Ardeer Thistle FC is a Scottish non-league football club who are based in the town of Stevenston, which forms one of the ‘Three Towns’ with Saltcoats and Ardrossan facing the waters of the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire.
‘The Thistle’ were formed in 1900 playing at playing at Ardchoille Park and joining the Scottish Junior FA. The 1920’s proved a very profitable decade for Ardeer. In 1924-25 Thistle were crowned as Ayrshire League champions as well as lifting the Ayrshire Cup and Western Junior League Cup.
In the following campaign they retained the two cups from the season before as well as adding the Ayrshire League Cup and Ayrshire District Club for the fifth time.
Ardeer won the Ayrshire District League once more in 1959-60, but had to settle for an occasional cup triumph after that. Ardchoille Park in the Haydocks area of town, suffered badly from vandalism. The club decided to abandon it and move to Ardeer Stadium in the mid 1970’s.
Alex Ferguson’s St Mirren took on a Kilmarnock side featuring local lad and future SFA Chief Executive Gordon Smith in the opening game. Thistle were crowned as Second Division champions of the Ayrshire District League in 1991-92.
Ardeer ended
as fourth place in 2012-13 before a runners-up spot twelve months later to go
up to the Championship. However, the teams spell lasted just one season to drop
back down to the Ayrshire District League.
The team ended ninth for two consecutive seasons before finishing 2017-18 second from bottom prior to the competition being absorbed into League Two of the West Region where Thistle finished bottom in 2018-19.
The performance was replicated in 2019-20 which season was ended early owing to the outbreak of Coronavirus. The club followed other ‘Juniors’ to join Senior status in the SFA set up to become founder members of the West of Scotland League, placed in the sixth tier Conference C.
Ardeer Thistle FC will play in the Ayrshire District League in the 2013-14 season.
My visit
Sunday 29th September 2013
It was a stunning morning if a little windy on the North Ayrshire coast. The sky was bright blue and I was thoroughly enjoying discovering new towns and football clubs on my two day tour from my Glasgow base.
Even better was that I was enjoying some good exercise along the way before relaxing and enjoying what the pubs had to offer in the evening. I had visited Saltcoats Victoria and thought I knew a decent route to walk to Stevenston.
A kind man showed me a far easier route, which meant walking down the side of Auchenharvie Golf Course before entering the town. I found Ardeer Stadium with no trouble at all. The gates were open so I could take some good shots, even though the wire fence wouldn’t have really prevented me from doing so.
Ardeer Stadium had a track around the pitch, meaning curved ends. It had a few rows of steps around three sides with grass backing them. The final 'straight' had a large block on the half way line containing the players and club facilities and then a cover for standing spectators towards the entrances.
Just as I was walking away a coach load of youngsters arrived. I wondered if they were to play on the pitch, but I didn’t have time to hang around to find out. Instead I walked up to Townhead Street where I eventually caught the number 11 bus to Kilwinning.
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