Play for the sake of playing! (part1)
A little trivia to begin. The oldest club currently still in the English Football League is Notts County
Formed in 1867, Queen’s Park were to very quickly become ground breakers within the Scottish game. Despite the impact that the club was to have on the infancy of Scottish football, their creation was markedly humble. The quote that adorns the club website (history), reads “tonight at half past eight o’clock a number of gentlemen met at No.3 Eglinton Terrace for the purpose of forming a football club.” This brief, matter-of-fact statement summarises the meeting headed by club president Mungo Ritchie and tells the story of a community looking to simply give football to its people, and nothing more.
A year later Queen’s Park played their first game, beating Thistle FC 2-0, as they began their long journey in association football.
In March 1873, they – along with eight other Scottish clubs – formed the Scottish Football Association, having already been members of the Football Association in London since 1870. Despite some alterations along the way, the Scottish FA, jointly formed by Queen’s Park, is still the same institution that governs Scottish football to this day.
As part of their role in formulating and creating the Scottish FA, Queen’s Park also took on the role of providing a Scottish national team. In fact, in Scotland’s debut international game against England in September 1872, Queen’s Park provided all eleven Scottish players for the 0-0 draw against the Auld Enemy. For the ‘return leg’ in London in March 1873, Scotland were beaten 4-2, with seven of those in the team for that game Queen’s Park players, all selected by club captain Robert Gardner. In contrast, the English team that day had representatives from eight different clubs, thus demonstrating Queen’s Park’s prominence in Scottish football.
Symbolically, the national team for those games also sported Queen’s Park’s original dark blue jerseys, which the national side continues to wear today. This was another example of Queen’s Park’s pioneering role in the early history of Scottish football. Perhaps in deference to the new national team, the members at Queen’s Park voted to change the club colours just six months later to the black and white inch striped jerseys that inspired their nickname – The Spiders – as it is said to resemble a spider’s web.
In the same year as the colour change, Queen’s – with the other founder members of the Scottish FA – created the Scottish Cup; the Hoops won the inaugural version of the competition in 1874.
Indeed, the latter part of the nineteenth century proved to be a period of dominance for Queen’s Park, winning the Scottish Cup ten times between 1874 and 1893, a record only bested since by Celtic and Rangers.
Curiously, during this period Queen’s Park also competed in the English FA Cup as did Third Lanark, Partick Thistle, Hearts, Rangers, Cowlairs, Renton and Gretna – the latter’s participation came almost a century after the SFA’s ban on Scottish clubs participating in the FA Cup because – due to their location on the England/Scotland border – it was more convenient to play in England’s Northern League; a Berwick Rangers situation in reverse, if you will. Queen’s, however, are the only Scottish club to reach the final, finishing as runners-up to Blackburn Rovers in both 1884 and 1885.
As standard bearers of the Scottish game, Queen’s Park were invited to play in the FA Cup from 1872, however, financial constraints restricted them to just one appearance prior to the 1883-84 season.
It was at this point, after years of dominance in the Scottish Cup, that the club wanted to test themselves against England’s best. Their first full campaign was an eye-opener for those English sides that faced them as they hammered established teams such as Crewe Alexandra (10-0), Aston Villa (6-1) and Blackburn Olympic (4-0) en route to their final defeat. The following season continued in the same vein, as they beat both Notts County and Nottingham Forest on their way to another runners-up finish.
Queen’s Park had established themselves as a force, not just within Scotland, but across Britain with these victories over clubs with much greater resources. However, in the following two seasons in the FA Cup the club failed to match these achievements and in 1887 the Scottish FA banned all member teams from playing in English competitions, extinguishing any chance of Queen’s Park ever winning the trophy.
Despite their success in Scotland, the turn of the century was to see a real change in the club’s fortunes as domestic football continued its process of significant change.
In 1890, the Scottish Football League was formed, becoming a professional structure in 1893. Queen’s Park declined an invitation to join as they were determined to adhere to their strict amateur principals.
This decision to remain as an amateur club was a fundamental one for Queen’s Park, their initial opposition was borne out of concern that smaller clubs would eventually be driven out of the League through the advent of professionalism. Given their role as early governors of the game it would have been hypocritical of the club to support a move that they deemed as potentially harmful.
However, the decision to abstain from the newly formed League left them in a difficult position, as regular football against quality opposition was difficult to come by, with most ‘top’ clubs now League members.
Therefore, at the start of the 1900-01 season Queen’s Park swapped the Glasgow League for the professional Scottish Football League – joining Division One – but preserving their amateur status in the process.
Certain literature on the history of the club states that Queen’s Park believed that, due to its position as a ‘premier’ Scottish club, their ability to beat acclaimed English sides in the past, and their strong position within the Scottish FA, they could survive as amateurs. In fact, other members of the Scottish FA encouraged the club to alter its stance, warning that they could descend into oblivion, such was the chasm between professional and amateur outlooks.
Retaining their code of ‘amateurism’, which Queen’s Park still abide by to this day, means that the club holds not only the proud record of the oldest football club in the country, but also the only amateur side in the current SPFL.
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