Full name | King's Park Football Club |
---|---|
Founded | 1875 |
Dissolved | 1945 |
Ground | Forthbank Park, Stirling |
King's Park Football Club were a football club who played in the Scottish Football League (SFL) before the Second World War. Based in Stirling, they joined the League in the 1921–22 season, following the reintroduction of the Second Division and were one of 11 new members for that season.
The club was established in 1875 in the King's Park area of Stirling, although they did not stay long in this locality. They first entered the Scottish Cup in the 1879–80 season. Their best performance in that competition was in 1894–95 when they reached the quarter finals, losing 4–2 to Hearts.
King's Park were founder members of the Scottish Alliance, a rival of sorts of the SFL, in 1891 but left after one season. They moved between various more minor leagues for several seasons before entering the re-established Central Football League in 1909, retaining their membership of this division until 1921 (barring a brief hiatus during the First World War when they did not compete). At this point King's Park, along with most of their fellow Central league clubs, were invited to join the newly established Second Division of the SFL.
Their finest season came in 1927–28, when they just missed promotion by one point. Their record victory was in a 12–2 league victory against Forfar Athletic on 2 January 1930. In this game Jim Dyet scored eight of the club's goals, a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact that it was his debut for the club. Indeed, Dyet's feat stands as British record for goals on a debut to this day. The club's other great goalscorer of the 1930s was Alex Haddow, who hit five consecutive league hat-tricks in January and February 1932. Although overall they failed to make much impact on the league. However, they were four times winners of the Stirlingshire Cup.