Douglas Amateurs FC

🟡 A brief history 🔴

Douglas Amateur FC were founded in 1965 from the nucleus of a team playing under the auspices of Douglas Miners Welfare. As a committee member and leader of the Youth Club in the Miners Welfare, Tam Smith was the main organiser of the team, arranging friendly games, securing changing facilities within the Welfare premises and generally pulling a team together. Games against Coalburn, Nemphlar, and the local D&A estate team, itself a useful outfit, gave encouragement for a bona fide club to be set up.

Neilly McFarlane a football enthusiast and interested spectator at the games, was approached, and he agreed to manage a team with a view to entering the Lanarkshire Amateur Football Association. Neil had Geordie Jeffries as his sidekick, along with Tam Shaw, Frank McMillan and Buster Stratford on the committee.

1974 was lhe last year of national trophies for DAFC, however the team continued to be among the top outfits in the country and won many competitions until its demise in 1977

Douglas Amateurs FC was probably the most successful team ever to have played in Scotland. They can surely be unique in winning, at some stage, every competition that they ever entered. Their roll of honour highlights the incredible success of the club in such a short history. The pivotal figure in the clubs success, Willie 'Shulf' McMillan was no blackboard technician. Shulf's attributes were in having an eye for a player, bringing new blood into the club at the right time, and in having each player play a specific role for the benefit of the team. With John Jackson bringing a high level of fitness to the players and Miller Mathieson overseeing a financial and fund raising organisation that many senior clubs would be proud of, DAFC had the perfect combination to ensure success. Sheena, Pat, and Allison, their respective wives, had to endure many a long day, and provide support when it was frequently required.

No successful club ever existed without a dedicated group of officials and committee members. At the peak of their success Douglas AFC had their own supporters club, filling several buses even to midweek games. In that respect great credit must go to Mary and Bill Rankine, Jock and Ina Simpson, Bobby and Ann Taylor, George McMillan, Frank McMillan, Buster Stratford, Tam Blackwood, Bob McMillan, Bobby Cornelius, Andrew Morrison, and Ian Johnston, who all gave the club tremendous support and help throughout what was an incredible journey.

Glenbuck & Douglas Valley