A popular YouTube vlogger has charted Dumbarton and the Vale’s rich footballing history in a video that has attracted more than 24,000 views.
Sam North, whose Footy Adventures channel has more than 125,000 subscribers, focuses on Renton Craigandro and Vale of Leven in the video - with the area considered the birthplace of football in Scotland.
He begins his West Dunbartonshire adventure in the shadow of The Rock at Dumbarton’s stadium, with the Sons sharing Scotland’s first league championship with Rangers in 1890-91.
Sam asks: “What do you think Scotland’s most important football region is?
“I guess a lot of people would say Glasgow, but a lot of people don’t realise how important the area of Dumbarton up to Alexandria via Renton is.
“The River Leven flows through the area, and on it stand Dumbarton Football Club - Scotland’s first champions - there is also Renton, once champions of the world, and Vale of Leven - a club who celebrate their 150th year as a football club this year. Kind of.
“They are one of Scotland’s lost clubs.”
A visit to Renton Craigandro’s Tontine Park is next, where gets an answer to the urban myth that the centre circle of the original Tontine is still in place - albeit in someone’s garden.
Whilst at the home of Renton, Sam meets Craigandro’s Joe Mulvenna - who explains the link between the village and Nottingham Forest, Liverpool’s first ever captain and West Bromwich Albion.
From Renton, Sam travels to Alexandria - visiting Vale of Leven’s historic Millburn Park, just days after the club marked 150 years of football in the Vale with a friendly against Queen’s Park.
The Alexandria side won the Scottish Cup in 1877, 1878 and 1879, becoming the first club other than Queen’s Park to win the country’s most prestigious trophy, and were founder members of the Scottish Football League in 1890.
Along with fellow founder members Queen’s Park and Third Lanark, Vale teams toured Scotland in the Victorian era in an attempt to generate more interest in football.
After initial success, however, survival became a struggle for the Vale with the emergence of the big two in Glasgow and Edinburgh and the increased professionalism of football.
After a tumultuous number of seasons that brought a record points tally but also relegation to the Third Division, the Vale lost their league status for good in 1926 amid soaring match and travel costs.
While this marked the official demise of the 1872 founded club, the Vale of Leven Old Church Old Boys Association (Vale OCOBA) used the Millburn Park ground that the club has called home since 1888.
An unofficial continuation of the original club, the Vale OCOBA eventually took on the Vale of Leven Football and Athletic Club name, joining the Scottish Junior FA ranks in 1939 after plans to join the Scottish Football Alliance were scuppered by World War II.
Vale treasurer Angus Wallace met with Sam and said: “I don’t see any provincial club winning the Scottish Cup three years in a row now. We have a great history.
“Back in the day, people would be crammed in, in their flat caps on the terracing.”
Sam concludes by saying: “It’s incredible how these three teams were founding members of the Scottish Football League that we all love.
“These three clubs were at the forefront of Scottish football, but now they are a lot lower than where they began.”
He also describes Vale’s iconic Millburn Park home as “old-school”, adding: “You can tell how historic this club is from the stand alone.”
And the video proved a big hit with subscribers, who were in awe of the region’s rich footballing history.
One subscriber commented: “I live in Canada and my Mum was born in Alexandria and my Dad was born in Dumbarton.
“My Papa played for Dumbarton in the 1920s after playing for Celtic and a few teams in England.
“My Dad pointed out the Renton Club the last time we were in Scotland.
“You have a real zest for the footy stories and you’ve got fans over the pond that love the content. Keep it going.”
Whilst another says: “Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of oil merchants buying Premier League clubs that they would actually learn a bit of history and put some cash towards these clubs and get them back to where they belong.”
Sam’s video is available to watch at www.youtube.com/c/FootyAdventures.
