History of The Lanarkshire Derby
The Lanarkshire Derby has finally made its way to the SWPL1 as Motherwell Women faced Hamilton Academical Ladies at the weekend with the women of steal being victorious. The derby is often overlooked as being small and uninteresting but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The derby is made up of four teams- Motherwell, Hamilton Accies, Albion Rovers and Airdrieonians and the derby is classed as any game between these clubs. Clyde is considered as a part time member of the derby due to their ‘stadium hopping’ ways of the past. The first derby was between Motherwell and Airdrie’s men’s team on the 11th of August 1894 and the last men’s team one was also between the two on the 21st of July 2021.
The derby is primarily built on local dominance and who is the true ‘pride of Lanarkshire’. Airdrie have won the most Men’s team’s derby fixtures with 174 wins. Motherwell are a close second with 172, followed by Hamilton with 144 and Albion Rovers with 47.
The current women’s team’s derby wins stand at Motherwell with 1, Hamilton 1 with a win against Clyde FC, Airdrie have won 6 games overall against Motherwell and Accies’ B teams and Clyde have won 0.
Currently the SWPL1 features four derbies. The Old Firm, the Edinburgh derby, the Glasgow derby and now the Lanarkshire derby.
Derby day in Lanarkshire is a day of excitement, pressure and enjoyment until that full time whistle is blown. The home stadiums are electric as fans pour in to see their side battle it out to settle who are the kings or queens of the ’Shire. Players feed off the atmosphere and the expectations of them and often display their riskier capabilities as they can sometimes get caught up in the height of the game’s emotion.
Players feel it inside them if they don’t leave the game victorious as it feels as if they’ve not just let the fans down but the areas they’re representing. The derby may not be as big as some of the previously mentioned fixtures however, for those 90 minutes on match day the only thing that matters to the clubs and their supporters is their ability to rule.
Like all famous derbies the Lanarkshire one does have its problematic moments with post-match battles between the rival fans, but this is not what derby day is for. The derby may be about local dominance however, for true fans ill feelings towards their enemy sides always remain but are not used to inflict violence.
Overall, the history of these fixtures may stem from a place of pride and are used to inflate a club’s ego, but it represents so much more. Derby day is a day to enjoy. Derby day is whatever one makes of it, some may choose to celebrate their rival’s defeat, others don’t care for the derby, but instead treat facing the Old Firm as the real derby day. All fans are different, but all can agree that there is nothing sweeter than getting a good result against a team you have a grievance against.