Part Two - The Early Years

 

The earliest known picture of East Fife Football Club, taken at half-time during their match against Falkirk in October 1903

 

The formation of East Fife in 1903 brought the total number of senior clubs in Fife to six, the others being Raith Rovers, Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline Athletic, Lochgelly United and Hearts of Beath. The new club, whose colours were to be green and white, successfully applied for membership of the Scottish Football Association in April of that year. Their application to join the Northern League was rejected, however, and for the first year of East Fife’s existence they would have to be content with playing in the newly formed Fife League, the Wemyss Cup and the Scottish Qualifying Cup, as well as organising challenge matches against other senior clubs of similar standing.

With the basic essentials in place, the East Fife Committee set about the task of raising a team in preparation for their first match against Heart of Midlothian, who agreed to send a side to Methil on 15th August 1903 in return for the princely sum of £15. On a dull and wet afternoon, the Fifers shared the honours with Hearts in a 2-2 draw, both home goals coming from Nangle. Delighted with what he had witnessed during the inaugural match, the reporter from the Leven Advertiser commented:"The result was full value for the play. Considering everything, the new team did splendidly. Take any eleven players, total strangers, and dump them down on a field at the start of a season and they would do no better. Given another match together and we will be prepared to see East Fife meet the County cracks and beat them".
 

In June 1904, East Fife were rejected by the Northern League for a second time and decided to call a meeting of clubs they thought would be interested in forming a new league for Fife and the Lothians. The clubs who were represented at the meeting; East Fife, Hearts of Beath, Edinburgh Adventurers, Bathgate, Bo’ness, Broxburn, Broxburn Shamrock, Dykehead and West Calder, were all in favour of the new combination and the Eastern League was born.

In May 1905 the Fifers proposed to disband the Eastern League and form a new competition called the Central Football League, which would take its member clubs from the counties of Fife, Clackmannan and the Lothians.

The Northern League, alarmed at the prospect of having to start the new season with only nine clubs after losing certain key members to the new competition, decided to offer membership to East Fife in the hope that their defecting clubs would have a change of heart. The outcome was that East Fife were unanimously elected to the Northern League and, in season 1905/06, would welcome Aberdeen Reserves, Arbroath, Dundee Reserves, Dundee Wanderers, Dunfermline Athletic, Forfar Athletic, Kirkcaldy United, Lochee United, Lochgelly United, Montrose and St. Johnstone to Methil.

At the end of the 1905/06 season, Bayview Park was completely enclosed with a wooden fence and a 400 seat grandstand was built on the north side of the ground. The Fifers now considered themselves worthy of Scottish League membership and duly applied in the summer of 1906, but their application was turned down as bottom clubs Vale of Leven and East Stirlingshire were both re-elected. Just days after the initial rejection, the decision was taken to increase the size of the Scottish League by two clubs and East Fife submitted a second application, but this time Ayr Parkhouse and Dumbarton were successful.

Attendances at Bayview increased during the following season, which prompted a third application for admission to the Scottish League in 1907 season along with Dunfermline Athletic, but the club was yet again unsuccessful.

In April 1908, East Fife won their first ever trophy, the Fife Cup, with a 4-2 victory against Lochgelly United at the neutral venue of North End Park, Cowdenbeath. Although nowadays the Fife Cup is considered to be a minor tournament, back in 1908 it was considered to be a major prize. After being presented with the trophy, team Captain Tommy Fitzpatrick was carried shoulder high by a euphoric band of East Fife supporters, around 500 having made the journey to Cowdenbeath by special train.
   

Tommy Fitzpatrick, Captain of East Fife when they won their first-ever trophy, the Fife Cup, in April 1908

As the Fifers were making a name for themselves on the field of play, however, matters off the park were causing concern as the club’s landlord sold off the land around Bayview Park to housing developers. By March 1908 the builders had almost encroached on the football park and, although it was anticipated that the pitch might be saved for one more season, it was widely expected that East Fife would eventually have to re-locate.

Towards the end of season 1908/09, developments elsewhere in the Scottish game signalled the end of the Fifers’ involvement with the Northern League. In March 1909 the Scottish Football Association announced that it was prepared to sanction the formation of a ‘Second XI League’ for the benefit of the Scottish League clubs. As this new league would inevitably mean the withdrawal of Dundee and Aberdeen reserves from the Northern League, the decision was taken by some of its member clubs to form a new competition covering a wider geographical area.

At a meeting held in Dunfermline during March 1909, a new twelve team competition was inaugurated consisting of West Lothian clubs Bathgate, Broxburn Athletic and Bo’ness; Alloa Athletic and King’s Park from the Stirling area and Northern League clubs St. Johnstone, Arbroath, Dunfermline Athletic, Lochgelly United, Kirkcaldy United and East Fife with the twelfth place taken by Cowdenbeath reserves. The Central League, which was destined to have a huge impact on the Scottish game, had been born!