THE INTER-CITY LEAGUE

/ cairterscorner1877

Formed in the same season as the West of Scotland League in 1899 that Saints also participated in, this “mini-league” was initially made up of clubs from Glasgow and Edinburgh.

In an attempt to boost it’s stature and longevity, St Mirren, Airdrie, Aberdeen and Dundee were invited into the league in 1902, raising the number of participating clubs to 9, just three short of that actual top division! Each club played each other just once, but the experiment did not work, and with the exception of the 1902/03 season. the competition did not finish in the following three campaigns, before it was abandoned.

A similar tournament called the “Inter-City Midweek Football League” was launched in 1912, with Saints not invited, but it also did not finish and was scrapped after only 4 round of fixtures, ending the brief fascination with Inter City competition.

Inter-City League CategoryRecordAdditional Info
Number of Seasons Entered41902-06
Best PerformanceRunners Up1902/03 (From 9 clubs)
Worst Performancen/aOnly finished 1 season
Most Victories 3Dundee
Most Defeats2Hearts and Dundee
Most Goals Scored Against 9Partick Thistle
Most Goals Conceded Against9Dundee
Highest Home Attendance3,00014/03/1903 v Third Lanark
Lowest Home Attendance2,00021/03/1903 v Rangers
Highest Away Attendance 4,00001/01/1906 v Aberdeen
Lowest Away Attendance 1,00026/03/1904 v Hibenian
Most Appearances19Robert Robertson
Most Goals11George Reid
Highest Scoring Match66-0 v Partick (1904) & 1-5 v Dundee (1906)
Record Win (Home)6-019/03/1904 v Partick Thistle
Record Win (Away)3-013/04/1903 v Partick Thistle
Record Defeat (Home)1-222/04/1905 v Airdrie
Record Defeat (Away)1-502/01/1906 v Dundee
Most Individual Goals in a Match24 times
Most Individual Goals in a season5George Reid, 1904/05
Most Club Goals Scored in a Season121903/04 (from 5 matches, unfinished league)
Most Club Goals Conceded in a Season91904/05 (from 6 matches, unfinished league)
Total Shut Outs12From 22 matches
Most Shut Outs in a Season61902/03 (From 8 matches)
DATEOPPOSITIONATTVSCOREOSCORERSSEASON
28/02/1903Hibernian A0-0D 1902/03
07/03/1903QUEENS PARK H3-2WWILSON1902/03
14/03/1903THIRD LANARK3,000H0-0D 1902/03
21/03/1903RANGERS2,000H4-0WANDERSON, MURRAY, ROBERTSON, SWAN1902/03
28/03/1903Hearts A0-2L 1902/03
04/04/1903CELTIC H0-0D 1902/03
11/04/1903Dundee A1-0WSWAN1902/03
13/04/1903Partick This2,000A3-0WREID (2), WILSON1902/03
19/03/1904PARTICK THIS H6-0WJOHNSTONE, J WILSON, SMITH, ROSS (2), REID1903/04
26/03/1904Hibernian1,000A1-2LSMITH1903/04
04/04/1904Rangers A2-1WREID, SWAN1903/04
23/04/1904Hearts A1-2LREID1903/04
14/05/1904DUNDEE H2-1WREID, CURRIE1903/04
03/01/1905Dundee A0-3L 1904/05
21/01/1905Hearts A3-3DBRUCE, REID (2)1904/05
04/02/1905DUNDEE H3-0WHALL, REID (2)1904/05
15/04/1905Airdrie A1-0WHALL1904/05
22/04/1905AIRDRIE H1-2LWRIGHT1904/05
24/04/1905HIBERNIAN H2-0WREID, MORGAN1904/05
01/01/1906Aberdeen4,000A1-0WCUNNINGHAM1905/06
02/01/1906Dundee1,500A1-5LRIDDELL1905/06
09/04/1906AIRDRIE H2-0WLYNCH, FERGUSON1905/06
Left, Robert Robertson, most appearances (19) in the Inter-City League for the club and right, George Reid, top Saints scorer with 11 goals.

POSINTER CITY APPEARANCESTOTAL
1ROBERTSON, Robert19
=2GREENLEES, Donald17
=2JACKSON, Tom17
4McAVOY, Mick16
5RAE, Livingston14
6REID, George13
7SWAN, Andy10
=8CUNNINGHAM, James9
=8CRAWFORD, David9
=8LINDSAY, David9
=11WILSON, Jimmy8
=11ANDERSON, ?8
=11BRUCE, Walter8
=11CAMERON, Jock8
=15HALL, Matthew6
=15WYLIE, David6
=17SMITH, Jimmy5
=17WRIGHT, John5
=17HAMILTON, David5
20ANDERSON, Andrew4

POSINTER CITY GOALSCORERSTOTAL
1REID, George11
=2SWAN, Andy3
=2WILSON, Jimmy3
=4HALL, Matthew2
=4SMITH, Jimmy2
=4ROSS, ?2
=7ROBERTSON, Robert1
=7CUNNINGHAM, James1
=7ANDERSON, ?1
=7BRUCE, Walter1
=7WRIGHT, John1
=7JOHNSTONE, ?1
=7LYNCH, Robert1
=7MORGAN, Hugh1
=7MURRAY, Charlie1
=7CURRIE, ?1
=7FERGUSON, Bob1
=7RIDDELL, Eddie1

One thought on “THE INTER-CITY LEAGUE”

  1. Hiya,
        Thee is also the Western League, played in 1898/99, which Saints won.

        I thought, perhaps, that you would be sending this out as another email, but I note that the details are not on the website.

        Here is the full list of results

    17/09/1898
    Abercorn
    A
    Underwood Park
    W
    6
    0
    03/01/1899
    Ayr
    A
    Somerset Park
    W
    3
    2
    07/01/1899
    Morton
    H
    Love Street
    D
    1
    1
    21/01/1899
    Port Glasgow Athletic
    A
    Clune Park
    D
    3
    3
    25/02/1899
    Ayr Parkhouse
    H
    Love Street
    W
    5
    2
    01/05/1899
    Linthouse
    A
    Govandale Park
    W
    5
    3
    03/05/1899
    Port Glasgow Athletic
    H
    Love Street
    D
    2
    2
    08/05/1899
    Morton
    A
    Cappielow Park
    D
    1
    1
    11/05/1899
    Ayr
    H
    Beresford Park
    W
    6
    0
    12/05/1899
    Abercorn
    H
    Love Street
    W
    3
    0
    13/05/1899
    Linthouse
    H
    Love Street
    W
    3
    2
    15/05/1899
    Ayr Parkhouse
    A
    Beresford Park
    W
    4
    1

    Regards

    Derek

    Reply

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