Preston Athletic F.C.

Preston Athletic Football Club is a Scottish senior non-league football club based in the town of Prestonpans, East Lothian. They are members of the East of Scotland Football League and currently play in its Premier Division.

The club are nicknamed the Panners, and play their home matches at Pennypit Park. The team normally play in dark blue.

Founded in 1945, they were originally a junior club, only entering the senior ranks in 1994 when they joined the East of Scotland League. The club has ambitions of progressing to an even higher level, having applied unsuccessfully to join the Scottish League in 2000 and 2002. It has been put forward that if the club is accepted to the Scottish League they shall change their name to East Lothian. [McColl, Brian (27 August 2006). [http://geocities.com/br1anmccoll/reelection.htm Scottish Football League re-election, elections and resignations] , "Scottish Football History". Retrieved on 22 October 2006]

As a full member of the Scottish Football Association, Preston are eligible to enter the Scottish Cup. They first qualified for the competition proper in 2002-03, losing 1–0 at home to Hamilton Academical in the First Round. The 2006-07 season will see them make their third Scottish Cup appearance.

Preston Athletic were one of 5 clubs to prepare an application for entry into the Scottish Football League following Gretna F.C. relinquishing their league status on 3rd June 2008. They were unsuccessful after losing out to Annan Athletic. The other unsuccessful clubs were Spartans, Cove Rangers and Edinburgh City. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/7487357.stm] , "BBC Sports". Retrieved on 3 July 2008]

References

External links

* [http://www.prestonathletic.co.uk Official club website]