Third Lanark AC
As most of you know there are many a lost club in Ireland. A lot are a story of mismanagement, lack of real success or simply not enough cash to keep the turnstiles open. However, in Scotland the number of clubs lost to history are a lot fewer in number but the stories behind the teams that do, disappear to the past are particularly interesting.
One of the most interesting is Third Lanark A.C. This was a that, when they finally went under, had 95 years of history and were also a founder member of both the Scottish Football League and the Scottish Football Association.
To appreciate the level of shock that ran through Scottish Football when Third Lanark entered liquidation we need to really start at the end of the story.
The season 1966-67 was arguably the best in Scottish Footballing history, Scotland beat World Champions England in their first international since the final 3-2 at Wembley.
In Europe it was even better, Dunfermline Athletic went out in the second round of the Fairs City Cup to eventual winners Dinamo Zagreb. Dundee United also went out in the second round of the Fairs City Cup to Italian giants Juventus. However, this is after they had beaten the then holders Barcelona both home and away. Kilmarnock also made it to the Semi Finals of the Fairs City Cup losing out to Leeds United. The Old Firm did even better with Rangers making it to the final of the Cup Winners Cup losing in extra time 1-0 to Bayern Munich. Celtic However, did even better as in a famous story they beat Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon to become the first team from Northern Europe to lift the European Cup.
It is in this backdrop that a team was playing its football less than two miles from both Celtic and Rangers, in a stadium that could hold upwards of 50,000 fans. Less than 2 weeks after Billy McNeill lifted that famous cup above his head, a judge at the court of session in Edinburgh issued a winding-up order and appointed an official liquidator and with the drop of that gavel he hammered in the final nail in the coffin of a club that was 16 years older than Celtic.
On Saturday 30th November 1872, the first ever international football match took place at Hamilton Crescent in Patrick, Glasgow. Its ended Scotland 0 England 0. 4,000 fans attended to watch the game. The Scotland team was made up of 11 players from Queens Park FC. In the crowd that day there were a number of solders from the Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers. A couple of weeks later and inspired by the football they had just witnessed they formally founded Third Lanark AC on the 12 December 1872. A few of the founding members, Billy Dickson, Billy MacKinnon and Joseph Taylor had played in the fixture and at the time were players for Queens Park.
At a meeting shortly after it was decided the kit should be, “A cowl – one end blue, the other yellow, a scarlet guernsey. Blue trousers or knickerbockers with blue stockings.” Later on, it was also decided that all guernseys would have the number 3 on the front. The club started off training at an old drill field which is now the site of a primary school on Victoria Road. Shortly afterwards they moved to Cathkin Park (which is today Govanhill Park). In 1883 they joined the newly formed Glasgow Football Association and in 1890 they became a founding member of the Scottish Football League. In 1889 they won their first Scottish Cup. This wasn't an easy win though, despite winning the first game 3-0 against Celtic it was a reply the week after that Thirds also won 2-1 that allowed them to finally claim the cup. This cup final would become known as the “snow final”.
On Saturday 2nd February 1889 the snow and wind had been building up for several days so by the time kick off came around the snow was ankle deep on the pitch. However, the match day officials stated that the pitch was still playable and despite the players on both sides lodging protests the match was still to be played. So, the players on both sides agreed that as the pitch was so bad the game should be treated as a friendly.
With this agreement in place the two teams came out with the players on both sides throwing snowballs at each other. As the game started Celtic looked the better side but after 20 minutes Thirds went 1 up in the second half Lanark looked and played better and soon were 2 up and to wrap the game up a minute before time they got a third and final goal to end the game Celtic 0 Third Lanark 3. Despite the terrible conditions and the game being in doubt most of the day this game still attracted over 18,000 fans which was a record attendance for a Scottish game at the time. Two days later though at a special meeting of the SFA the match was in question as both teams claimed prior to the game that it should be played as a friendly as the pitch was so bad. Even a signed document by both clubs was not enough to convince some in attendance that the result shouldn't stand. It was only was after the referee was questioned on how the pitch was that it was concluded that the game should be replayed.
The following Saturday on the 9th February the teams walked out on to the Hampden turf again. This time round it was a clear day but an incredibly hard pitch. Prior to kick off Third Lanark had lodged a protest at having to play the match again as they had won the previous game. The protest fell on deaf ears. As the match kicked off the two teams were very much a match for one another, but Thirds were giving a help in hand when one Celtic player had to retire from the game in a time before substitutions Celtic had nearly an hour with 10 men. Not long after the man came off Thirds went 1 up and it stayed that way till the hour mark when Celtic equalised but then late in the game Thirds secured the game 2-1 and took the cup with them. In 1903 Thirds cut their final connections to the military and then in 1903-04 they won their only ever Scottish League Championship in the 26 games they played they won 20 and only lost 3 winning the league by 4 points and cementing their place in history. In 1905 Thirds won their last major piece of silverware, when they beat Rangers after a reply. This time round it was a lot simpler then there first cup win. In a game in front of 54,000 spectators it ended 0-0. A week later Thirds walked away with the trophy beating Rangers 3-1 in front of 30,000 people this time.
To start with Thirds played at Cathkin Park which is modern day Govanhill Park. However, when in 1903 Queens Park moved the 300 yards over the hill to their current home and home of the National team Hampden Park or more accurately the Third Hampden Park. Third Lanark took over the lease of the Second Hampden Park and renamed it New Cathkin Park. This would be there home for the next 64 years.
The early 20th Century and pre-war years were the real high times for Third Lanark. As war took a hold in Europe, much of the successful team would be affected by the conflict and the club would never reach the same highs again really.
In 1923 Third Lanark would go on a pre-season tour to South America. This was not uncommon for many sides in this period also Thirds had done a number of tours in Spain & Portugal in 1914 and USA & Canada in 1921. however, this one was a different tour they would play 8 games against teams in Argentina and Uruguay including a game against the Argentine national team.
Third Lanark played a friendly in Argentina whilst on tour in 1923 The trip to Argentina wasn't a waste of time for two reasons. One when Thirds fell upon hard times in the future the Argentine FA sent the team equipment and kits to play in. Two was the strange story of Raith Rovers becoming shipwrecked in the Canary Islands. On the route back from Argentina the Ship the team travelled on docked in Las Palmas to refuel on the 8000-mile journey. As they docked, they found the ship wrecked Raith Rovers team lying in wait for them after their own vessel had ran aground.
Despite this act of kindness the footballing gods didn't stop Third Lanark getting relegated at the end of the following season. This then started a decade of Yo-Yoing between the top two leagues.
It wouldn't be until the mid-1930's that the club would stabilize in the top division again. This would include their final appearance in a Scottish Cup final in 1936 when nearly 90,000 people would squeeze into Hampden Park to watch Thirds lose a closely fought match against Rangers 1-0. The 30's would be ended with 2 players from the club being called up to the national sides tour of the USA in 1939. But as with that 1910's the club’s chances of growing on this success was interrupted by war again.
Much like after the First World War not much happened to the club once hostilities were over. Until the 6th November 1949 in a 4-2 defeat at home to Stirling Albion a young player who would later lead Scotland to a World Cup made his professional debut for the club. Ally MacLeod, despite not really pulling up any trees in his first game the game did go down in history. As the players were leaving the field of play the Main Stand was ablaze and the players had to rush in an grab their belongings and get out as four fire engines arrived at the ground to get the blaze under control.
It was around this time that a new man came to the club who would have a massive impact upon the club. His name was Bill Hiddleston. He was a wholesale glass merchant and businessman. He started off in the stands watching games with his father but soon in 1954 he became a member of the board at the club. This, however, wouldn't last a very long time as he soon started to act without the knowledge of the rest of the board. The final straw with the board and himself was in the summer of 1955 when he spent £500 on a player without the board’s permission. This led to him being removed from the board and having to pay to £500 out of his own pocket. Even though he had done this he would be back. In January 1956 local boy and supporter of Third Lanark Ally MacLeod was reluctantly sold to St Mirren for £8,000 in a deal the player didn't want to do. However, he did go when told that the money was desperately needed for the club’s survival.
In 1957 Thirds appointed a manager who would lay the groundwork for the team to go forward and head towards there last real success. He was Bob Shankly the older brother of the Liverpool legendary manager Bill Shankly. Bob would in 1959 leave Thirds to take the reigns at Dundee who he would lead to a Scottish League Championship and into the Semi Finals in Europe before being beat by AC Milan.
In 1959 George Young would take over from Bob Shankly and the former Rangers defender would take the part-time team to the Scottish League Cup final against Hearts and to a third place finish in the league that season. Although in the cup final the team played well but were beaten despite taking an early lead they would go down 2-1 to a Hearts side that would go on to win the league and cup double that season.
At the time it seemed to the outside world that Third Lanark may well be back on the up again. This would all change at the AGM in December 1962. When it was announced that a new man had taking over as a majority shareholder of the club. This man was Bill Hiddleston. His appointment had the great affect of seeing the entire management and backroom staff resign on the spot added to this most of the board left at the same time and as one director said when leaving the club for the final time “Good luck to Thirds and God help them”.
The decline was almost instant at the end of the 63-64 season Thirds sold or released 23 players. The following season they the finished bottom of the top tier with a mere 7 points from 34 games. There soon began even more financial problems for the club. The players had issues getting wages paid and often there was no hot water or power for them to train.
A major contributor to the money problems was European football. In the past the Glasgow Cup. Which is played between Queens Park, Third Lanark, Clyde, Partick Thistle, Celtic and Rangers. Prior to European football all the teams wanted to win the trophy so no matter what the teams would get a home tie against Rangers or Celtic extra a season. However, once the old firm got into Europe, they started to play there youth teams in the cup instead and the number of fans turning out for these games drop massively. So the gate tickets were hugely impacted. The fans had become so disillusioned by the state the club had become and believing that the owner of the club was out to only fill his own pockets they stopped attending games. In 1959-60 season 550,000 people had attended Thirds games. In 1966-67 55,000 attended the games. It was compounded when in January 1966 it was front page news in Glasgow that the board of Third Lanark was looking at moving the club to one of the new towns that surround Glasgow.
The news that they wanted to move the club to a new town and sell the land the ground was on for housing was really the moment people fully turned. Into the last season rumours were rife that the players had their wages supplemented with coins that it was said had come from the turnstiles. Also, that players were required to make their own way to away games and even that teams who visited New Cathkin Park were asked to bring light bulbs and footballs with them.
Unbeknown to the supports who turned up on Tuesday 25th April 1967 they would witness the final ever home game of Third Lanark A.C. It was a 3-3 draw with Queen of the South. The final attendance that day was a mere 325 people the second lowest attendance they ever recorded. The lowest attendance was just 10 days prior when just 297 people arrived to watch Third Lanark play Clydebank on Saturday 15th April 1967 (the same day as the England 2 Scotland 3 fixture at Wembley).
The final ever Third Lanark game was a humiliating 5-1 defeat to Dumbarton at Boghead. That game had 581 witnesses to history as no one in the ground knew that was the last ever game in the club’s history. The final ever Third Lanark goal scorer was Drew Busby who would later go onto become a hero at both Airdrie and Hearts. The team that day was Bob Russell, Tony Connell, Gerry Heaney, Hugh McLaughlan, Jim Little, Gordon McEwan, Hugh Rundall, Bobby Craig, Drew Busby, Don May and John Kinnaird. The final ever manager was former Rangers Captain Bobby Shearer assisted by former Scotland international John McKenzie. It was a less than a few weeks later the board of Third Lanark announced that they had negotiated the sale of New Cathkin Park to the Glasgow Corporation for housing and a new stadium for Thirds would be built in Bishopbriggs for the club (needless to say this stadium was never build).
It was in the middle of May 1967 that the board of trade would launch its investigation into the club’s books. In a report that wasn't published till October 1968 it relieved that constant player squabbles and internal power struggles had be rife. Corruption was clear as well as defrauding the fans from the club lottery which should have been a £200 prize was rarely paid out. Added to this is, it also showed that Bill Hiddleston had made every appointment personally. This made people who were not close to him were unlikely to remain at the club. All off these situations took its final toll when on the 7th June 1967. At the court of session in Edinburgh Lord Fraser issued a winding-up order on the club and appointed an official liquidator. The court action was brought by a building company who in 1963 had carried out work on the main stand. When the liquidator came in it was shown club debts were higher than the value of the club by some £40,000.
On the 26th June 1967, it was announced that Third Lanark A.C. Membership of the Scottish Football League, the league it helped to form, was removed. On that day all players were made free for transfer and the club ceased being. As for the ground which was the clubs only real assist. It hosted its final football match on 13th May 1967 in the Glasgow Challenge Cup Final between Cambuslang Rangers and Rutherglen Glencairn in a match that ended 2-0 to Cambuslang. The ground was sold to the Glasgow Corporation for £10,000 in a sale that was forced through by the Royal Bank of Scotland to pay off the overdraft owed to the bank.
Houses would never be built on the site as Glasgow City Council blocked the sale of the land. It would remain a derelict site until 1977 when Glasgow City Parks Department paid £350,000 to convert the sight to a open park. Which it remains to this day and if you are in Glasgow you can still visit the sight and see 3 of the banks of terracing which includes the crash barriers today.
As for the club itself in the 1968 board of trade investigation into the club it was found that four directors had breached the Companies Act 1948 and were fined £100 each. The investigation also accused Bill Hiddleston of blatant corruption and found that “the circumstances merited police inquiry”.
Bill Hiddleston is a man that who from the outside appears to have just run the club into the ground for his own benefit. History will always see this man as a crook. However, to give some balance he did sanction the building of a new Grandstand at the club in 1963 which would to be fair lead to a company bring the club to court for none payment. He was also at the time a boardmember of the SFA so to say he wasn't a football man would be somewhat unfair. With this extra information he doesn't seem like a classic asset stripping owner. Though his actions during his time as owner are without doubt the reason the club with such history and collection of silverware are no longer with us.
As for the fans who were loyal to the end. Most ended up supporting another local club many went the short distance to Queens Park, Clyde or Pollok. Very few would go to the old firm.
Interestingly unlike a lot of Scottish Clubs that went into liquidation at the time and since. There was never a rush to reform the club. It is argued that this is because of the way the club ended. It was such a painful decline that most people when the club was finally laid to rest, it was mostly felt that it was for the best.
The Third Lanark name was brought back to life in the 1990's and in 2008 it was announced that they intended to get the team back to the Scottish Senior Leagues. Currently they play in The Central Scotland Amateur League. They are also in negations with Glasgow City Council who currently own New Cathkin Park about soon playing their home game at the park. Should you want to visit New Cathkin Park. Its now a Glasgow City Park and called Cathkin Park.
Club Honours
Scottish Football League Division One
Winners: 1903-04
Scottish Football League Division Two
Winners: 1930-31, 1934-35
Runners Up: 1927-28
Scottish Cup
Winners: 1888-89, 1904-05
Scottish League Cup
Runners Up: 1959-60
Glasgow Cup
Winners: 1903, 1904, 1909, 1963
Runners Up: 1891, 1906, 1907, 1914, 1924, 1938,
943, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1954, 1958
Glasgow Charity Cup
A modern view from the stands at New Cathkin Park.
Winners: 1890, 1898, 1901, 1963
Shared: 1954, 1956
Runners Up: 1884, 1897, 1910, 1914, 1932, 1939, 1943, 1946
Credit: Jeff Webb