“For fully sixty years, in remuneration and life-style, the Scottish professional footballer filled the role of the aristocrat of the working-classes. He was not remote, as the music-hall stars were; he lived among the men who admission money paid him, and he spoke and often dressed as they did. Football provided a chance, hazardous in the extreme, but at least a chance, of escaping the drudgery of nineteenth century working-class life”. Bob Crampsey, The Scottish Footballer. The link between the industrial and sporting life of Alloa in the late 19th and early 20th century was obvious in the newspaper reports of the time. The Black and Gold jerseys adopted by Alloa Athletic ensured that the club would be known as The Wasps, but in the early days the team were also frequently labelled as ‘The Brewers’ and ‘The Glassblowers’. The "town of wool and ale" had it's shipyards too, and on periphery of the town were the mines. This story begins in one of the those mining commun...