| Full name | Eastern Football Club | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1872 | |
| Dissolved | 1877 | |
| Ground | Barrowfield Park | |
| Secretary | George Forrest | |
Eastern Football Club was a 19th-centuryfootball club based inGlasgow, Scotland. It was one of the founder members of theScottish Football Association (SFA) and one of the sixteen teams to participate in the inaugural season of theScottish Cup.
Eastern was formed in 1872[1] by members of the originalThistle club.[2] The club's first game, at Fleshers' Haughs, took place on 25 January 1873, against a Celtic football club,[3] and ended in a 4–0 win to Eastern,[4] although the Celtic goalkeeper claimed the score was merely 3–0.[5]
Eastern were one of the eight clubs that agreed to form the SFA in March that year.[6] Eastern participated in Scottish Cup tournaments between1873–74 and1876–77, reaching the quarter-finals on the first two occasions;[7] its run in1874–75 included a 3–0 win overKilmarnock, despite thoughts that the Eastern "hardly played with its usual fettle".[8]
A member of Eastern, James McIntyre, was selected to referee the firstScottish Cup final betweenQueen's Park andClydesdale on 21 March 1874.[9] The same year the Eastern in effect took over the smallerCallander club, fielding a number of Callander players in matches from early in 1874.[10]
The club's final Cup tie was againstAlexandra Athletic in 1876. The clubs drew the first game, and Eastern won the second 2–0, but the Athletes protested on the basis that the referee who took charge of the match had not been agreed beforehand; ironically, this was down to Eastern objecting to the Alexandra nominee, but Eastern called the protest "a mean subterfuge to attempt to wrest the honours which have already been fairly won".[11] Perhaps as a result of the Scottish FA acceding to the protest, and the Athletes winning the third match, Eastern does not seem to have played football again, with members instead forming theClyde club,[12] and possibly also joining theStonefield club which, with Clyde, took over the Eastern ground.
The club played in royal blue and scarlet shirts, originally with blue serge knickerbockers,[13] which were white for the club's final season.[14]
The club's first ground was Fleshers' Haugh onGlasgow Green.[15] In 1875, the club moved toBarrowfield Park, which was also known informally as Glengarry Park, after the open space next to the roped-off area.[16] It was immediately to the east of the Barrowfield print works and considered short at 130 yards.[17]
During its relatively short time, Eastern providedScotland with some of its early international players, withJohn Hunter,Peter Andrews andSandy Kennedy representing Scotland on a number of occasions.[18]
