| Following negotiations
for a field for the newly formed club to play on, a pitch was
laid out at Caddon Park and a wooden hut erected to act as dressing
rooms.
The club played their first match on the
8th of October 1891 against Gala Harp and won 2-1. The next
week they played Peebles Hibs and lost 2-3. Those two games
were played under the name 'Leithen Vale', their name being
changed to Vale of Leithen Football Club shortly after.
The first club secretary was Mr A. Brunton,
and he was succeded in 1893 by Mr Alexander Crabbe. Mr Crabbe
was originally from Dundee and had come to Innerleithen to
take up employment at Robert Smail & Sons Printing Works.
Membership of the Scottish Football
Association was gained in 1897, and Vale played in the Border
League. In season 1898-99 they won the first of many trophies
when they captured the Border Cup. This trophy is still competed
for to this day by local sides including our neighbours Leithen
Rovers.
|
