Before Falkirk joined the Scottish
League for the 1902/03 season, the club played about in many Local
Leagues around Central Scotland with lots of similar sounding names
[Midlands this, Central that [and they all seemed to include King's
Park and East Stirlingshire too]]. However these were real matches,
with real players, and the players, I have no doubt, tried as hard as
any other Falkirk player in a midweek First Division match at
Recreation Park or wherever.
Along with this came an even larger
number of cup competitions as the clubs looked for competitive
fixtures, these ranged from the mighty Stirlingshire Cup to the
parochial 'Falkirk Cottage Hospitals Shield'.
So I think they ought to be included in
the list of Falkirk goalscorers equally alongside anybody who scored
in a, now meaningless, Supplementary Cup or Scottish League challenge
Cup defeat.
I decided to leave out goals scored in
friendly matches even though this is slightly unfair as far more
friendlies [or ordinary matches as they were known at the time]
played throughout the season, and they were taken far more seriously
then.
Anyway in an attempt to keep the number
of columns to a minimum I have collapsed these Minor Leagues and Cups
into one column each.
Player |
Sco Cup
|
Qua Cup
|
Min Lea
|
Min Cup
|
Total
|
Andrew Burt |
1
|
15
|
53
|
21
|
90
|
James Tennant |
4
|
4
|
35
|
20
|
63
|
Alex Stark |
13
|
-
|
20
|
25
|
58
|
Andrew Hamilton |
4
|
1
|
31
|
21
|
57
|
David Ross |
3
|
-
|
10
|
26
|
39
|
Thomas McDonald |
3
|
-
|
15
|
19
|
37
|
J??? McLaren |
-
|
-
|
19
|
16
|
35
|
George Barr |
6
|
-
|
9
|
14
|
29
|
Richard Greig |
4
|
1
|
18
|
6
|
29
|
Thomas Glegg |
4
|
2
|
10
|
10
|
26
|
Sadly there are many, many gaps in both
my records and the reportage of this era, so this is by its very
nature flawed, but until I find a better source of info I have done
what I can.
Of these players five [Andrew Burt,
James 'Midgy' Tennant, Andrew 'Buttons' Stark, Tommy McDonald &
Thomas Glegg] came from Stirlingshire, three [Tennant, Stark,
McDonald] from Falkirk [Burt - Slamannan, Glegg - Carronshore], David
Ross was born in Coldingham,
Berwickshire but brought up in Falkirk,
three were from Glasgow and suburbs [Andrew Hamilton, George Barr &
Ricky Greig].
The player missing - McLaren [James?] I
strongly suspect was from Dunipace, but I have not found any solid
proof to assert this as yet.
Only Andrew Burt continued with Falkirk
into the Scottish League era [Scoring one Scottish League and three
minor cup goals in 1902/03].
Andrew Burt's brother Adam [1891-92]
and Thomas Glegg's brother Charles [1902/03] also played for Falkirk
FC.