Full name | Buckie Thistle Football Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | "The Jags" |
Founded | 1889 |
Ground | Victoria Park |
Capacity | 5,000 (400 seated) |
Manager | Graeme Stewart |
League | Highland Football League |
2015–16 | Highland Football League, 7th |
Buckie Thistle Football Club are a senior football club based in the town of Buckie, Moray, who currently play in Scotland's Highland Football League. Founded in 1889, they are also known as The Jags and play their football at Victoria Park, Buckie. Buckie Thistle's Traditional Fan Song which is well known all over the Highland Football League is 'O When The Jags'
Although there is no accurate date for Buckie Thistle's formation, it is widely accepted that the club were formed in 1889. The early years saw the club play a number of challenge matches before being accepted into the Banff and District League. It was not until the 1909–10 season that Buckie Thistle joined the Highland League, becoming the first team from Banffshire to be accepted into the league, Morayshire having been represented for several years by Forres Mechanics and Elgin City. Buckie have since gone on to win ten league titles as well as numerous cup competitions. Buckie had to wait 52 years between their eighth (1957–58) and ninth (2009–10) title wins.
Buckie Thistle's first-choice kit is identical to that of Celtic's green and white hoops and local legend has it that Celtic donated "a hamper of shirts and balls" in the early 1900s when the club hit hard times. In 1989 Celtic came north to play a friendly to mark the Jags centenary year and earlier, at the start of the 1980s, they had visited Victoria Park to play in a fund-raising match for the spires appeal of St. Peters RC Church.
The 1950s was a decade when all trophies available were won with regularity and it was during this era that Buckie Thistle travelled to Hampden Park to meet Queen's Park in a Scottish Cup 4th round replay on 30 October 1954, prevailing 2–1 and at the same time becoming the first and, still to this day, the only senior non-league club to have won a competitive match at the national stadium. The go-ahead board has extensively developed the stadium in recent years and a function hall was built within the perimeter of the ground so that sponsors and match-goers can now enjoy more sophisticated licensed and catering facilities pre- and post-match at the venue.