Cumbernauld Utd
History
The Beginning....
From research of parish records, old newspaper cuttings, library records in additiion to listening to tales passed from father to son and villagers now long dead, it emerges that in early 1900s, Cumbernauld consisted of a small rural village with only one main street, at one end of the Wilderness Brae and a few houses close to the railway station, part of the Caledonian Railway Company at the other end. With a few farms and some remote cottages, the total population numbered less than two hundred, consisting mainly of farm labourers, railway workers and clay miners. 
Throughout the country, football had emerged as a growing sport and in keeping with popular demand a group of enthusiasts, encouraged and prompted by a local resident with a flair for organisation, Dan Davenport, decided to form their own local football team to compete with other clubs in the nearby villages and towns and so the concept of Cumbernauld United was born. After many set-backs a side was eventually formed which included players from the Glasgow area to help raise the standard of player skills and on this basis, it was decided to name the club Cumbernauld United to integrate the non-Curnbernauld faction of players, relatives and supporters into the club. Over the next few years, Curnbernauld United continued to thrive on a menu of local derbies competing against local opposition and the occasional trip outwith the immediate vicinity to compete in the Scottish Junior Cup without any great success but the happy band of loyal supporters were faithful to the club and never failed to give their utmost in vocal support of their chosen favourites.
With the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, United, like all footbal clubs, lost a number of their players to the war effort and it was not until 1919 that organised football was resumed in Cumbernauld. As the richer clubs were always on the lookout for promising talent. Cumbernauld lost a number of their best players but continued to function as a not too successful side until financial difficulties in 1923 forced the club to disband.
In 1929, the Village could once again boast of their very own junior football club but as the old United had left formidable debts, it was decided to adopt the name Cumbernauld Thistle to distance the new outfit from any connection with their predecessors and in a very short time the Thistle were indeed a force with which to be reckoned, winning a number of trophies including the Victory Consolation Cup in season 1931/32 by beating Wheatletts Emerald 2-0 at Airdrie's Broomfield Park and in 1936 Thistle won the Victory Cup at Firhill by overcoming Dunblane Rovers by the same scoreline, both goals being scored for Thistle by Jimmy Quinn, father of the Celtic legend. Once more, it was the outbreak of war that sounded the death knell for football in Cumbernauld and in September 1939, Thistle played their last match against Rob Roy at Kirkintilloch, losing that game 3-1.
It was 25 years later in 1964 and Cumbemauid had grown from a sleepy little village to a bustling New Tom nearing 15,000 with many sporting, including football, clubs emerging all over the new town, so it came as no surprise when a group of men, during a night-shift in the Burroughs Business Machines Limited factory hatched a plan to resurect Junior football in Cumbernauld. The main perpetrator of this dastardly deed was one Alex Walker who, along with his fellow conspirators, decided to place an advert in the local newspaper "The Cumbemauid News", merely to test reaction and asking that anyone interested in such a project should attend a meeting in Kildrum Community Centre on 19 August 1964. It was apparent from the mood of the people who attended that first meeting that such a project was not only feasible but could be implemented within a very short space of time. A working party of three was formed consisting of Bob Wood, who was to be Chairman, Alex Walker, Secretary and John Baillie, Treasurer.
The first momentous decision was to select a name by which the club was to be known and
after much debate, it was decided to adopt the name by which the club had first been known, Cumbernauld United. This decision was based on the belief that not only did it resurrect the old name, but it also felt the title would, in some way, help unite the residents of both the Village and the New Town in supporting the new Football Club. Next item on the agenda was the colour of the team strip and here thanks must go to Frank Keene for his suggestion that the New Town colours of claret and sky blue would be appropriate as it would encourage the New Town Development Corporation to lend assistance in the development of the club. Although not widely known, there was an ulterior motive in Frank's proposal. Research has shown that Frank was a ardent supporter of the English club, West Ham United and the colours were those favoured by that club, who were finalists in the FA Cup that year and, it appears, although unconfirmed, that some person or persons unknown (?) approached West Ham which resulted in a full team strip being gifted to the club.
By September 1965, sixteen months after the idea had first been mooted, financial support was increasing and with over £1,000 raised, it was decided that the time was appropriate for more constructive action, so an approach was made to the local district council for the allocation of a home venue. The local council agreed to consider the matter and the Committee decided that Ravenswood would be a suitable location. Early February 1966 and the local District Council finally agreed that work should start at Ravenswood but the Committee realised that the time span involved in preparing the pitch meant that no competitive matches could be played on the pitch for the opening of season 1966/67.
January 1967 and still without a home, United began the serious search for players and over 40 hopefuls were selected for trials, but it was obvious that the first priority must be for suitable training facilities to allow the players to develop a team spirit. Enquiry to the local council revealed that the pitch at Ravenswood was experiencing unforeseen difficulties, so the Committee decided that St Pat's Sports Ground in Kilsyth offered the cheapest and most convenient alternative and it was agreed that United would take up temporary residence at a princely sum of £6,10s (£6,50p) per week and that they would train and play their home fixtures until such times as Ravenswood couid be made available.
United started signing players and the first three players to join the reconstituted Cumbernauld United were, Jackie McKenna, Ian McEwan and Tom Wilson who were all signed from Johnstone Burgh. Within the next few weeks, a total of seventeen players were signed up.
The First Match
On 7th July 1967, Cumbernauld United Football Club were formerly admitted to the West of Scotland Junior League {Second Division) and would play their homes games at St Patrick's Sportsground, Kilsyth. All too soon the big day arrived and on Monday 31 July 1967, the Committee, Coaches, Trainers, Piayers and Supporters, all full of apprehension, travelled through to play Dunipace Juniors at Carronbank, their first-ever competitive game, a Division '6' League match.
In the United squad that night was a young 17-year-old inside-right named Johnny Hamilton. Johnny had previously played for Glasgow Perthshire but elected to sign for Cumbernauld United and after only two games with United, the Edinburgh giants, Hibernian, snapped up the youngster and four years later he was transferred to Glasgow Rangers. Such was the quality of talent on view that first night and was an indication of the class of players Cumbernauld were able to attract in those happy, halcyon days. That night the two teams lining up were:
DUNIPACE: Anderson, Livingstone, McKenzie, Park, Fraser, Gallagher, Boyd, Gray, Gil/on, Miller, McCroary and substitute Wilson.
CUMBERNAULD UNITED: John Wilson, Mackie, Tom Wilson, Stewart, Stevenson, McEwan, Devine, Hamilton, Plank, McKenna, Bain and substitute Roberts.
Straight from the kick-off, United showed that they intended to make this a gala night, but after only three minutes, hesitancy in their defence allowed Dunipace's Gillon to nip in and head a Miller cross well beyond John Wilson in the United goal to open the score. One wag amongst the United support and heard to remark "Well, thats the first goal Cumbernauld have conceded in twenty-eight years, so they canny be aw' that bad". If the Newtowners were badly shaken by the loss of an early goal, it certainly didn`t show as they moved the ball sweetly around and began to prise open the home defence, exposing gaps which, in twenty-five minutes they exploited. DEREK PLANK has the distinction of being the first player to score for the reconstituted United and so neatly did he take his goal. He latched onto a ball and taking advantage of slackness in the Dunipace defence fired home a fierce shot which ended up in the back of the net, but more drama was to come when Dunipace, against the run of play, managed to scramble another goal to take the score to 2-1.
No one who was not in the dressing room during the interval will ever know what was said but it was a different United side that took the field after the interval. In a second-half filled with a dazzling display of intelligent and constructive football, United literally took Dunipace apart After only five minutes, McEwan slipped an inch-perfect pass through to McKenna and Jackie picked his spot in the net for the equaliser and six minutes later, Hamilton made an opening for Plank to net his second goal and put United in the lead. It was Hamilton again who was the architect, in seventy-four minutes, when he crossed for McKenna to nod United even further ahead.
United were certainly turning it on and the weeks of arduous training were beginning to bear fruit, but there was still more to come with Anderson in the Dunipace goal being under constant pressure. The unfortunate goalkeeper must have wondered what was going on when McKenna blasted the ball past him to complete his personal hat-trick of the evening and the score to 5-2. The four hundred plus fans who had travelled through to support United were certainly seeing their heroes perform at their very best and three minutes later, Derek Plank completed his own personal and United's second hat-trick of the evening with his side`s sixth goal. The final score of 6-2 was the highest in Junior Football that night and the "League Babes" had certainly arrived in style.
Dunipace had been in exiistence for nigh on eighty years and here was a team virtually put together in a matter of months Duncing them and doing so at their own ground. No praise was too high for anyone connected with the club that night. The efforts in forming the football club, the meetings, the disappointments and frustrations were all forgotten. The long hours of training had finally paid off and Cumbernauld had a Junior Football Club that could stand equal to any of their peers.
Season 1987-88
Season 1988-89
Season 1989-90
Season 1991-92
