Scarborough F.C.
Full name | Scarborough Football Club Ltd | ||
---|---|---|---|
Nickname(s) | Seadogs, Boro | ||
Founded | 1879 | ||
Dissolved | 2007 | ||
Ground | Athletic Ground | ||
Capacity | 6,408 | ||
2006–07 | Conference North, 20th | ||
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Scarborough Football Club was a football club based in the seaside resort of Scarborough, 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 the Athletic Ground from 1898 until the club's dissolution.
Scarborough formed in 1879 and entered the
.Scarborough were founder members of the Alliance Premier League (later named the Conference) in 1979 and in 1987 were the first team to secure automatic promotion to the Football 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 the Conference North after entering administration in 2006. At the end of the 2006–07 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 banner Scarborough 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]
History
The club was formed in 1879 by members of the town's cricket team, and played their earliest games at the
Early years
Scarborough first entered England's national cup competition, the
It was in 1927 the Yorkshire club became professional and joined the
Club attendance records were broken when the club reached the same stage of the FA Cup again, during the 1937–38 season. The game against
1970s FA Trophy success
Because of their decent performance in the Midlands League, the club were entitled to become one of the founding clubs in the new
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 the
They also took part in the
The Football League era
In 1987 Scarborough were promoted into the Football League Fourth Division. Scarborough hosted Wolves 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 for Notts 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 by Leyton 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 the
Their best run however came during the 1992–93 season, where Scarborough knocked Bradford City, Coventry City and Plymouth Argyle out of the competition. This brought Arsenal to Scarborough in a tie which Arsenal narrowly won, 1–0 with a Nigel Winterburn goal. Arsenal went on to win the League Cup that year.
In 1998, they qualified for the Division Three playoffs, but lost to Torquay United in the semi-finals. The following season would bring a relegation battle rather than a promotion challenge.
The last day of the
Back in non-league football
The
Poor results saw Scarborough at the bottom of the Conference by Christmas 2001. With relegation to the Northern Premier League threatening, new chairman Malcolm Reynolds and manager Russell Slade oversaw a turnaround in the club's fortunes; the team finished 12th at the end of the 2001–02 season. This was followed up by a 7th-place finish the following season.
In the 2004–05 season, despite only finishing 13th in the league, Scarborough managed to go through the whole season unbeaten at home.
With the club at the bottom of the Conference, manager Nick Henry was sacked in October 2005.
Final season
Dissolution
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. Scarborough failed to convince
On Friday 8 June 2007, the FA in London said that it was a very strong possibility that by 12 June Scarborough F.C. may well go out of business. On Tuesday 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 as
Programme and fanzine
The match-day
Records
- FA Cup, Best Performance: 2003–04, 4th Round v Chelsea
- Football League Cup, Best Performance: 1992–93, 4th Round v Arsenal
- Record Victory: 11–0 over Stamford, 14 December 1963
- Record Defeat: 1–16 by South Bank, 15 November 1919
- Record Football League Win: 5–2 over Torquay United, 24 September 1988
- Record Football League Defeat: 1–7 by Wigan Athletic, 11 March 1997
- Most Goals in a Season: 58, Billy Clayson, 1932–33
- Record Attendance: 11,162 v Luton Town, 8 January 1938
- Record Transfer Fee Received: £240,000, Chris Short to Notts County in 1990
- Record Transfer Fee Paid: £102,000, Martin Russell from Leicester City in 1989
Players
Player of the Year
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Managerial history
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Honours and achievements
League
- Football Conference (level 5)
- Champions: 1986–87
- North Eastern League
- Champions: 1962–63
- Midland League
- Champions: 1929–30
Cup
- FA Trophy
- Northern Premier League Cup
- Winners: 1976–77
- Bob Lord Trophy
- Winners: 1984
- Runners-up: 1983
- North Riding Senior Cup
- Winners: 19 occasions since 1909
- Scarborough & East Riding County Cup
- Winners: 1885–86, 1887–88, 1888–89, 1890–91, 1891–92, 1892–93, 1896–97, 1900–01, 1901–02, 1903–04
- Runners-up: 1886–87, 1894–95, 1897–98
- Anglo-Italian Cup
- Runners-up: 1976
References
- ^ Yorkshire Post, 20 June 2007
- ^ a b "Town's fans get new football club" – BBC Sport
- ^ New boys Town confirm Cook role Scarborough Evening News
- ^ "Scarborough FC: club history", BBC, 12 October 2005
- ^ "MEMORIES OF AN OLDTIMER". Archived from the original on 18 March 2002. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
- ^ "The Anglo-Italian Cup Results 1976", English Football Archive
- ^ "The Anglo-Italian Cup Results 1977", English Football Archive
- ^ British Football's Terrace Wars - Scarborough v Wolverhampton Wanderers 15/08/1987 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v662DI3dt1U
- ^ "Shearer". docs.ufpr.br. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ^ "Jimmy Glass - the Great Escape Carlisle Utd". YouTube.
- ^ "Hucknall Town 0 Scarborough 1", Hucknall Town F.C. official site
- ^ "Boro begin hunt for new home" Archived 15 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The Press, 22 June 2007
- ^ Gavaghan, Carl (16 February 2017). "Kick-off for Lidl as German giant opens in town". The Scarborough News. Retrieved 10 January 2018 – via PressReader.
- ^ "Scarborough FC go out of business", BBC Sport, 20 June 2007
- ^ "22 April 2008 – Press Release" Archived 27 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "New Boys Town voted into Teesside League"
- ^ "The Boro Review wins award" Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Scarborough F.C. official site, 26 March 2007
External links
- Scarborough at the Football Club History Database