Eastern was formed in 1872 by members of the original
Thistle club. The club's first game, at Fleshers' Haughs, took place on 25 January 1873, against a Celtic football club, and ended in a 4–0 win to Eastern, although the Celtic goalkeeper claimed the score was merely 3–0. Eastern were one of the eight clubs that agreed to form the SFA in March that year. Eastern participated in Scottish Cup tournaments between
1873–74 and
1876–77, reaching the quarter-finals on the first two occasions; its run in
1874–75 included a 3–0 win over
Kilmarnock, despite thoughts that the Eastern "hardly played with its usual fettle". A member of Eastern, James McIntyre, was selected to referee the first
Scottish Cup final between
Queen's Park and
Clydesdale on 21 March 1874. The same year the Eastern in effect took over the smaller
Callander club, fielding a number of Callander players in matches from early in 1874. The club's final Cup tie was against
Alexandra Athletic in 1876. The clubs drew the first game, and Eastern won the second 2–0, but the Athletes protested on the basis that the referee who took charge of the match had not been agreed beforehand; ironically, this was down to Eastern objecting to the Alexandra nominee, but Eastern called the protest "a mean subterfuge to attempt to wrest the honours which have already been fairly won". Perhaps as a result of the Scottish FA acceding to the protest, and the Athletes winning the third match, Eastern does not seem to have played football again, with members instead forming the
Clyde club, and possibly also joining the
Stonefield club which, with Clyde, took over the Eastern ground. ==Colours==