The club was struggling with membership numbers and it was no doubt easier to field 11 players for association football for the season than the 15 required for rugby union.

It precipitated a merger with Greenock West End; a rugby union club in the town, with many members but no home.

The new club - as Greenock Wanderers - thus began in 1878; and as a result of the superior West End vote was now playing under rugby union rules.

In 1922 they were Feued to the Union by Sir Michael Hugh Shaw Stewart (8th Bart) and became known as the Fort Matilda Playing Fields.

First to open was the Fort Matilda Lawn Tennis Club on 28 April 1922 with their southerly courts facing Newark Street.

Greenock Wanderers, having secured a loan of £975 from the SRU to develop the two rugby pitches, had their opening match against Kelvinside Academicals on Saturday 14 October that year.

The upkeep of this building proved to be too expensive and as the Wanderers were unable to take it on themselves, it was decided to wind up the club and sell off the property.

This arrangement did not last long and after a somewhat nomadic existence, the FMBC finally settled in its current location at Tarbet Street, Gourock but retained the name of The Fort Matilda Bridge Club.