[4] Its first competitive football was in the Edinburgh Shield that season[5] The first serious impact the club had on the local stage was reaching the final of the Consolation Cup in 1886–87, against Bo'ness, which went to three matches before Bo'ness won,[6] albeit the second match was abandoned after Thistle fans swept onto the pitch in protest at the refereeing and refused to leave.

In the second round Broxburn won 9–3 at Adventurers - coming from 3–1 down at half-time, and being aided greatly by the Adventurers goalkeeper unable to play the second half because of an injury[12] - and gave Hearts an almighty shock in the third, taking a 2–0 lead in the first ten minutes thanks to a chip from Marr and a tap-in from Russell, before the Edinburgh side brought it back to 2–2 with ten minutes to go.

[15] With no convenient telegraph office in the village, those unable to go to the match were kept updated by pigeon; 1,000 Broxburn locals greeted the team at the station on its return with the trophy, and an estimated 3–4,000 were waiting at the Strathbock Hotel for a celebratory dinner.

[16] In 1889–90, the club won the Linlithgowshire Cup for the first time, beating the same opponents in the final, this time far more comfortably, with a 7–0 scoreline, goals including a 30-yard screamer from Marr and McCann scoring one in-off the bar;[17] however the Linlithgowshire had dropped by now to six clubs and Broxburn only played a semi-final before the final.

However, Broxburn equalized, one of the goals being "strongly appealed against" on the grounds of offside, and then seemingly took the lead from a header; referee James Archer gave the goal after consulting with a linesman, while the Rovers complained that the ball had gone "10 inches" over the bar (for which there was some support from Mr Brodie of Bo'ness, at the match in his role as a Linlithgowshire FA committee member).

"After some fruitless minutes had been spent in altercation" on the pitch, the Rovers walked off, and Broxburn waited with Mr Archer until the expiration of time.

Broxburn's attempt at a joining a league, in 1891–92, proved disastrous - the Eastern Football Alliance not even surviving one season.

By the start of 1894, the club only had "two or three of the old players" left, the majority having moved to England as professionals or "new pastures "Eastwards", for a friendly with Bathgate on 6 January 1894.