Thorniewood United F.C.
| Full name | Thorniewood United Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Wood |
| Founded | 1924 |
| Ground | Robertson Park Old Edinburgh Road Viewpark |
| Manager | Gerry Bonham |
| League | West of Scotland League Central District First Division |
| 2015–16 | West of Scotland League Central District First Division, 10th |
Thorniewood United Football Club are a Scottish football club, based in Viewpark, Lanarkshire near Glasgow.
Nicknamed the Wood, they were formed in 1924 and play at Robertson Park, having moved from Thorn Park in nearby Tannochside in 1957 when the Caterpillar Tractor Company acquired the land to build a new factory at the time.
Negotiations to secure Robertson Park were made by the club's founder William Cowan with Caterpillar, who secured the site as a direct replacement for the original ground. A senior vice president of Caterpillar travelled from the USA to meet with William Cowan to identify what was holding up the acquisition of the land.
In an agreement that resulted from the request to "move our park from here to there", Thorniewood moved to the current location and over the years have sold off parts of the land around the park. Robertson Park itself is named in recognition of the club's lawyer John Robertson, who provided much needed advice to William Cowan and his co-formers when the club was in its infancy.
While William Cowan will always be remembered as "Mr Thorniewood", many older supporters will recall that all of the Cowan family took roles in ensuring the club continued from washing the strips to collecting the gate money.
They currently compete in the West Region of the Scottish Junior Football Association; they wear all red strips (uniforms) with a change strip of all blue, although their original colours were white shirts, black shorts and white socks. Thorniewood used to be called Tannochside Recreation for a short period in the sixties but soon reverted to their original name. Tunnocks, the large biscuit manufacturer, are Thorniewood United's main sponsor and have been for many years. Fans of the club are known as Woodites or Woodies and The shed boys.
The club had its most successful era from the 1940s to the early 1960s, with its most recent honour achieved in 1981 under the management of Stuart Noble. Noble himself was instrumental in the early career of Davie Cooper and employed Cooper in his print works before turning professional in 1977 with Rangers.
In June 2015 Thorniewood won their first cup in 50 years when they defeated Blantyre Vics in a penalty shoot out to lift the Euroscot Engineering Central League Cup. The game had finished 2–2 with Thorniewood playing with nine men for 30 minutes after two straight red cards. The team have been managed since February 2017 by Gerry Bonham.
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