Cove Rangers F.C.

Cove Rangers
Full name Cove Rangers Football Club
Nickname(s) The Wee Rangers
Founded 1922 (1922)
Ground Ephemerally Harlaw Park, Inverurie, set to be Calder Park mid 2017
Ground Capacity To be confirmed
Chairman Keith Moorhouse
Manager John Sheran
League Highland Football League
2015–16 Highland Football League, 1st

Cove Rangers Football Club are a senior Scottish football club currently playing in the Highland Football League. They are based in Cove Bay, a suburb of Aberdeen and are set to play their football at Calder Park, having left their former home at Allan Park in April 2015. Their current manager is John Sheran.

History

Cove were formed in 1922 and played in the local amateur leagues until 1985, when they became a junior team. However, the club applied and were accepted to the senior Highland Football League in 1986, where they have played ever since. They have also racked up a formidable reputation in the lower rounds of the Scottish Cup, reaching the 3rd round three times. In 2001 they won their first Highland League championship – but even more impressively won the 'quadruple' of Highland League, Aberdeenshire Shield, Scottish Qualifying Cup, and Highland League Cup.

In the 2007–08 season, Cove reached round four of the Scottish Cup for the first and only time, beating Brora Rangers away 7–0, Keith 3–0 and Edinburgh University 1–0 on the way, before losing 4–2 to Ross County.

However, that did not deter the south Aberdeen side from claiming their second ever Highland League Championship with a 3–0 home win against Lossiemouth on 3 May 2008.

Cove Rangers were one of the clubs preparing an application for entry into the Scottish Football League following Gretna relinquishing their league status on 3 June 2008. The other clubs were Annan Athletic, Preston Athletic and Spartans.[1] Annan Athletic were eventually awarded the place, due to their superior facilities.

The club have started plans for a new stadium in preparation for a possible place in Scottish League Two.

In 2016 the club regained their Highland League crown in one of the greatest teams achievements in recent memory. Due to the introduction of the 'pyramid system', Cove were forced to say goodbye to their Allan Park home due to the stadium not meeting SPFL minimum stadia requirements. This in turn meant the club played all of their games at an away ground with Inverurie Locos, Formartine United and Banks O'Dee sportingly offering the use of their facilities so the club could compete. Despite this Cove went on to win the league and advance to the first play-off game against the winner of the Lowland League Edinburgh City. The tie was won by City 4-1 on aggregate and progressed to Scottish League Two after beating East Stirling in the second playoff tie.

One of the club's most famous players is the young Scottish midfielder Paul Coutts who joined English League One club Peterborough United during the summer of 2008 for a nominal fee. Coutts won the clubs's Young Player of the Year award for the 2008–09 season [2] and won eight caps for the Scotland under-21 squad, after being touting for a call up by his former manager Darren Ferguson.[3]

Honours

Relocation to Calder Park

Main article: Calder Park, Aberdeen

On Friday, 30 July 2010, an article was placed in the local Aberdeen paper, the Evening Express that Stewart Milne, the chairman of Aberdeen, had bought their home ground Allan Park. From the money that Cove got they could finally build their proposed project at Calder Park. The stadium is supposed to be a 1,000 seated stadium. The proposed new stadium would maximise their chances of getting into the League Two after getting rejected on 3 June 2008 because they didn't have a good enough stadium. Aberdeen City Council have since voted the plan out which may cause Cove to exit the Highland Football League due to new stadium requirements being put in place. This may also force Aberdeen to move out of the city in building their new stadium, which some people see as the end of senior football in Aberdeen.

On 19 April 2015, Cove Rangers played their final game at Allan Park following progress being made with Aberdeen City Council in terms of planning permission. In this game Cove marked their departure with a 4–0 victory over Fort William.

It has been revealed that the new stadium, only known as 'Calder Park' thus far, will be located next to a new secondary school, merging Kincorth and Torry Academies into one larger school. In a clause made by ACC this new school will have access to the new stadium's artificial pitch.

Current squad

As of 16 January 2016

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
Scotland GK John McCafferty
Scotland GK Stuart McKenzie
Scotland DF Grant Campbell
Scotland DF Darryn Kelly
Scotland DF Dean Lawrie
Scotland DF Harry Milne
Scotland DF Alan Redford
Scotland DF Stirling Smith
Scotland DF Stuart Walker
Scotland DF Eric Watson
No. Position Player
Scotland DF Blair Yule
Scotland MF Murray McCulloch
Scotland MF Sam Burnett
Scotland MF Stuart Duff
Scotland MF Roy McBain
Scotland MF Kevin Buchan
Scotland FW Dean Donaldson
Scotland FW Daniel Park
Scotland FW Connor Scully
Scotland FW Johnny Smith
Scotland FW Mitch Megginson

References

  1. ↑ Gretna relinquish league status, BBC Sports. Retrieved on 3 June 2008
  2. ↑ Coutts wins Player of the Moth, Peterborough United FC. Retrieved on 3 November 2008
  3. ↑ "Posh boss receives a pep talk from Sir Alex, ''Peterborough Evening Telegraph''. Retrieved on 3 November 2008". Peterboroughtoday.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-04-22.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.