| Full name | Alloa Athletic Football Club | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Wasps / The Hornets | |||
| Founded | 1878 (as Clackmannan County) | |||
| Ground | Recreation Park, Alloa, Scotland (Capacity: 3,412 (919 seated) |
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| Chairman | Mike Mulraney | |||
| Manager | Paul Hartley | |||
| League | Scottish Third Division | |||
| 2010–11 | Scottish Second Division, 9th (Relegated via play-offs) | |||
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| Current season | ||||
Alloa Athletic Football Club are a Scottish football team based in Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They are members of the Scottish Football League and currently play in the Third Division.
They are nicknamed 'The Wasps' for their kit's distinctive black and gold hoops and 'The Hornets' after the club adopted a cartoon Hornet for their club badge in 2010. Their home ground is currently Recreation Park, also known as The Recs. The ground has recently undergone a number of changes with the removal of the Hilton Road Terrace and the laying of a new artificial playing surface in the summer of 2007. A new perimeter wall was then built at the Clackmannan Road end of the ground and a new 519 seater stand for away supporters was opened in October 2008.
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The club were formed in 1878 as Clackmannan County, becoming Alloa a year later and finally adopting the present-day name Alloa Athletic in 1883.[1] Admitted to the Scottish Football Association in the same year, the club had to wait until 1921 to elected to the Scottish Football League, although they had enjoyed success prior to this. In 1906–07, the club were Scottish Football Union champions and won the Central Football League six years later, with two runners-up finishes in-between.
Alloa won the Scottish Football League Division Two title in their first season but were immediately relegated from the top flight the following season. Promotion was achieved again in 1938–39 but the onset of the Second World War saw the new season curtailed after just five games. When the leagues were re-organised after the war, Alloa were placed back in Division Two.
The 1950s and 60s were not overly successful for the Wasps although the club did provide the game with John White who went on to play for Scotland and Tottenham Hotspur (where he was part of their famous Double winning side of the 1960–61 season). Promotion was finally achieved again from the new Second Division in 1976–77 under the managership of Hugh Wilson. Relegation soon followed but the Wasps went back up 1981–82 under Alex Totten and managed an excellent 6th place finish in the First Division the following season. Unfortunately the team was relegated again a year later and a similar pattern followed after further promotions in 1984–85 and 1988–89.
Following further league reconstruction, Alloa found themselves as founder members of the new Third Division in 1995. Under Tom Hendrie, Alloa won this league in 1997–98, the club's first championship win since 1921–22. The following season saw the team consolidate in the Second Division and also enjoy a famous 7–0 derby win over local rivals Stirling Albion. Following the departure of Tom Hendrie to St. Mirren, Terry Christie took over at Alloa and led the club to the Scottish Challenge Cup in 1999 followed by promotion to the First Division a few months later. The team was relegated at the first attempt but bounced back up in 2001–02. Relegation followed once more, this time on goal difference.
Since 2003 Alloa have been playing in the Second Division. In the 2009–2010 season, Alloa looked certain to gain promotion to the Scottish First Division, but they lost out to Stirling by Goal Difference. In the 2010–2011 season, Alloa were relegated to the Third Division after finishing 9th in the Second Division league table, and failing to negotiate the end-of-season play-offs, losing 2–1 on aggregate to Annan.
Days after, however, Alloa pulled off a massive coup, appointing former Aberdeen and Scotland midfielder Paul Hartley as player-manager.[2]
Alloa play in gold and black hoops, with black shorts and socks, and a change strip of dark blue with a yellow trim. The current strip is similar to the first strip worn – black and orange hooped jersey and stockings – which led to the club's nickname of The Wasps. The club have rarely strayed from a hooped design with an occasional stray to all-orange or all-gold. In the 1897–98 season, however, the jersey was navy blue and white stripes – the only departure from orange or gold.[4]
The club have carried shirt sponsorship since 1984, using six different companies.[1]
Recreation Park has a capacity of 3,100 and has been home to Alloa for much of their existence, with the club using the ground since 1895. Prior to that, Alloa had short stays at a number of grounds, as illustrated below:[1]
In September 2010, it was announced that Alloa Athletic had applied for planning permission to build a hotel and restaurant complex on land adjacent to Recreation park which had previously been used for car parking. The Announcement was made by club chairman Mike Mulraney and he stressed that the club would not be at risk of any losses, should the venture not be successful.[5]
Most record books list Alloa's record attendance as 13,000 for a match against Dunfermline Athletic on 22 February 1939 in a Scottish Cup third round replay.[1] However the recent book The Roar of the Crowd by David Ross shows the record attendance to actually be 15,467 for a Scottish Cup 5th Round match against Celtic on 5 February 1955. Celtic won the game 4–2. In recent times, the record figure is a more modest 5,050 for a Second Division match against Cowdenbeath in May 1992.[1] With the current capacity just over 3,000, the figure looks unlikely to be beaten. They have a regular group of passionate young supporters who travel to all away games which wear Bermuda shorts. They are known as the Hawian Army and can be heard as far away as McDonalds from Recreation Park. Their major influence on the club was underlined recently when Alloa FC acted upon on a lyric from one their terrace chants "Please sign Noble, we want him to stay" by keeping him on following the expiry of his initially agreed short-term loan spell from Airdrie.[6]
Some of the Alloa fans have now adopted the nickname 'The Hornets' (as opposed to The Wasps) for the team, after the club adopted a redesigned badge. The badge depicts a 'muscle bound' cartoon hornet on a shield with the words Alloa Athletic fc below. Some fans stated in 'The Duffle' and 'Pie and Bovril' forums that they would not purchase replica Alloa tops due to the cartoon like nature of the badge.
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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