following the completion of the move which, obviously, would be directly related to the quality of football on display - the poor nature of this having much to do with the Diamonds lack of funds available to be spent on the team.
The minimum stadium capacity for entry into the Scottish Premier League has since been reduced from ten to six thousand following the controversy arising from the Falkirk's 2003 denial of promotion (despite a proposed groundshare of New Broomfield with Airdrieonians re-imbodiment Airdrie United) and the possibility of the situation repeating itself with Inverness Caledonian Thistle the next year. Ironically Falkirk would have been relegated at the end of the 2001–02 season after finishing ninth in the First Division, but their status in this league was preserved because of the demise of Airdrieonians.
Such a change came far too late to benefit Airdrie who had long since gone out of business, due to what could be said was merely an inevitable consequence of their trying to comply with the rules put in place at the time regarding admission to Scotland's top football league; which have since been recognised by the league as being completely unfeasible.
Airdrieonians demise was personified by the sudden and unexpected death of Joey Rowan, the club's sole remaining director. Rowan had a long and intimate association with the club and was son-in-law and advisor to Airdrieonians long term benefactor Jack Dalziel (recognised by having the main stand named after him). Rowan, already a popular figure with the club's supporters due to his passion, candour and trademark ponytail, gained even more respect by remaining with Airdrieonians and incurring substantial personal losses whilst trying to steer the club away from liquidation despite the fact that the rest of the board had resigned amid finger-pointing and acrimony in an attempt to avoid reproach and financial liabilities. He is considered the club's last great hero for his selfless sacrifice and unyielding loyalty.
In February 2000, following the decision by the club's board to allow more private investment, Steve Archibald put forth a bid for Airdrieonians Football Club. During the 2000–01 football season Archibald, while constantly at odds with Airdrie liquidators KPMG brought in many foreign players who quickly became popular with the fans. The former Aberdeen, Scotland and Barcelona star's reign at Airdrie came to and end early in 2001 when KPMG terminated their deal with him citing that Archibald had not kept up to date with payment of fees as their reason.
Apart from Airdrie's prominent record for a club of their size in the Scottish Cup the Diamonds were also notably successful in the Scottish Challenge Cup which they won in 1994–95, 2000–01 and 2001–02, the last two truimphs being the two seasons immediately prior to their liquidation. An interesting fact about these victories is that they were achieved under two different chairmen and managers and with radically altered teams. The first triumphant side was made up of Steve Archibald's extremely popular 'Spanish Armada'; the talented set of players Archibald had brought in when he held preferred bidder status for Airdrieonians F.C. whose attacking, entertaining football had steadily won over the New Broomfield crowd. Despite their aforementioned prowess, however, the side performed relatively poorly in the league finishing a disappointing 8th and therefore only narrowly avoiding relegation to the Second Division. Confirming their potential the core of this squad went on, following Steve Archibald's leaving the club, to play for Premier League sides with striker and goalkeeper David Fernández and Javier Sánchez Broto both eventually signing for Celtic while midfielders Jesus Sanjuán and Antonio Calderón went on to play for Kilmarnock
The next year when the club won the Challenge Cup with Ian McCall's assortment of free transfers, loan signings and the very few players from the previous season who remained at Airdrie beyond Archibald it seemed possible that Airdrie's long run of problems could be reaching their end; the club were chasing promotion to the SPL and the financial conflict behind the scenes looked like it would be resolved, but it was not to be. A series of losses and draws in the second half of the season, with only two victories in the penultimate 14 games, ensured that there would be a difference of 10 points to Partick Thistle going into the last week of the season.
The club finally went out of business officially on 1 May 2002 due to its overwhelming debts. The final match played by Airdrieonians Football Club was an away game against Ayr United at Somerset Park. With an unfavorable score of 1–0 to the hosts, the match was abandoned by the referee after a crossbar was broken during a protest pitch invasion, and was never replayed.
After the club went out of business, local accountant Jim Ballantyne attempted to gain entry to the SFL with a team by the name of Airdrie United Football Club, effectively a direct replacement of Airdrieonians (similar to the way that Yokohama Flügels re-established themselves as Yokohama F.C. following their own collapse and takeover by crosstown rivals Yokohama Marinos, a revamped new identity for a club at the same stadium). Airdrie United's initial bid for league status was rejected in favour of the application by Gretna, who were then playing in the English Northern Premier League.
In desperation Ballantyne opted to buy control of Clydebank, another Scottish football club experiencing extreme financial hardship and, with SFL approval, the club's name was changed to Airdrie United, the team relocated to Airdrie and the strip was altered to the famous diamond style of Airdrieonians. Airdrie United are predominantly viewed as a continuation of Airdrieonians, with the majority of the same supporters attending Airdrie United matches and the new club taking up the position of rivals to clubs such as Motherwell, Albion Rovers, and Partick Thistle who, historically, had a long-standing enmity with Airdrieonians Football Club.
2001–02 Squad Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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| Record Type | Record | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|
| Most Capped Player | Jimmy Crapnell, 9 | for Scotland |
| Most League Points in a Season | 60 | in Scottish Division Two - 1973–74 (2 points per win) |
| 61 | in Scottish First Division - 1994–95 (3 points per win) | |
| Most League Goals by a Player in a Season | Hughie Baird, 53 | in 1954–55 Season |
| Record Attendance | 24,000 | -v- Heart of Midlothian on 8/3/1952 at Broomfield Park |
| 8,762 | -v- Celtic on 19/8/1998 at Shyberry Excelsior Stadium | |
| Record Victory | 15–1 | -v- Dundee Wanderers F.C. in Scottish Division Two on 1/12/1894 |
| Record Defeat | 1–11 | -v- Hibernian in Scottish First Division on 24/10/1959 |
| Record Appearances | John Martin, 755 | between 1980 and 1999 |
The Diamonds Twelve Year League Record
Red = Scottish Football League Premier Division (before Scottish Premier League)
Yellow = Scottish Football League First Division
| Year | Player | Goals Scored |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | Owen Coyle | 23 |
| 2000–01 | David Fernandez | 7 |
| 1999–00 | Niall Thompson & Alex Neil | 5 |
| 1998–99 | Steve Cooper | 8 |
| 1997–98 | Brian McPhee | 12 |
| 1996–97 | Steve Cooper, Paddy Connolly & Brian McPhee | 8 |
| 1995–96 | Jim McIntyre | 9 |
| 1994–95 | Andy Smith | 12 |
| 1993–94 | Davie Kirkwood | 10 |
| 1992–93 | Owen Coyle | 9 |
| 1991–92 | Owen Coyle | 11 |
| 1990–91 | Owen Coyle | 20 |
| 1989–90 | Owen Coyle | 10 |
| 1988–89 | Kenneth Macdonald | 22 |
| 1987–88 | David MacCabe | 20 |
| 1986–87 | David MacCabe | 13 |
| 1985–86 | John Flood | 11 |
| 1984–85 | David MacCabe | 21 |
| 1983–84 | John Flood | 11 |
| 1982–83 | Blair Millar | 12 |
| 1981–82 | Sandy Clark | 15 |
| 1980–81 | Sandy Clark | 10 |
| 1979–80 | Sandy Clark | 22 |
| 1978–79 | Sandy Clark | 23 |
| 1977–78 | J. Cairney | 22 |
| 1976–77 | Derek Whiteford | 15 |
| 1975–76 | Derek Whiteford | 8 |
Notable former Airdrieonians Football Club staff include:
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