 | |||
| Full name | Scarborough Football Club Ltd | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nicknames | Seadogs,Boro | ||
| Founded | 1879; 146 years ago (1879) | ||
| Dissolved | 20 June 2007; 18 years ago (20 June 2007) | ||
| Ground | Athletic Ground | ||
| Capacity | 6,408 | ||
| 2006–07 | Conference North, 20th | ||
Scarborough Football Club was afootball club based in theseaside resort ofScarborough, North Yorkshire. They were one of the oldest football clubs in England, formed in 1879, before they were wound up on 20 June 2007, with debts of £2.5 million.[1] They played at theAthletic Ground from 1898 until the club's dissolution.
Scarborough formed in 1879 and entered theFA Cup for the first time in 1887. They entered theNorthern League in 1898 and remained there for 28 years, apart from four seasons spent in the Yorkshire Combination from 1910 to 1914. They moved to theYorkshire League in 1926 and switched to theMidland League the following year, being crowned as Midlands League champions in 1929–30. In 1960, they moved into the Northern Counties League, and would win theNorth Eastern League title in their only season in the division – 1962–63. Returning to the Midland League, they became founder members of theNorthern Premier League in 1968. They won theFA Trophy on three occasions in the 1970s:1973,1975–76 and1976–77, and were runners-up in1974–75.
Scarborough were founder members of theAlliance Premier League (later named the Conference) in 1979 and in 1987 were the first team to secure automatic promotion to theFootball League, which had been introduced for the 1986–87 season. They were relegated back down to the Conference in 1999, and then were relegated into theConference North after enteringadministration in 2006. At the end of the2006–07 season, Scarborough finished in 20th place, which would have resulted in their relegation to the Northern Premier League had the club not instead been liquidated. A new supporter-owned "phoenix" club was established by the Seadog Trust under the bannerScarborough Athletic on 25 June 2007,[2] and one year later a second supporter-owned club, Scarborough Town, also came into existence, which itself folded in 2013.[3]
The club was formed in 1879 by members of the town's cricket team, and played their earliest games at thecricket ground onNorth Marine Road. The football club soon moved to the nearby Recreation Ground.[4] In 1898, Scarborough Football Club made the move across town to theAthletic Ground on Seamer Road and remained there until 2007, though the ground was renamed The McCain Stadium in a pioneering sponsorship deal in 1988.
Scarborough first entered England's national cup competition, theFA Cup, in 1887. Before the club became professional, they spent their time competing in theNorthern League.
It was in 1927 the Yorkshire club became professional and joined theMidland League. After only three years, they became champions of it, breaking the record for most points in a season. The same year, the club were performing respectably in the FA Cup, reaching the third round, before going out 2–1 toGrimsby Town who were in the nation's top league at the time.
Club attendance records were broken when the club reached the same stage of the FA Cup again, during the 1937–38 season. The game againstLuton Town, which was a 1–1 draw, saw 11,162 people packed into theAthletic Ground. Unfortunately for Scarborough, they were soundly defeated 5–1 in the replay.
Because of their decent performance in the Midlands League, the club were entitled to become one of the founding clubs in the newNorthern Premier League in 1968. The 1970s would prove to be a successful time for the club; Scarborough won theFA Trophy three times atWembley Stadium, beatingWigan Athletic,Stafford Rangers andDagenham in the process.
However, there was also a tragedy for the club during the 1970s. On 18 May 1977, 21-year-old winger Tony Aveyard died after collapsing as a result of a head injury suffered in a match two days earlier.[5]
The 1970s also saw the club performing well in theFA Cup. They reached the third round in the 1975–76 season before losing 2–1 toCrystal Palace in a match that was featured onBBC'sMatch of the Day. During the 1977–78 season, they reached these heights again, with a third round clash againstBrighton & Hove Albion; they lost the tie 3–0 at theGoldstone Ground in front of 23,748 spectators.
They also took part in theAnglo-Italian Cup twice, beatingUdinese 4–0 in 1976,[6] and then beatingParma 2–0 during the following year's competition.[7] They lost 4–1 on aggregate toLecce in the final match.Gordon Banks played for Scarborough, in the opening game of that season's competition (againstMonza). By the end of the 1970s, Scarborough had been selected to be part of the newAlliance Premier League. They stayed in this league for several seasons with generally consistent finishing positions in mid-table. The club gained a new manager namedNeil Warnock, and his team became champions of the Conference in 1987. They were automatically promoted into the Football League, the first club to achieve this feat by this route.
In 1987, Scarborough were promoted into theFootball League Fourth Division. Scarborough hostedWolverhampton Wanderers on the first day of the season, an event which attracted national media attention, due to it being the club's debut match in the Football League. However, the match was marred by crowd trouble provoked by visiting Wolves supporters, with players having to leave the pitch during the match.[8]
Warnock stayed as manager of Scarborough until he left forNotts County in November 1988, and has since gone on to win numerous promotions for a string of league clubs. However, the subsequent years were rather less successful for Scarborough.
Scarborough qualified for the Fourth Division play-offs in 1989, courtesy of a fifth-place finish. They were knocked out at the semi-final stage 2–1 on aggregate byLeyton Orient.
The club had mixed fortunes during their stay in the Football League. They spent several seasons near the bottom, but reached the play-offs for promotion twice. They became giant killers in 1989 with a 3–2 victory in theLeague Cup overChelsea, after achieving a 1–1 draw during the first leg atStamford Bridge. Their cup runs continued to throw up good results following this, with a 7–6 aggregate win overPreston North End, and a 5–3 defeat againstSouthampton (including two goals fromAlan Shearer)[9] in 1991. In October 1989, however, Scarborough lost 7–0 to eventual runners-upOldham Athletic, in whichFrankie Bunn scored six of Oldham's goals, a record for an individual player that still stands.
Their best run however, came during the 1992–93 season, where Scarborough knockedBradford City,Coventry City andPlymouth Argyle out of the competition. This broughtArsenal to Scarborough in a tie which Arsenal narrowly won, 1–0 with aNigel Winterburn goal. Arsenal went on to win the League Cup that year.
In 1998, they qualified for the Third Division playoffs, but lost toTorquay United in the semi-finals. The following season would bring a relegation battle rather than a promotion challenge.
The last day of the1998–99 season – 8 May 1999 – saw Scarborough's final game as a Football League club, which they drew 1–1 at home to aPeterborough United side which featured future Premier League starsSimon Davies andMatthew Etherington. When the final whistle blew at the McCain Stadium,Carlisle United were still level with Plymouth Argyle and the Scarborough fans had already invaded the pitch to celebrate "survival", only for the news to come through within minutes that a last-minute goal from Carlisle's on-loan goalkeeperJimmy Glass had ensured Carlisle's survival and relegated Scarborough back to the Conference, twelve years after they had left it.[10] It was the first relegation in the history of Scarborough.
The1999–2000 season would begin for Scarborough in theConference – the same league they had won twelve years earlier. However, in their first season they only managed to finish in fourth place, thus failing to win promotion at the first attempt. The club maintained their football league youth policy. In this first season in the conference, the club's youth team, led by youth team manager Ian Kerr, won the football league youth alliance winning their last five games againstHull City,Bradford City,Preston North End,Carlisle United andWrexham without conceding a goal.
Poor results saw Scarborough at the bottom of the Conference by Christmas 2001. With relegation to theNorthern Premier League threatening, new chairman Malcolm Reynolds and managerRussell Slade oversaw a turnaround in the club's fortunes; the team finished twelfth at the end of the 2001–02 season. This was followed up by a seventh-place finish thefollowing season.
2003–04 brought a fifteenth-place finish in the Conference, with the highlight of the season being anFA Cup fourth round tie withChelsea at the McCain Stadium. Chelsea and England defenderJohn Terry scored the only goal of the game. Slade left to joinGrimsby Town,Nick Henry was appointed his successor and brought in his formerOldham Athletic team-mateNeil Redfearn as his assistant.
In the 2004–05 season, despite only finishing thirteenth in the league, Scarborough managed to go through the whole season unbeaten at home.
With the club at the bottom of the Conference, Henry was sacked in October 2005.Neil Redfearn took over as manager and brought in formerBarnsley coachEric Winstanley as assistant manager. Despite finishing bottom of the table in the 2005–06 season, Scarborough were not initially relegated, asCanvey Island resigned from the league andAltrincham were deducted 18 points for fielding an ineligible player, meaning that they occupied bottom position instead. However, the Conference were not convinced of the club's financial stability, and Scarborough ended up suffering the same fate asNorthwich Victoria had the previous year by being relegated to theConference North.
Neil Redfearn resigned in the 2006 close season and former Scarborough skipper and assistant managerMark Patterson replaced him. Patterson re-signed strikerTony Hackworth and defenderMark Hotte. The club started their first season in theConference North with minus 10 points as the club had been in administration. What proved to be their last game, on 28 April 2007, was a 1–0 win atHucknall Town.[11] However, Scarborough finished 20th, meaning that had they survived until the start of the 2007–08 season, they would have been relegated to theNorthern Premier League. On 4 May 2007, Patterson left the club after failing to agree a new contract.
The club had been hoping to move to a new stadium on the outskirts of town by the start of the 2009–10 season, with the proceeds from the sale of the McCain Stadium to a housing developer wiping out the club's historic debts in addition to providing the finance to build the new ground. However, a covenant existed on the McCain Stadium that restricted its use only to sporting activities. The club failed to convinceScarborough Borough Council that the proposals would raise enough money to both pay off the club's debts and build a new ground.[12] In 2017, the site of the stadium became aLidl supermarket.[13]
On 8 June 2007,The Football Association said that it was a very strong possibility that by 12 June, Scarborough F.C. may well go out of business. On 12 June, the club was given an eight-day "stay of execution", following a "change of heart" by their local Borough Council. But on 20 June, it was wound up in the High Court, ending its 128-year run as a club with debts of £2.5 million.[1][14]
However, the winding up of Scarborough F.C paved the way for the supporter's trust to form a club asScarborough Athletic and secure a place in theNorthern Counties East League.[2] Meanwhile, the Centre of Excellence, youth team and Football in the Community sections of Scarborough F.C. moved to the nearbyGeorge Pindar Community Sports College, with some assistance fromSheffield United.[15] In 2008, the youth system was extended by adding an adult team named Scarborough Town, which was admitted to the Teesside League for the 2008–09 season[16] and won the Division Two championship by going the entire season undefeated. In the 2009–10 season, Scarborough Town moved up into theWearside League and scored 140 goals in their 36 games, as they won the championship, as well as the Sunderland Shipowners Cup. Scarborough Town F.C. folded in June 2013.
The match-dayprogramme at Scarborough,The Boro Review, won theConference North programme awards for the 2006–07 season.[17] The club also had afanzine,Abandon chip!, which at the end of the 2006–07 season had reached Issue 5, and still continues today as aScarborough Athletic fanzine.
Player of the Year
|
|
|
|
League
Cup
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
