30th August 1974 Meadowbank Thistle 1 Selkirk 4
Selkirk were take a Scottish league scalp in the Scottish Qualifying Cup (South) first round match against Medowbank Thistle.
Thistle had just been admitted to the Scottish League Second Division but had begun life as Ferranti Amateurs in 1943. Formed as the works team of the Ferranti engineering company they played initially in the Edinburgh FA's Amateur Second Division. In 1948 the club became known as Ferranti Thistle and began competing in the Edinburgh and District Welfare Association where they remained for five seasons. Ferranti made the move to senior football in 1953 joining the East of Scotland League were they regularly faced Selkirk. The club won the East of Scotland Qualifying Cup in 1963. In 1969 the club acquired City Park ground in Edinburgh which eventually became the home of Spartans FC until its closure in 2008.
In 1972 the club became members of SFA which allowed them to enter the Scottish Qualifying Cup which they won in 1973. The clubs first match in the Scottish Cup was on 16 December 1972, a 3-1 home victory against Duns. (Ferranti Thistle team pictured). Unfortunately they were eliminated in the second round 2-1 in a replay at Elgin City. Ferranti were to appear the following year disposing of Civil Service Strollers 1-0 in round 2 before crashing 6-1 to Partick Thistle.
In 1974, as a result of the demise of Third Lanark seven years earlier, and the proposed new three-tier format of the Scottish Football League a place opened up in the second division of the competition. After beating off competition from four Highland League sides, Hawick Royal Albert and Gateshead United, Ferranti Thistle were accepted into the league by a vote of 21–16 over Inverness Thistle despite having only reached the 5th position at best in their entire East League history The club faced a number of obstacles before they could join the Division as their name did not meet stringent SFL rules on overt sponsorship of teams at the time and the City Ground was not up to standard. The local council offered use of Meadowbank Stadium, the current home to Edinburgh City which was then a modern stadium built in 1970 for the Commonwealth Games. After an Edinburgh Evening News campaign to find a name for the club, Meadowbank Thistle was chosen. This was approved by the SFL in time for the new season. Having had little time to form a squad from the existing Ferranti group, the first Meadowbank Thistle manager John Bain faced an uphill task to produce a competitive squad in time for the new season.
However on Friday 9th August 1974 Meadowbank Thistle played their initial competitive match and became the first senior team to make their debut in Edinburgh for over 40 years. This unluckily ended in a 1-0 home defeat to Albion Rovers in the League Cup in front of a 2818 attendance. In 1983 the club achieved promotion to the First Division but ultimately were relegated back to the Second Division at the end of the 1984–85 season.
In the 1986–87 season, Meadowbank won the Second Division championship and won promotion to the First Division. They finished runners-up in the First Division in the following season, but were denied promotion to the Premier Division due to league reconstruction.
The part-time club suffered heavily from this blow and began to struggle, becoming a limited company in 1993 but was relegated a short time after at the end of the 1992–93 season to the Second Division. Meadowbank suffered a second relegation in 1994–95, finishing second from bottom in the Second Division and due to the creation of a Third Division were relegated. Following this second major blow due to league re-organisation, Chairman Bill Hunter claimed Meadowbank had run into severe financial difficulties and were facing closure as a result. In the face of significant opposition from many Meadowbank fans who objected to the dropping of the club name and the team moving from Edinburgh, in 1995 Meadowbank Thistle relocated to a new stadium in the new town of Livingston and changed name again, to Livingston.
Here is the match report adapted from the ‘Southern Reporter’ of the day:
Brilliant Souters Hit Top Form in Great Win
Meadowbank Thistle 1 Selkirk 4
Selkirk had a great win over Meadowbank Thistle in the first round of the Scottish Qualifying Cup (South) and merit high praise for their tip-top display against Scottish Second Division opposition. The game started in gale-force conditions and Selkirk were set to face this hazard in the first half. They started at a fast pace and soon had Meadowbank in trouble. It was no surprise when Selkirk went ahead through a great goal by Sandy Bell. Picking up a ball up on the right, he made ground to the bye-line and with the defence expecting a cut-back; Bell hammered a great shot into the net.
After this Selkirk took command in midfield and Brian McConnell was playing well up front but they received a shock ten minutes before half time when a defensive mistake allowed Derek Fotheringham to equalize against the run of play.
Selkirk, with the wind behind them in the second half, stormed back into attack and it was no surprise when they took the lead. McConnell was sent through the middle: goalkeeper Derek Gray came out and blocked his shot which came back to Ian Whitehead who gave Gray no chance from ten yards. The Souters were now well in command and five minutes later they scored a great third goal, Neil Brown took a corner on the right, the ball was cleared, and from 30 yards Allan Tait left Gray hopelessly beaten with a great volley. Nothing was going to stop the rampant Souters and with 20 minutes left to play Brown scored to make it 4-1. On this performance Selkirk should qualify for the Scottish Cup.
TEAMS:
Meadowbank Thistle: Gray, McVey, Sivewright, Bell, Cathcart, Nisbet, O’Rouke, Fotheringham, Martin, Hall, Crawford. Sub: Hunter, Scobie, Smith
Selkirk: D.McConnell, Tait, McFadzean, Bell, Rutherford, McLaren, Whitehead, Brown, B.McConnell, Dick, Fairgrieve, Subs: Colville, Davidson, Anderson.
Footnotes:
Selkirk did not only qualify for the Scottish Cup by making the last four in the competition to earning the right to meet Montrose in round 1 but also won the Qualifyng Cup in the process, beating St Cuthbert Wanderers 4-2 on aggregate over two legs.
The final score Meadowbank 1, Selkirk 4 was displayed on what was then the only electronic scoreboard in Scottish football, a remnant of the 1970 Commonwealth Games.
Derek, the son of player/manager Ian Whitehead and scorer of the second goal for Selkirk, would also feature at Meadowbank as a striker for Thistle.
The Davidson named on the Selkirk bench is Dougie, father of the Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson.