Alloa Athletic F.C. facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Alloa Athletic

Full name	Alloa Athletic Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Wasps, The A-Team
Founded	1878; 147 years ago (1878)
Ground	Recreation Park, Alloa
Ground Capacity	3,100
Chairman	Andrew Allan
Manager	Andy Graham
League	Scottish League One
2015–16	Scottish Championship, 10th (relegated)
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish semi-professional football team. They are based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire.

The club was formed in 1878, first called Clackmannan County. Soon after, they changed their name to Alloa Association. In 1883, they became Alloa Athletic.

They play in Scottish League One and are part of the Scottish Professional Football League.

Alloa Athletic joined the second tier of the Scottish Football League in 1921–22. They even won the Second Division in their first season, moving up to the top league! They have finished second in the third tier nine times, which is a record. The most recent time was in 2016–17.

The club first played in the Scottish Cup in 1883. Their best result was reaching the quarter-finals three times. Alloa Athletic also reached the final of the Scottish Challenge Cup three times. They won it in 1999 and were runners-up in 2001 and 2015.

The team's nickname is 'The Wasps'. This is because their home kit colours are black and gold (or orange) hoops. Alloa Athletic has played at Recreation Park in Alloa since 1895.

Club History: The Wasps' Journey

Alloa playing against Berwick in their 1997–98 title-winning season.

There's a bit of a debate about when Alloa Athletic was truly founded. The club officially says it was 1878.

However, some research suggests that The Alloa Football Club started on August 6, 1880. This happened at a meeting led by James Rigg, who became the first captain. The club soon changed its name to Alloa Association. Later, in 1881, they adopted the name Alloa Athletic. Some people thought the club was originally Clackmannan County, but that was a different team.

Alloa Athletic joined the Scottish Football Association in 1883. But they had to wait until 1921 to be voted into the Scottish Football League.

In 1906–07, the club won the Scottish Football Union championship. Six years later, they won the Central Football League.

Alloa won the Scottish Football League Division Two title in their first season in the league. But they were moved down from the top league the very next season. They got promoted again in 1938–39. However, World War II started, and the new season was cut short after only five games. When the leagues restarted after the war, Alloa was placed back in Division Two.

Stirling Albion shooting against the Alloa goal in August 2006.

The 1950s and 60s were not the most successful years for The Wasps. But the club did have a great player named John White. He went on to play for Scotland and Tottenham Hotspur. He was part of Tottenham's famous team that won both the league and cup in 1960–61.

Alloa was promoted again from the new Second Division in 1976–77. This was under the manager Hugh Wilson. They were soon moved down again. But The Wasps went back up in 1981–82 with Alex Totten as manager. They even finished 6th in the Scottish Football League First Division the next season. The team was moved down again a year later. A similar pattern happened after more promotions in 1984–85 and 1988–89.

In 1995, the league was changed again. Alloa became one of the founding members of the new Scottish Football League Third Division. Under manager Tom Hendrie, Alloa won this league in 1997–98. This was the club's first championship win since 1921–22. The next season, the team stayed strong in the Second Division. They also had a big 7–0 win against their local rivals Stirling Albion.

After Tom Hendrie left, Terry Christie took over at Alloa. He led the club to win the Scottish Challenge Cup in 1999. A few months later, they were promoted to the First Division. The team was moved down again quickly. But they bounced back up in 2001–02. They were moved down once more, this time because of goal difference.

From 2003 to 2011, Alloa played in the Second Division. In the 2009–2010 season, Alloa tried to get promoted to the Scottish First Division. But they lost out to Stirling because of goal difference. In the 2010–2011 season, Alloa was moved down to the Third Division. This happened after they finished 9th in the Second Division and lost in the play-offs to Annan.

Soon after, Alloa hired Paul Hartley as player-manager. He was a former midfielder for Aberdeen and Scotland.

Alloa plays against visitors Partick Thistle in the Scottish Championship in February 2019.

On April 7, 2012, Alloa became Scottish Third Division champions. They beat Elgin City 8–1 at their home ground, Recreation Park. Alloa earned back-to-back promotions the next season. They finished 2nd in the Scottish Second Division. They then beat Dunfermline in the play-off final.

Since 2012–13 was the last season before the SPFL was restructured, Alloa started the 2013–14 season in the new Scottish Championship. This is the current name for the second tier of Scottish football. On January 18, 2014, Paul Hartley left as manager. This was after a 5–1 loss to Dumbarton. The club was in eighth place in the Championship at that time.

On March 7, 2015, Alloa lost 1–0 to Dumbarton. This put them in the relegation play-off spot. Manager Barry Smith resigned right away. On April 7, 2015, Danny Lennon became the new manager. He stayed for eight months, leaving on December 7, 2015. This was after the team only got five points from 16 games.

Jack Ross replaced Lennon. Even though the team played better, he couldn't stop them from being moved down to Scottish League One at the end of the season. Ross's Alloa started the 2016–17 season well, with 5 wins in the first 8 matches. However, Ross left the club in October 2016 to manage St Mirren. Alloa Athletic player Jim Goodwin was then made player/manager on October 11, 2016.

Team Colours and Badge

Alloa's home colours have usually been black hoops with orange or gold stripes. This has been true for most of the club's history. The team's first kit in 1882 had black and orange hoops. This style stayed mostly the same until 1947, when gold became more common with the black. Sometimes, the club has worn an all-gold or all-orange kit instead of hoops. Only once have these colours not been used: in 1897–98, the home kit was blue and white vertical stripes for just one season. They went back to the traditional style the next year.

Black and orange hoops from 1882

Crest used between 1994 and 2010.

The first company to make kits for Alloa Athletic was Litesome in 1977–78. For the 2018–19 season, Pendle supplied the club's kits. They have been supplying kits since 1998–99. Other past suppliers include Umbro, Matchwinner, and Patrick.

The club had a sponsor on its shirts for the first time in the 1984–85 season. Maclays sponsored them for two seasons until 1987. Sterling sponsored the shirts for another two seasons. Then came short periods with Sinclair Haulage and Campbell Homes until 1995. From the 1995–96 season to 2003–04, the sponsor was Alloa Advertiser. This was replaced in 2004 by Machine Tool Engineers (MTE), who also sponsored the shirt in 2012–13.

In 1985, the same year home shirts got sponsors, the club showed a badge for the first time. The badge showed the club's nickname "The Wasps". It had a black wasp on a simple gold shield with the club's initials below. The badge design was changed a little in 1994. It had a very similar wasp on a gold shield, and the club's full name was shown below on a gold banner. The badge's colour changed with the kit's shade. This badge was used until 2010, when it was redesigned again. The new design has a large cartoon Wasp. Fans sometimes call it 'the hornet'.

Home Ground: Recreation Park

Recreation Park has been Alloa's home since 1895.

Alloa Athletic has played its home games at different grounds over the years. When the club started in 1880, they played at West End Park. This was a public park in the west of Alloa. The club moved to Gaberston Park in 1883 and to Bellevue Park in 1890. After five years at Bellevue Park, Alloa moved to Recreation Park in 1895. They have played all their home games there ever since.

Recreation Park is in the east of Alloa. It can hold 3,100 spectators. Alloa Athletic played and won its first Scottish Football League match at this ground in August 1921. They won 1–0 against Stenhousemuir.

In February 1955, the club's record attendance was set at Recreation Park. This was for a Scottish Cup match against Celtic. A huge 15,467 fans came to watch! The grass pitch at the stadium was replaced with artificial turf in 2007. One winter weekend in 2010, a match at the ground between Alloa and Peterhead was the only game played in Scotland. All twenty other SPL and SFL matches were cancelled because of freezing weather.

Recreation Park was renamed Indodrill Stadium in 2014 after a sponsorship deal. However, many supporters still call it Recreation Park or The Recs.

Fans and Rivals

Most records say Alloa's highest attendance was 13,000 for a match against Dunfermline Athletic in 1939. But a recent book shows the real record attendance was 15,467 for a Scottish Cup match against Celtic on February 5, 1955. Celtic won that game 4–2. In more recent times, the highest number of fans was 5,050 for a Second Division match against Cowdenbeath in May 1992. Since the stadium's current capacity is just over 3,000, it's unlikely this record will be broken soon.

The nearby club Stirling Albion is generally seen as Alloa's main rival.

Current Team Players

No. Position Player 1 GK Tochukwu Ogayi 2 DF Scott Taggart (captain) 3 DF Calum Waters 4 MF Steven Hetherington 5 DF Andy Graham 6 DF Morgyn Neill 7 FW Kevin Cawley 8 MF Kurtis Roberts 9 FW Luke Donnelly 10 MF Scott Honeyman (on loan from Falkirk) 11 FW Shay Nevans 12 MF Stefan Scougall

No. Position Player 14 MF Miko Virtanen 15 DF David McKay 17 DF Kane Thomson 18 FW Conor Sammon 19 MF Steven Buchanan 20 DF Cameron O'Donnell 22 MF Reece Mullen 23 DF David Devine 24 FW Luke Rankin 26 MF Tyrece McDonnell (on loan from Queen's Park) 31 GK P. J. Morrison

Players on Loan

No. Position Player GK Owain Clark (on loan at Dundonald Bluebell)

No. Position Player MF Joe Cunningham (on loan at Dundonald Bluebell)

Club Officials

Board Members

• Directors:
  • Andrew Allan (Chairman)
  • Martin Ross (Vice-chairman)
  • Steven Lynch
  • Dr Robert McElroy
• Secretary: Carol Edgar
• Honorary director:
  • Ewen Cameron
• Honorary president:
  • Mike Mulraney

Coaching Staff

• Manager: Andy Graham
• Assistant manager: Graeme Holmes
• First team coach: Niall Marshall
• Goalkeeping coach: Neil Parry
• Physio: Scott Anderson
• Head of youth: Jonathan McPhee
• Kit manager: Pat Dunne
• Groundsman: Alan Petrie

Source:

Managers of Alloa Athletic

Club Achievements (Honours)

League Titles

• Division Two (before 1975) and First Division (after 1975):
  • Winners (1): 1921–22
  • Runners-up (1): 1938–39
• Second Division (after 1975) and League One (after 2013):
  • Runners-up (9): 1976–77, 1981–82, 1984–85, 1988–89, 1999–00, 2001–02, 2009–10, 2012–13, 2016–17
• Third Division (after 1994):
  • Winners (2): 1997–98, 2011–12
• Central Football League:
  • Winners (1): 1912–13
  • Runners-up (2): 1909–10, 1911–12
• Scottish Football Union:
  • Champions (1): 1906–07

Cup Wins

• Scottish Challenge Cup:
  • Winners (1): 1999
  • Runners-up (2): 2001, 2015
• Stirlingshire Cup:
  • Winners (14): 1904–05, 1907–08, 1908–09, 1912–13, 1920–21, 1924–25, 1933–34, 1946–47, 1955–56, 1957–58, 1959–60, 1965–66, 1981–82, 1996–97
  • Runners-up (20): 1905–06, 1906–07, 1909–10, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1921–22, 1923–24, 1935–36, 1936–37, 1947–48, 1949–50, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1960–61, 1968–69, 1983–84, 1993–94, 1997–98, 1999–2000, 2000–01
• Fife Cup:
  • Winners (3): 1885–86, 1895–96, 1897–98
  • Runners-up (1): 1883–84

Club Records

• Biggest win: 9–0 against Selkirk, Scottish Cup 1st round, November 28, 2005
• Worst defeat: 0–10 against Dundee, Scottish League B Division, March 8, 1947 (home match); 0–10 against Third Lanark, Scottish League Cup Division 2 Section A, August 8, 1953 (home match)
• Highest home attendance: 15,467 against Celtic, Scottish Cup 5th round, February 5, 1955
• Most capped player: Jock Hepburn (1 cap for Scotland)

• Most league goals in a season: Willie Crilley (49 goals in 1921–22)
• Record transfer fee paid: £26,000 for Ross Hamilton from Stenhousemuir, July 2000
• Record transfer fee received: £100,000 for Greig Spence to Celtic, August 2010

See also

In Spanish: Alloa Athletic Football Club para niños