Scottish Cup Fifth Round | ||
Stadium Boghead Park, Dumbarton | ||
Season 1885–86 was the 13th Scottish football season in which Dumbarton competed at a national level, entering the Scottish Cup for the 13th time.
Contents
Overview
Dumbarton had an easy passage through the early rounds of the Scottish Cup before losing out to Hibernian, the East of Scotland Shield holders, in the fifth round after a 2-2 draw.
Locally, Dumbarton failed to hold on to the Dumbartonshire Cup and were defeated at the semi-final stage by Dumbarton Athletic.
It was at the semi final stage of the Glasgow Charity Cup that Dumbarton also tasted defeat, this time to rivals Vale of Leven.
At the start of the season a tournament was played across the county in order to raise funds for the Dumbartonshire association. There were 8 invitees with the first rounds being played in two groups at Alexandria on 4 August and at Helensburgh a week later, where Dumbarton were due to have met Yoker, but their opponents having failed to turn up, the Dumbarton players entertained the crowd by playing a six-a-side match. The semi finals were played at Boghead where Dumbarton drew with Vale of Leven - the replay took place five days later. In the final against Dumbarton Athletic on 27 August Dumbarton won 2-0.
Despite the growing competitive calendar, 23 'other' matches were played, including home and away fixtures against Rangers, Queens Park and Vale of Leven, together with matches against Glasgow Cup holders Cambuslang, and Forfarshire Cup holders, Dundee Harp. In addition a four match tour of the north of Scotland was undertaken during the New Year holidays. Overall, of these matches, 14 were won, 5 drawn and 4 lost, scoring 72 goals and conceding 43.
Results
All results are written with Dumbarton's score first.
International Caps
An international trial match was played on 13 March 1886 to consider selection of teams to represent Scotland in the upcoming games in the 1886 British Home Championship. Ralph Aitken, Joe Lindsay and James McAulay all took part.
Subsequently, five Dumbarton players were selected to play, as follows:
- Ralph Aitken, Michael Paton, James McAulay and Joe Lindsay earned their first, fifth, seventh and eighth caps respectively against England.
- Leitch Keir earned his second cap against Ireland. In addition, the Scotland XI who played against Ireland subsequently played a friendly against Dundee Harp on 8 April 1886 - and lost 1-3.
County
Four representative matches were played during the season by the Dumbartonshire Football Association, and Dumbarton players were selected to play as follows:
Transfers
Of note amongst those donning the club's colours for the first time was Tom McMillan.
At the same time two internationalists were lost from the club's squad:
- Robert 'Sparrow' Brown's club career spanned seven seasons, and in addition to his international caps was a member of the Scottish Cup winning side of 1882-82.
- Jock Hutcheson served the club for over a decade, and was also a member of the cup winning squad. He was perhaps unlucky not to earn a Scottish cap, having played in 4 international trials without success.
Factfile
* In all games played, Dumbarton scored 104 goals - the second time that the 'century' had been broken during a single season.