Historic Balloch Juveniles name back in the game, as club relaunched

A newly reformed football team is aiming to put one of the area’s most historic sporting names back on the map.

Balloch Juveniles were a dominant force in the youth football scene of the 60s, 70s and 80s - becoming known as “the unbeatables” under the stewardship of Allan ‘Elkie’ Melville in 1965.

Now the team have reformed, with an iconic name in local football at helm - Joe Carson, son of Motherwell icon Joe Snr and nephew of Dumbarton and Vale of Leven star Tam - who is helping bring the Juveniles back into Scottish football.

Currently they run teams for players born in 2013 and 2014 and are working on starting a 2015s squad, and Joe is aiming to grew the club further - all whilst adhering to the principals his dad followed to stardom under the legendary Elkie.

Joe told the Lennox: “I’m extremely proud of having family members who started at Balloch and then went on to have good careers in football.

“Any time a story gets told it always starts with Balloch Juveniles and how big the demand was for putting hard work in. So that’s our way of thinking at the Juveniles in 2024.

“Keep the standards high and work hard, it doesn’t matter if it’s your first time kicking a ball if you are training with us you will come out a better player in a short time, that’s the goal now and it was the goal back then as well.

“We are very optimistic that we can grow the club and make it a place where people think of a great footballing standard with coaches that are friendly and ready to put in as much work as the kids.”

Joe says his dad - who made more than 150 appearances for Motherwell - is proud to see the name being resurrected.

He continued: “My dad has been chuffed to bits to see it up and running and he always wonders what Elkie