Scottish Football Teams. Meadowbank Thistle.

Livingston Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Livingston, West Lothian and currently plays in the Scottish Championship.

Livingston were founded in 1943 as Ferranti Thistle, a works team. The club was admitted to the Scottish Football League and renamed as Meadowbank Thistle in 1974, and played its matches at Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh. In 1995, the club was relocated to Livingston, West Lothian and renamed after the town. Since then Livingston have played their home games at Almondvale Stadium. In the ten years following the move to Livingston the club enjoyed notable success, winning promotion to the Scottish Premier League in 2001, qualifying for the UEFA Cup in its maiden season in the top flight (finishing third behind Celtic and Rangers) and winning the 2004 Scottish League Cup. However, the club hit financial problems in 2004, and was relegated to the Scottish First Division in 2006. In July 2009 the club faced further financial problems and were on the verge of suffering a liquidation event before a deal was struck. Livingston were subsequently demoted to the Scottish Third Division, but the club achieved consecutive promotions and went on to regain its place in the top tier after winning the 2017–18 Scottish Premiership play-offs.

Ferranti Thistle (1943–1974)

The club began life as Ferranti Amateur in 1943. A works team of the Ferranti engineering company,they initially played in the Edinburgh FA’s Amateur Second Division. In 1948 the club became known as Ferranti Thistle and began competing in the Edinburgh and District Welfare Association where they competed for five seasons before moving to senior football in 1953, joining the East of Scotland League. During this period the club won the East of Scotland Qualifying Cup in 1963. In 1969 the club moved to the City Park ground in Edinburgh.

In 1972 the club became members of the Scottish Football Association, allowing them to enter the Scottish Qualifying Cup, which they won in 1973. The club’s first match in the Scottish Cup was on 16 December 1972 against Duns.

In 1974, as a result of the demise of Third Lanark seven years earlier, and the new three-tier format of the Scottish Football League, a place opened up in the second division of the competition. After beating off competition from four Highland League sides as well as Hawick Royal Albert and Gateshead United, Ferranti Thistle were accepted into the league by a vote of 21–16 over Inverness Thistle. The club faced a number of obstacles before they could join the Division as their name did not meet stringent SFL rules on overt sponsorship of teams at the time and the City Ground was not up to standard. The local council offered use of Meadowbank Stadium, a modern stadium built in 1970. After an Edinburgh Evening News campaign to find a name for the club, the name Meadowbank Thistle was chosen. This was approved by the SFL in time for the new season.

Meadowbank Thistle (1974–1995)

Having had little time to form a team from the existing Ferranti squad, the first Meadowbank Thistle manager John Bain faced an uphill task to produce a competitive outfit in time for the new season. Meadowbank played their first competitive match in the League Cup, losing 1–0 to Albion Rovers. In 1983 the club achieved promotion to the First Division but were relegated back to the Second Division at the end of the 1984–85 season.

In the 1986–87 season, Meadowbank won the Second Division championship and promotion to the First Division. They finished runners-up in the First Division in the following season, but were denied promotion to the Premier Division due to league reconstruction.

The part-time club began to struggle despite becoming a limited company in 1993 and was relegated at the end of the 1992–93 season to the Second Division. Meadowbank suffered a second relegation in 1994–95, finishing second bottom in the Second Division and dropped to the newly created Third Division. After this, Chairman Bill Hunter claimed Meadowbank had run into severe financial difficulties and were facing closure as a result. In the face of significant opposition from many Meadowbank fans, who objected to the dropping of the club name and the team moving from Edinburgh, in 1995 Meadowbank Thistle relocated to a new stadium in the new town of Livingston and changed name once more to Livingston Football Club.

Livingston (1995–)

Rise to prominence.

In their first season as Livingston they were crowned champions of the Third Division for the 1995–96 season. Three years later, in 1998–99, they won promotion again as Second Division champions. Another promotion followed in 2000–01 when the club finished champions of First Division and gained promotion to the Scottish Premier League (SPL), just six seasons after the relocation to Livingston. Livingston’s first SPL campaign, 2001–02, brought more success as they finished third in the league (behind the Old Firm) and qualified for the UEFA Cup for the first time. Jim Leishman’s side gave a competent showing in Europe. After disposing of FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein on the away goals rule after a 1–1 draw, they came up against SK Sturm Graz of Austria. A 14-goal, two-leg affair meant they missed out on the second round, being on the wrong side of an 8–6 aggregate scoreline. The club avoided relegation the following season, finishing 9th. That summer, manager Jim Leishman became the club’s director of football and was replaced by Brazilian manager Márcio Máximo, who resigned only a few months into the following campaign and was in turn replaced by Leishman’s former assistant Davie Hay. Under Hay’s management, Livingston won their first national trophy in 2004 by winning the 2003–04 League Cup after a 2–0 win over Hibernian at Hampden Park. The goals in the final were scored by Derek Lilley and Jamie McAllister.