Lincoln Albion F.C.

Lincoln Albion Football Club was an English football club from Lincoln.

Lincoln Albion
Full nameLincoln Albion Football Club
Nickname(s)the Albions[1]
Founded1875
Dissolved1888
GroundSouth Park
PresidentW. H. Morton[2]
SecretaryG. G. Boulton

History

The club was formed from players of the Lincoln Albion cricket club, which had been active since at least 1850,[3] and started playing football in 1875, with a match against Market Rasen.[4] Its first reported football match was a draw with Brigg Britannia in 1878.[5]

The club's ethos was amateurism and working class:

a good old‐fashioned club of working men athletes, whose success is entirely dependent on their own exertions and subscriptions, and who play on one of the extensive common lands of Lincoln...The luxury of enclosed grounds with big “gates”and wealthy patrons are unknown to them,but a genuine love of the game itself has always kept them fairly well going.[6]

The Albion was a regular entrant in the Lincolnshire Senior Cup from 1882,[7] its best run being to the semi-finals in 1883–84, losing to Spilsby by the only goal.[8]

The arrival of professional football, and the foundation of Lincoln City, had a deleterious effect on the club, as it lost a number of players to the Cits.[9] By the time the club made its only entry to the FA Cup, in 1887–88, the club was not the force it once was. The club lost 3–2 in the first round to Basford Rovers in Nottingham, all of the goals coming in the first half; with ten minutes' remaining the Albion had a goal disallowed for handball.[10]

Despite the hopes of the Athletic News that "the experience may bring more support and more members to the club", the club appears only to have played twice more; losing in the first round of the local cup to Grimsby Humber Rovers[11] and a low-key friendly against a Wesleyan chapel side;[12] the club arranged further fixtures but did not seem to play them off.[13]

Ground

The club did not have a permanent enclosed ground; it hosted matches variously at Cowpaddle[14] or South Park.[15]

References
  1. "Lincoln Albion v Hannah Wesleyan". Lincolnshire Chronicle: 2. 25 November 1887.
  2. "Lincoln Albion Football Club". Lincolnshire Chronicle: 8. 27 August 1886.
  3. "Gainsborough". The Era: 13. 26 May 1850.
  4. "Great Days of Albion". Lincolnshire Echo: 6. 15 October 1932.
  5. "Football". Hull Packet: 7. 1 March 1878.
  6. "Basford Rovers v Lincoln Albion". Athletic News: 5. 18 October 1887.
  7. "Lincolnshire Challenge Cup". Sheffield Independent: 7. 21 November 1882.
  8. "Lincolnshire Challenge Cup". Sheffield Independent: 4. 24 March 1884.
  9. "Great Days of Albion". Lincolnshire Echo: 6. 15 October 1932.
  10. "report". Lincolnshire Chronicle: 3. 18 October 1887.
  11. "Football". Lincolnshire Chronicle: 2. 4 November 1887.
  12. "Lincoln Albion v Hannah Wesleyan". Lincolnshire Chronicle: 2. 25 November 1887.
  13. "Boston Reserve v Bourn Rovers". Grantham Journal: 3. 25 February 1888.
  14. "Lincoln Albion v Gainsborough Trinity Recreationists". Stamford Mercury: 5. 7 April 1882.
  15. "Football fixtures". Stamford Mercury: 7. 2 December 1887.
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