Arbroath F.C.

Arbroath Football Club are a Scottish football club currently playing in the Scottish League Two. The club were founded in 1878 and play home matches at Gayfield Park. They play in maroon strips, and are nicknamed "the Red Lichties" due to the red light that used to guide fishing boats back from the North Sea to the burgh's harbour. Arbroath share a long-standing and fierce rivalry with local neighbours Montrose.

History

Record score

The team's most notable and lasting accomplishment is to hold the world record for the biggest victory in World senior football, set on 12 September 1885 when they beat Aberdeen Bon Accord 36–0 in a Scottish Cup match, with a further goal disallowed for offside.Jocky Petrie scored 13 goals in that game, a record for the most goals by a single player in a British senior match.

Recent history

The team has had mixed success in recent years. In the 1996–97 season they hit the bottom of the Scottish senior football standard as they finished bottom of the Third Division. However, the following season they were promoted to the Second Division. They spent three years at this level before winning promotion to the First Division – arguably the club's greatest achievement in recent history. They finished 7th in their first season in the First Division, 13 points clear of relegation troubles. However, in the 2002–03 season, the team struggled badly, and finished bottom of the table, 20 points adrift of penultimate side Alloa Athletic. In the 2003–04 season, Arbroath narrowly avoided back-to-back relegations, as they escaped the drop on the last day of the season. In 2004–05, however, there was no escaping a 3–0 defeat at Dumbarton on 30 April 2005, which consigned the team to the Third Division for the following season.

Arbroath

Coordinates: 56°33′41″N 2°35′09″W / 56.561385°N 02.585705°W / 56.561385; -02.585705

Arbroath or Aberbrothock /ɑːrˈbroʊθ/ (Scottish Gaelic: Obar Bhrothaig, [opəɾˈvɾo.ɪkʲ]) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus in Scotland, and has a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, around 16 miles (25.7 km) ENE of Dundee and 45 miles (72.4 km) SSW of Aberdeen.

While there is evidence for settlement of the area now occupied by the town that dates back to the Iron Age, Arbroath's history as a town begins in the High Middle Ages with the founding of Arbroath Abbey in 1178. Arbroath grew considerably during the Industrial Revolution owing to the expansion of firstly the flax and secondly the jute industries and the engineering sector. A new harbour was built in 1839 and by the 20th century, Arbroath had become one of the larger fishing ports in Scotland.

The town is notable as the home of the Declaration of Arbroath, as well as the Arbroath Smokie. and its football team Arbroath FC holding the world record for highest number of goals in professional football match 36-0 against Aberdeen Bon Accord in the Scottish Cup in 1885.

Arbroath (Parliament of Scotland constituency)

Arbroath in Forfarshire was a burgh constituency that elected one commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland and to the Convention of Estates.

After the Acts of Union 1707, Arbroath, Aberdeen, Brechin, Inverbervie and Montrose formed the Aberdeen district of burghs, returning one member between them to the House of Commons of Great Britain.

See also