Club | History | Peace & War - Clyde Football Club
Return to Clyde F.C. Home Page Optical Express: Sponsors of Clyde F.C. Ellsworth Adhesives: Sponsors of Clyde F.C.Peace and War - Shawfield - 1920-1945
Clyde FC managed to sustain football through the difficult war years and peacetime presented new challenges. The Scottish League continued through 1919-21 with only one division. Division 2 was restarted in 1921-22 with a very crucial difference. Automatic promotion and relegation had been adopted and while the benefits were obvious for ambitious teams, the financial penalties for falling out of the top tier were extremely severe.
Scotland's economy was struggling and Divisions 1 and 2 were finding it hard to attract fans. Against this background, in 1923, the League made the incredible decision to expand out to fifty-six teams spread over three divisions. Many of these were little more than village teams and how they expected to sustain Senior football is hard to believe.
Clyde, of course, couldn't resist the twin temptations of automatic relegation and visiting new locations. Relegated in 1923-24, Clyde spent two seasons in Division 2 plying their trade with the likes of Armadale, Arthurlie, Bathgate, Boness, Broxburn, King's Park, Nithsdale and St. Bernard's. Escape via automatic promotion was achieved in 1925-26 and coincided with the demise of Division 3 and many of the smaller teams returning to other leagues and Junior football.
This upswing in Clyde's fortunes was demonstrated by winning the Glasgow Cup for the second time in 1926 with a 2-1 victory over Celtic. Now that Clyde were back in the top flight, could they stay there? Until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the answer was a resounding "yes" as Clyde maintained a respectable mid-table status. Danny Blair was a prominent international full back of this era and Bill Boyd became Clyde's top marksman with 32 goals in season 1932-33 and earned two international caps.
Yet Clyde and financial problems were never far apart and liquidation was again narrowly averted around 1930. Clyde needed to find an answer to their money problems and it lay right in front of them. Greyhound and other animal racing was booming in the late 1920's and several clubs saw this as a way to supplement their income. A company offered to lease Shawfield in 1926 and also give a percentage of the gate money to Clyde. It seemed too good to be true; and it proved to be so. Animal racing was forbidden in the deeds of Shawfield and the League was very set against greyhound racing in general.
However, Clyde at that time had a very cunning and dogged Chairman called John McMahon. He wouldn't let the idea go and after years of wrangling a solution was arrived at. The Shawfield Greyhound Racing Company Limited started racing in 1932 and a few years later purchased the stadium from Clyde FC. Largely financed and owned by Clyde's directors, at a stroke the club had secured its future and found an additional source of revenue. On the other hand, Clyde FC had sold Shawfield to another party (however close at the time) and would never be able to raise money using the land asset as collateral. Although it wouldn't be appreciated until the 1980s, Clyde were tenants at the mercy of whoever owned Shawfield.
For such renowned cup fighters prior to WWI, Clyde made little impression in the competition during the 1920's. A semi-final was reached once again in 1932-33, but Motherwell put paid to any notions of grasping the ultimate prize. Still, Clyde hammered away and reached the semi-finals in 1935-36 and 1936-37 only to be denied by each half of the Old Firm. Would Clyde ever fulfil their Scottish Cup destiny?
January 1939 saw Clyde at home to St Johnstone in the 1st Round. A satisfactory 2-0 victory sent Clyde on their way. The next tie saw a very difficult trip to Dundee and a goalless draw ensued. Four days later Clyde squeezed past the Dens Park men with a 1-0 victory. Ibrox, and Rangers were the formidable 3rd Round opponents. Despite fourteen League titles and six Cup victories between 1920 and 1939, Rangers were no match for the Bully Wee as they crashed to a 4-1 defeat. Willie Martin, Clyde's prolific centre forward, scored all four goals and surely set a record for an opposition forward at Ibrox. Returning to Shawfield for the 4th Round, Clyde narrowly defeated neighbours Third Lanark, 1-0. Suddenly it was semi-final time once again with Hibernian standing between Clyde and another final. Although disadvantaged by playing the tie in Edinburgh at Tyncastle, Clyde again triumphed with a 1-0 victory.
Motherwell provided Clyde's opposition on April 22nd 1939. They had scored far more goals on the way to Hampden and were installed as favourites. Clyde (Brown; Kirk & Hickie; Beaton, Falloon & Weir; Robertson & Gillies; Martin; Noble & Wallace) had other ideas though. Winning the toss and with a strong wind behind them, Motherwell began very strongly and unsettled Clyde with Brown seeing plenty of action. Riding the storm, Clyde settled and scored the vital goal after thirty minutes. Robertson sped down the right and crossed to Wallace. The forward gathered the ball and smashed the ball into the roof of the net. Motherwell replied with more pressure but couldn't find a goal before the interval. In the second period Martin quickly doubled Clyde's advantage with an opportunist's strike. The fight went from Motherwell and Clyde scored two more in the closing minutes. Motherwell's keeper blocked Noble's first strike at goal, but he swept home the rebound. Barely a minute later Noble supplied a cross for Martin to complete the scoring and seal a 4-0 victory. After so many attempts and so much heartache the Cup was finally won!
Although the joy of victory was unconfined it was tempered against a background of imminent war with Germany. The 1939-40 season had hardly begun when war was declared and the Scottish League was suspended and all players' contracts declared void. After the initial panic leagues were restarted with an East/West regional split in which Clyde performed relatively well.
Clyde had a particular problem with their landlords at the outbreak of war. Obviously night time greyhound meetings were out of the question and the solution was to have them on Saturday afternoon. For a time the club was faced with the very real threat of having to play elsewhere until an alternating Saturday usage was agreed.
Again Clyde had sustained football during very difficult times and had no idea what lay ahead in an economy shattered by war.
Back to Top
Clyde History
Mattha Gemmell
No history of the club would be complete without mention of Matthew Woodrow Gemmell (1874-1963). A Bridgeton resident, he became Clyde's groundsman in 1898 and then part-time trainer. A vacancy for full-time trainer soon appeared and Gemmell filled that role until his retirement in 1945.
His expertise and reputation was such that he had offers to go to far bigger clubs, but he always stuck with his beloved Bully Wee. Respected by all in football, his sense of humour was legendary. From all the anecdotes it's his humbleness and humanity that shine through.
Mattha is best summed up by his response to being offered a job at Queen's Park. "Only if I goat away every Saturday tae watch the Clyde," was his couthie answer.