Camelon Juniors Football Club

ame the Easternmost side to join the breakaway Scottish Intermediate League in 1927, ironically joining the West Division of the new set-up. The club resigned from the Intermediates halfway through the 1929–30 season and joined the Scottish Junior League which at the time, contained fellow Stirlingshire sides Dunipace and Kilsyth Rangers. Camelon remained with the SJL up to and including its solitary post-World War II season before moving in 1947 to the Edinburgh & District League. The club have played in the top tier of the East Region since 2006 after winning the Lothians League Division 1 in 2005–06. Camelon made their first appearance in the final of the Scottish Junior Cup in 1952, losing 1–0 to Kilbirnie Ladeside at Hampden Park in front of 69,959 supporters. John Hansen, father of future Scotland internationalists Alan and John, played for the Mariners at centre-half. The club made consecutive final appearances in the 1990s, defeating Whitburn 2–0 at Fir Park, Motherwell in 1995, to lift the trophy for the first time, then losing by the same scoreline to Tayport at the same venue a year later. The club provided several players to Rangers over the years, including Jerry Dawson and Archie Macaulay, who both went on to become full Scotland internationals with Macaulay going on to play for West Ham United and Arsenal. Max Murray also arrived at Ibrox from Camelon via Queen's Park, and scored Rangers first ever goal in European competition against OGC Nice in 1956. Notable ex-Camelon players in more recent times include former Chelsea winger Kevin McAllister and Jack Ross. Ross was a member of Camelon's losing 1996 Scottish Junior Cup final side and was also capped for the Scotland Junior international team. In 2018, the club won the Alex Jack Cup and the South & East Cup Winners Shield. That latter victory enabled them to qualify for the 2019/20 Scottish Cup where they played in 2 preliminary rounds, eventually losing out to Auchinleck Talbot. That match attracted almost 700 spectators with a hint to how things used to be. The club will return to the Scottish Cup in the 2020/21 season.