Glasgow Junior Football League

The Glasgow Junior Football League (GJL) was a football league competition operated under the Scottish Junior Football Association between 1895 and 1927.[1] As its name suggests, it was primarily for teams in the Glasgow area, but did include teams from towns outside the city; conversely, other leagues existed concurrently (such as the Scottish Junior Football League) and some teams based in Glasgow played in those.

The league – the champions of which were awarded the Evening Times Trophy[2] – was seen as one of the strongest in Scotland, with its clubs winning or reaching the final of the national knockout competition, the Scottish Junior Cup, several times.[1] Membership varied, with mergers involving other leagues occurring on various occasions and individual teams being enticed to join the GJL from those leagues.

Having continued through World War I, the GJL was dissolved in 1927 when the intermediate dispute occurred; however its members (and other clubs) formed the Scottish Intermediate Football League which was contested for four years.[1] In 1931, the Central Junior Football League was formed, with notes from its 1932 AGM stating that it was the 32nd such meeting, suggesting that it was considered a continuation of the pre-1927 GJL.[1] This setup continued until 1968 when the Central League merged with the long-running Lanarkshire Junior Football League as the Central Region, and eventually 2002 the Ayrshire Junior Football League (many of whose clubs had also been involved in the intermediate dispute of the 1920s, although they played in a separate division) joined to create the Scottish Junior Football Association, West Region.

Two of the clubs who participated in the first season of the Glasgow Junior League in 1895–96 – Maryhill and Vale of Clyde – played in the SJFA West in 2019–20, and others who joined in the 19th century (Ashfield, Glasgow Perthshire, Petershill and Rutherglen Glencairn) also survived into the 21st. At the end of that season – which was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic – all 63 West Region clubs left the SJFA setup to join a new West of Scotland Football League in the Senior pyramid,[3][4] bringing 125 years of Junior league football in the region (including the intermediate years) to an end.

Champions

Key:

Club also won the Scottish Junior Cup[5] (doubles in bold).
Club were also runners-up in the Scottish Junior Cup[5]
Season Winner[1] Runner-up Other member in Scottish Cup final[5]
1895–96 Cambuslang Hibernian Strathclyde Parkhead
1896–97 Strathclyde Cambuslang Hibernian
1897–98 Parkhead Rutherglen Glencairn
1898–99 Rutherglen Glencairn Cambuslang Hibernian Parkhead
1899–1900 Vale of Clyde Glasgow Perthshire Maryhill
1900–01 Maryhill / Parkhead (shared) Maryhill
1901–02 Rutherglen Glencairn Parkhead Maryhill
1902–03 Parkhead Petershill
1903–04 Maryhill Petershill Vale of Clyde
1904–05 Maryhill Strathclyde Ashfield
1905–06 Ashfield Strathclyde
1906–07 Ashfield Maryhill Strathclyde
1907–08 Ashfield Clydebank Juniors [a]
1908–09 Ashfield Strathclyde
1909–10 Ashfield Kirkintilloch Rob Roy
1910–11 Cambuslang Rangers Strathclyde Petershill
1911–12 Cambuslang Rangers Vale of Clyde Petershill
1912–13 Vale of Clyde Glasgow Perthshire
1913–14 Benburb Cambuslang Rangers Ashfield
1914–15 Cambuslang Rangers Vale of Clyde Parkhead
1915–16 Cambuslang Rangers Clydebank Juniors Petershill
1916–17 Parkhead Petershill
1917–18 Vale of Clyde Ashfield Petershill
1918–19 Rutherglen Glencairn Ashfield
1919–20 Vale of Clyde Petershill Parkhead
1920–21 Ashfield Benburb Kirkintilloch Rob Roy
1921–22 Rutherglen Glencairn Parkhead
1922–23 Strathclyde Shettleston
1923–24 Shettleston Rutherglen Glencairn Parkhead
1924–25 St Roch's Parkhead St Anthony's
1925–26 St Roch's Strathclyde
1926–27 Shettleston Strathclyde Rutherglen Glencairn
  1. ^ GJL teams did not enter in 1907–08 due to a dispute with the SJFA.

List of winners

Club[1] Winners Runner-up First win Last win
Ashfield 6 2 1905–06 1920–21
Parkhead[a] 4 3 1897–98 1916–17
Vale of Clyde 4 2 1899–1900 1919–20
Rutherglen Glencairn 4 2 1898–99 1921–22
Cambuslang Rangers 4 1 1910–11 1915–16
Maryhill[a] 3 1 1900–01 1904–05
Strathclyde 2 7 1896–97 1922–23
Shettleston 2 1 1923–24 1926–27
St Roch's 2 0 1924–25 1925–26
Cambuslang Hibernian 1 2 1895–96
Benburb 1 1 1913–14
Petershill 0 4 –
Glasgow Perthshire 0 2 –
Clydebank Juniors 0 2 –
Kirkintilloch Rob Roy 0 1 –
  1. ^ a b Includes one shared title, counted for both teams.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Glasgow Junior League, Scottish Football Historical Archive, 27 August 2020
  2. ^ Evening Times Trophy, Scottish Football Historical Archive, 21 April 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2021
  3. ^ Pyramid Update – 67 Applications Approved, Scottish Lowland Football League, 14 April 2020
  4. ^ Junior clubs in the west are about to get the best of both worlds, The Scotsman, 19 April 2020
  5. ^ a b c "Scottish Junior Cup > Finals 1886 to 1956". Scottish Football Association (archive version, 2018). Archived from the original on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  • McGlone, David; McLure, Bill (1987). The Juniors - 100 Years. A Centenary History of Scottish Junior Football. Mainstream. ISBN 1-85158-060-3.
  • Scottish Junior FA Structure, Scottish Junior Football Association
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