A Look Into Histories

A LOOK INTO HISTORY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE

LIVINGSTON FC RECORD ATTENDANCE

Having previously written in No 52 on Ferranti Thistle and Meadowbank Thistle we now move on to the clubs present name, Livingston FC and their record attendance. Livingston FC moved from Edinburgh to the town midway between the capital and Glasgow and made home at Almondvale Stadium in 1995 having to start in Division Three though winning it at the first attempt. This brought continuing success through the divisions with a Division One championship in 2001 at Inverness 3-2 and Manager of the Year bestowed upon Jim Leishman meaning their first attempt at Premier Division football and at the time, their best attendance being 4,100 against East Stirlingshire in 1996 but easily beaten as 2001/02 progressed with 10,024 against Celtic and even the lowest against Dundee United being 6,107 making an average of 8,226.

Our Match Programme, No 7 of the season and a glossy £2 edition was for a Bank of Scotland Premier League game on Saturday 27th October 2001 with an unusual kick off time of 5.35pm v Glasgow Rangers and, even though 10,600 was supposed to be the registered capacity, 10,112 crammed into the stadium, the highest ever to date. The usual Managers notes praised the opposition reminding readers that they had played each other twice before but only in friendlies so this was indeed a special occasion and as the ground was easily accessible from Glasgow by train, brought all and sundry along. There was plenty of reading material regarding match reports, youth games, on this day over five years, a commercial page and in depth analysis of the Premier League to keep everyone informed. The team line-ups were well produced and the result was 0-2 to the Rangers with Claudio Reyna scoring twice in 24m and 59m. Well worth the money.

Livingston FC now set out on an amazing roller coaster ride having to enter administration in 2004 only for that to be cleared in May 2005 but were relegated in 2006 and then entered administration for the second time in 2009 and on 5th August demoted to Division Three by the SFL. Moving on some years to 21st April 2018 they rose up the ranks once again and came second in the Championship then thanks to a play off success against Partick Thistle were back in the top flight for season 2018/19. Once again problems occurred when they finished bottom in 2023-24 with a return to the Championship but in a thrilling play off at the close of 2024-25, victory at Ross County took them back to the Premier Division.This club has nerves of steel, they must be on Irn Bru !