In
1928-29 Violet reached the final of the Scottish Junior Cup, where they faced Denny
Hibs and won 4-0. However, the Stirlingshire club complained that their
opponents had fielded an ineligible player at Tynecastle Park.
The
rematch at Dens Park home finished 2-2 before ‘The Pansies’ ran out 4-0 winners
at the same venue in front of a crowd of 9,556 as Wilson and Reilly both bagged
two goals for the Dundee men to become the first Tayside club to lift the
trophy.
Violet
moved to play in the Tayside Junior League from the 1969-70 season until in
2002 the club became members of the East Region of the SJFA along with all
other Tayside Junior clubs. The team was placed in the Scottish Juniors East Region Superleague before being
relegated after one season to the Tayside Region Premier Division.
The side got their act together to finish as runners-up in 2003-04. The Junior league set up was reorganised once again for the 2006-07 campaign with the club taking up a position in the North Division of the East Region.
This led to the
duel registration of players between the two clubs along with the sharing
coaching resources and facilities at Glenesk Park. A
mass exodus of Junior clubs to the East of Scotland League led to further
restructuring, with Violet becoming members of Premier League North for the 2018-19 season.
Once the wordwide pandemic had passed, further SJFA restructring saw Dundee Violet placed in the Midlands League, with Andrew Heggie coming in as manager. After three mid-table finishes, the team ended the 2024-25 campaign third from the bottom of the table.
Dundee
Violet FC will play in the SJFA Midlands League in the 2025-26 season.
My visit
Sunday 19th January 2020
I’d woken
after a comfortable night’s rest at the Travelodge in the north of the city of
Dundee. In a sign of age, I went home early after the previous evening’s Dundee
v Motherwell Scottish Cup tie after a couple of pints.
That would
have been unthinkable a few years back, but a battered haggis supper, a mug of
tea with Sportscene showing the Scottish Cup highlights of the day was more
enticing than an extra hour on the pop.
The next
morning followed the pattern of weather over the weekend. Cold, windy and
bright. It wasn’t going to put me off my plans, which would include visiting three
Junior non-league clubs and to see Dens and Tannadice Park’s in daylight.
Off I walked
along from the hotel after leaving my bag and continued along Strathmore Avenue
for around ten minutes. Cox’s Stack, a large tower and relic of the city’s
former jute industry in the distant and Dundee Law on my left dominated the
skyline.
I got a
glimpse of the ground past the Jehovah’s Witnesses hall on the left and then a
better view from the side of Frankie’s Fish Shack takeaway. Unfortunately,
those would be the best photo opportunities that I’d get.
The main
gates were padlocked on Balfield Road and there was nobody about in the
clubrooms that backed onto the street. It was a case of making the best of my
opportunities from outside the ground.
Glenesk Park
had open grass banking down the far touchline and behind the far goal. The near
end was open flat standing, with the main side having a cover either side of the
halfway line with players tunnel in the middle and training lights on the roof along with all the facilities
and buildings.
Once done I took
a walk to find the bus stop towards Downfield JFC; my next port of call.
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