Tears & memories as Clydebank make emotional Leith return

Clydebank currently groundshare Holm Park with Yoker Athletic

Grace McGibbon expects "a tear or two" to be shed at Easter Road on Saturday - 25 years since a Clydebank side last played Hibernian in the Scottish Cup and she was there as a young Bankies fan.

The then First Division club held their own in Leith, earning a 1-1 draw before losing 3-0 in the replay. A couple of years later, the club was no more.

''Around about that time, we were going to places like Easter Road," recalls the club's chair and treasurer. "Going to Premier League grounds was the norm.

"The start of it all was the selling of the Kilbowie stadium. We'd had to play at Boghead [Dumbarton's former ground] and Morton's Cappielow.

"The money was gone. All that was left was a name and league membership.''

With the club in administration, the United Clydebank Supporters Group tried to buy it but lost out to a Lanarkshire consortium.

The new owners relocated the then Second Division club to the home of the liquidated Airdrieonians and changed their name to Airdrie United to preserve that club's own place in the senior leagues.

"Right up until the last minute, we'd always believed it would go our way and we would do something spectacular," McGibbon tells BBC Scotland.

"When the realisation came that it wouldn't happen, it was devastating.''

All that Airdrie left to Clydebank was the name and the badge and the fans. Fans with big dreams.

"Very quickly, a group of people got involved and said, 'how do we start a football club and work our way back again?'" McGibbon recalls.

The next season, Clydebank FC were playing in the lowest tier of the SFJA.

"From day one, our fans had great aspirations and it was a case of 'how quickly can we get back to the league?' - not having any idea what that road was going to be like, but let's start by kicking a ball on a Saturday," McGibbon says.

''We did it that way because there was no option. There was no sugar daddy out there plying us with money.

"We had a name, we had a badge and a bunch of passionate people who wanted to see a football club back in their town."

'It's quite emotional'

Clydebank beat SPFL sides Elgin City and Clyde in the cup in 2021

Two decades or so on, the Bankies have worked their way up to the sixth tier.

They are top of the West of Scotland Premier League and eyeing promotion to the Lowland League. Another stop on the journey to the SPFL.

"That's the plan," McGibbon says. "Recently, we put in a plan to get our SFA licence, get into the Scottish Cup, get into the Lowland League and ultimately get out of the Lowland League heading upwards.

"People want to be part of the success we are having right now and that can only help us carry us on on the journey."

The next stage of the journey is the fourth-round tie at Easter Road.

''Clydebank fans have been outstanding," McGibbon adds. "We've sold 2,300 tickets.

"There will be people at our game who go every week but who'd never been to Kilbowie and don't know the old Clydebank.

"There's lots of people see it as the same club with a rebirth, but I like to think it's all part of the same story, just a bit fragmented.

''I think it's quite emotional. There will be people there who've followed Clydebank for 50-odd years. It harks back to a bygone era and there may be a tear or two shed.

"A lot of people say it'll be a great occasion, but we're not just there to make up the numbers. We're hoping for a win.''