Queen’s Park Football Club was certainly the most influential Scottish club in the early development of the game of Association football and arguably the most influential club in Great Britain and therefore the world.  The team from the southern suburbs of Glasgow was at the centre of the development of the passing style of football we are all so familiar with today.

This account of the early years of Queen’s Park’s existence focuses primarily on the matches played by the club between 1868 and 1900.  It is not an attempt to replicate the content of Richard Robinson’s outstanding work History of Queen’s Park Football Club 1867-1917, which provides a wealth of information about the formative years of the club.

My principal sources in pulling together this early history of an outstanding football club have been the newspapers of the day.  The Mitchell Library in Glasgow and the British Newspaper Archive have proved invaluable in providing access to old newspapers.  I have also taken some of the details about the very early days of Queen’s Park from the Robinson book because he had access to information that is no longer available elsewhere.

Inevitably, there will be errors and omissions in some of my descriptions of matches played by Queen’s Park.  There were no numbers on jerseys or team sheets in those days and it was not uncommon for details of goal scorers etc to vary from newspaper to newspaper.  If there are any obvious mistakes, please accept my apologies.

As well as first team matches, I have recorded the results of Queen’s Park’s second, third and fourth teams, where available.  Reserve team football had a higher profile in Victorian times.  Also, the Second XI (eventually known as The Strollers), the Hampden XI (third eleven) and the Victoria XI (fourth eleven) often faced other clubs’ first teams, including the likes of Aston Villa and Stoke (now Stoke City).  I have also listed the results of "official" representative matches in which Queen's Park players were involved.

I have covered the period from 1867 to 1900 and this is where I stop. I will, however, continue to update the blog when new information becomes available. 

Unlike the Victorian era, the vast majority of Queen's Park's games in the 20th and early 21st centuries were competitive fixtures.  All of the results and team line-ups can be found in the publication "The Men With The Educated Feet", edited by Forrest H C Robertson.

Frank McCrossan
December 2022