Elgin City

Elgin is a cathedral town in Moray, tucked into Scotland's northeast corner, far removed from the central belt where most of the country's football gets played. Borough Briggs, holding 4,520, has stood as the home ground since long before anyone in the town could vote on it, and the black-and-white shirts have carried the name Elgin City into competitions that once seemed out of reach for a club this size.

The club traces back to 1893, when Elgin Rovers and Vale of Lossie merged into one side. For most of its life it played in the Highland League, winning the title 14 times and adding 5 Highland League Cups along the way, before the Scottish Football League finally opened its doors in 2000. Since then Elgin City has stayed in the same tier of the senior pyramid — never relegated out of it, never promoted beyond it either.

Two afternoons stand apart from the rest. In 1968, Elgin reached the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup, still the furthest any Highland League club has gone in that competition. In 2013, the team held Rangers to a 1-1 draw at Ibrox. Gary Graham's 371 goals remain the club's scoring record, set across the late 1960s and early 1970s, and two goalkeepers who came through Borough Briggs, Scott Bain and Zander Clark, went on to play for Scotland.

None of that history carries the weight of the North Derby. Peterhead, the other club fighting for attention along this stretch of coast, is the fixture Elgin City supporters mark on the calendar before any other — a rivalry sharpened by geography as much as by anything either side has won.