Lesmahagow Junior Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the town of Lesmahagow, South Lanarkshire, located just off the M74 motorway approximately 25 miles south of Glasgow. Early Clubs Before the formation of the current club, three other clubs from Lesmahagow had played in the Junior grade for at least some of their history: Nethanvale Swifts Nethanvale Swifts were formed after a meeting held in the village on 23 September 1885, although it appears that their first match wasn’t until New Year’s Day 1886. They entered a short period of inactivity sometime after May 1890, before being ‘resurrected’ in February 1891 and joining the Lanarkshire Junior League for the 1891-92 season. By December 1891, they had left the league having lost the three games they had played (conceding 29 goals and scoring 3 in the process) and failing to turn up for another. By February 1892, it seems that they were playing Juvenile football and broke up shortly afterwards. Swifts had at least two home grounds during their existence. The first known ground was “the field owned by Mr. Lambie”, which was replaced by a second donated by either a Mr. McDonald, Ellenbank or a Mr. Donald of Elmbank in December 1891. Nethanvale Thistle On April 9, 1894, a new club, Nethanvale Thistle, placed a notice in the Scottish Referee seeking an opponent for a home game on April 16. At least a couple of the players who had featured for the Swifts were also playing with the ‘new’ club, goalkeeper G. McNeish and Bobbie Hamilton, a ‘back’, among them. Thistle played in the Lanarkshire Junior Alliance between 1894 and 1899 (withdrawing after 9 games of their final season). For the 1900-01 season, they played in the Strathaven & District Junior League and then entered a period of inactivity until 1905. They joined the Lanarkshire Junior League Division 2 in 1907-08. Following another break in 1915-16, the club had a final season in the Lanarkshire Junior League in 1916-17. After this the club appears to disappear from the Junior records, but a club operating under the same name were drawn away to Coalburn Thistle in the first round of the Lanarkshire Juvenile Cup in 1923. Thistle reportedly played their home matches at Milton Park, a recreation ground opposite Lesmahagow Cemetery. By 1922, the first council houses had been constructed on the land, perhaps explaining at least part of