Falkirk v Aberdeen, Brockville Pk 1914

Another pic from the past, [there are lots of them out there if you are willing to dig] this one [according to the caption] is from the Falkirk v Aberdeen Division 1 Match at Brockville Pk on the 14th of March 1914: 2-0 to Falkirk, and the houses in the background certainly appear to be those in Watson Street.

I am somewhat perturbed by this picture. The two players named as Falkirk players seem to be wearing a lighter coloured top than the Aberdeen player; I do not know what the Aberdeen change strip was this season, but at this point Aberdeen wore Black & Gold stripes so it is definitely not that; to my knowledge there has never been a Falkirk player by the name of Templeton; to the right the player may or may not be Robert Orrock [I'm not sure though]; the player named as Wylie looks awfy like Thomas Glancy of Falkirk to me. That and the fact there is no way to be 100% sure that the goalie is Alex Stewart, makes me think something has gone wrong up Dundee Courier way.

I'm also interested in what that advert might be "NE..." could be anything.

Note - I was contacted recently [Apr 2014] by Alex Blackwood from "right" 'darn sarf' as in South Australia south, who married into the Neilson Family from Falkirk, and it was their advert shown - well in this picture from c1907

I ought to have looked at the Falkirk Council site too, but I always look for the obscure. On reading more Neilson's had the privilege of creating that horrid drink "Coca-Cola" for you people in Falkirk, until the massive giant that was Barr's swallowed them up. Based in the Pleasance, I have today also noted a junior team by the name Rosehall Swifts, who may, or may not, have been their works team ..... so much to explore .... every answer brings me more questions!!!!!

Action Photo - Falkirk v Queen's Park 1914

You how it is with digging out old pictures of football matches from the archives, they are quite impressive in their poor quality retro-coolness. I wish there were so many more of them available [and of course there might be and I have not been looking in the right place yet] but for the moment I will be thankful for what I find.

This picture is from the Falkirk v Queen's Park Scottish Cup match in January 1914, Falkirk's first Cup game since winning the season before. It has a strange caption as it states that the players are [William] Lennie of Falkirk then Todd, Garvie, Young & Kerr [QP] from left to right, whilst it is clearly a Falkirk player at the right [Blue Shirt], so it probably means right to left....

I suppose that since cameras were much more basic than today it must have been very difficult to get a good action photo, therefore many of the other ones taken at the time were blurry and unuseable, so presumeably destroyed.

But what I like most about this picture is that in the background you can clearly see the houses in Watson Street so it was taken before the Shed was built [those very houses are still there a hundred years later]. Well I always like to come across pictures which have new [to me anyway] images of Brockville Park.

The match itself is quite annoying as Falkirk were beaten; the holders knocked out in the First Round. That sort of thing just doesn't happen anymore, and it is a shame it happened to Falkirk on this occasion, as [due to the war] the club would not have the chance to avenge it until 1920 [when Falkirk were beaten again in the First Round].

Will get back to looking through lots and lots of newspapers now, will be back when I find something of interest.

Old Falkirk FC Photograph?

I was recently sent this photograph via a relative of an old Falkirk FC goalkeeper [Alex Thomson] to see if I could shed any light on it, but I'm afraid I failed.

I am of the opinion that it might be Falkirk as the second on the left looks very much like the old Falkirk FC inside-left Alex Burt, but other than that I am stumped.

Alex Thomson's career as far as I know was St Ninians Thistle [????], St Bernards [1896/97-1897/98], Falkirk [1897/98-1901/02], King's Park [????] but I may have missed some of it out.

The flag might be a clue, but I can not really make out what flag it is, and the buildings in the background may shed some light if that is Brockville Park, of course it may be a completely different team altogether, if anybody could be of help please get in touch.

Alex is wearing the cap, with the ball at his feet.

Thanks in advance