Matchday images (14) http://picasaweb.google.com/footballgroundsinfocus/ValeOfLevenFC

There are certain grounds in Scotland that were on my ‘tick list’ at the start of the season and I was delighted to get the opportunity to visit one of them-  Millburn Park, an old Scottish League ground and home to one of the oldest clubs in the country with a rich and  impressive pedigree.

Vale of Leven FC were giants of the game in the late 19^th century, lifting the Scottish FA Cup on three successive occasions between 1877 and 1879 and being one of the prestige fixtures for games involving English teams.  Sheffield Wednesday, for instance, once famously trebled their normal admission price when Vale visited for a friendly engagement, such was their drawing power.  Other rising English teams such as Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers, Nottingham Forest, Preston North End, Burnley, Everton and Aston Villa were engaged in friendly encounters- and regularly beaten.

Located in Alexandria next to the winding River Leven, the ‘other’ side of Dumbarton from Glasgow this area was played a huge part in the development of Scottish football with Vale, neighbouring Renton and Dumbarton all being giants of the game in those crucial formative years.

Shinty had been the dominant sport in the region until Queen’s Park FC, the dominant force in Scottish football, played a crucial part in changing the recreational pursuits of many of the workers in an industrial area that grew rapidly in size in the late 19^th century.

Keen to find new clubs to play against Queen’s Park offered to play an exhibition match at Alexandria in an attempt to persuade the locals to change sports.  So successful was this that within five years the newly-formed Vale of Leven FC was lifting the Scottish Cup after victory over Rangers in a second replay. Vale retained the cup in 1878 after defeating Third Lanark in the final, and were successful again the following year, albeit in acrimonious circumstances after Rangers refused to turn up for the replayed final after controversial incidents in the first game.  Vale was later runners-up in four finals and in 1888 beat Rangers 8-0 in a floodlit match as part of the Glasgow International Exhibition.   They produced 14 international players for Scotland during that golden period, including four in one game against Wales in 1879.

Vale moved to Millburn Park, named after the nearby Millburn Quarry in 1888 and in 1890 became founder members of the Scottish Football League but resigned in 1892. Corrugated iron was used for barricading and the stand and pavilion were moved from their former home at North Street Park. The pitch, 125x75 yards in size, was surrounded by a cinder oval that survives to this day.  Much of the terracing and the distinctive barrel-shaped stand roof on the far side could well have dated from these formative years. Vale of Leven was elected into Division 2 in 1905 and left the league when Division 3 was disbanded near the end of the 1925-26 season.  They re-formed as a junior club in 1939 and still use Millburn Park

Several books have much further detail on the club, including the excellent The Boys From Leven’s Winding Shore by John Weir and Dave Twydell’s Rejected FC of Scotland (Volume 3).

Twydell explains that Vale of Leven is an area, rather than a specific place and encompasses five districts, Alexandria, Balloch, Bonhill, Jamestown and Renton. The River Leven, which gave the club its name, provided the means for industrial development which included cloth bleaching, dyeing and printing as well as employment in the nearby Clyde shipyards.

The rise of professionalism in association football inevitably had an effect on smaller clubs such as Vale, who lost many players to clubs with larger financial resources, many of them going to England, including four who joined Burnley in 1884.

Twydell describes Millburn Park as ‘a rare ground, from a bygone age that still exists.’  It’s a fitting description and one that felt particularly apt on a glorious winter’s afternoon.

The playing area was in excellent condition despite a week of heavy rain- ‘We don’t get many called off here,’ the friendly gateman informed and the barrel-shaped covered terrace on the far side and the distant hills provided an imposing backdrop. 

Both sides tried to play constrictive football on an excellent playing surface, Vale taking the lead after scrambling home a corner four minutes before half-time. St Anthony’s dominated the second half in terms of territory and possession, equalised on 70 minutes from a corner and stole a winning goal just before full-time.  There was one bad tackle in the game, young referee Howard Wilkin admonishing a yellow card to a home player when it could easily have been a red, but that was the only controversial incident.  Scottish referees, in my opinion, are excellent and control games with an authority, decisiveness and empathy not seen to the same degree elsewhere.