In 1880, the club played its first competitive matches in the Ayrshire Cup, going all the way to the final, losing to Lugar Boswell.

player during an Ayrshire Cup tie,[5] and one of the club's forwards, Walter Dunlop, was seriously injured in a mining explosion which killed four of his co-workers.

[1] Its reputation as a hard side to play survived into the early 1890s, the club's tactics in its second and last Scottish Cup quarter-final against Rangers F.C.

[9] In 1891, the club was a founder member of the Ayrshire Football League, winning the competition in its first two seasons.

Further, the introduction of the qualifying rounds for the Scottish Cup in 1895 was also detrimental to the club; Annbank won the first-ever Scottish Qualifying Cup, beating East Stirlingshire in the final at Underwood Park in Paisley, the ground of Abercorn F.C.

; the Shire showed the greater skill, but the Miners, with the veteran "White" Gourlay marshalling the defence, gained something of a smash and grab victory.

[14] The club continued to enter the Scottish Cup until 1919-20, although it last reached the proper rounds in 1910-11, losing to Motherwell F.C.