Scarborough F.C.
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| Full name | Scarborough Football Club Ltd | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | The Seadogs The Seasiders Boro |
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| Founded | 1879 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dissolved | 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | McCain Stadium Scarborough (Capacity 6,400) |
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| 2006-07 | Conference North, 20th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Scarborough Football Club were an English football team 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 £2.5m.[1]
In the 2006-07 season Scarborough competed in the Conference North. They started the season with a 10-point deduction, for a breach of league rules, and finished in 20th place which would have resulted in their relegation to the Northern Premier League. Their last ever game, on 28 April 2007, was a 1-0 win at Hucknall Town.[2]. A new club was established by the Seadog Trust under the banner Scarborough Athletic F.C. on June 25, 2007.[3]
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[edit] History
The club was formed in 1879 by members of the town's cricket team, and played their earliest games at the cricket ground in North Marine Road. The football club soon moved to the nearby Recreation Ground.[4] In 1898, Scarborough Football Club made the move across town to the Athletic Ground in Seamer Road and remained there until 2007, though the ground was renamed The McCain Stadium in a pioneering sponsorship deal in 1988.
[edit] Early years
Scarborough first entered England's national cup competition, the FA Cup in 1887. Before the club became professional they spent their time competing in the Northern League.
It was in 1927 the Yorkshire club became professional and joined the Midland 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 to Grimsby 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 against Luton Town, which was a 1-1 draw, saw 11,162 people packed into the Athletic Ground. Unfortunately for Scarborough they were soundly defeated 5-1 in the replay.
[edit] 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 Northern Premier League in 1968. The 1970s would prove to be a successful time for the club; Scarborough FC won the FA Trophy three times at Wembley Stadium, beating Wigan Athletic, Stafford Rangers and Dagenham in the process.
The 70s also saw the club performing well in the FA Cup. They reached the Third Round in the 1975-76 season before losing 2-1 to Crystal Palace in a match that was featured on BBC's "Match of the Day". During the 1977-78 season, they reached these heights again, with a Third Round clash against Brighton and Hove Albion; they lost the tie 3-0 at Goldstone Ground in front of 23,748 spectators.
They also took part in the Anglo-Italian Cup twice, beating Udinese 4-0 in 1976[5] and then beating Parma 2-0 during the following year's competition.[6] In 1976 they lost 4-1 on aggregate to Italian side US Lecce in the final match of the Anglo-Italian Semiprofessional Tournament. By the end of the 1970s, Scarborough had been selected to be part of the new Alliance Premier League, known today as the Football Conference. They stayed in this league for several seasons with generally consistent finishing positions in mid-table. The club gained a new manager named Neil Warnock, and his team became champions of the re-named Vauxhall Conference in 1987. They were automatically promoted into the Football League, the first club to achieve this feat by this route.
[edit] The Football League Era
In 1987 Scarborough were promoted into the Football League Fourth Division, which after English football introduced the FA Premier League became Division Three in 1992.
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 League Cup over Chelsea, after achieving a 1-1 draw during the first leg at Stamford Bridge. Their cup runs continued to throw up good results following this, with a 7-6 aggregate win over Preston North End, and a 5-3 defeat against Southampton in 1991.
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.
In 1998 they qualified for the Division Three playoffs, but lost to Torquay United in the semi-finals.
In the Division Three, a last-minute goal from Carlisle United's on-loan goalkeeper Jimmy Glass on the last day of the 1998-99 season brought about the first relegation in the history of Scarborough FC, condemning them to the Conference 12 years after they had left it.
[edit] Back in non-league football
The 1999-2000 season would begin for Scarborough in the Conference - 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.
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.
2003-04 brought a 15th-place finish in the Conference, with the highlight of the season being an FA Cup 4th-Round tie with Chelsea at the re-named McCain Stadium. Chelsea and England defender John Terry scored the only goal of the game. Slade left to join Grimsby Town, Nick Henry was appointed his successor and brought in his former Oldham team-mate Neil Redfearn as his assistant. 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. Neil Redfearn took over as manager and brought in former Barnsley coach Eric Winstanley as assistant manager. Despite finishing bottom of the table in 2005/06, Scarborough were not initially relegated, as Canvey Island resigned from the league and Altrincham 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 as Northwich Victoria had the previous year by being relegated to the Conference North.
[edit] Final season
Neil Redfearn resigned in the 2006 close season and former Scarborough skipper and assistant manager Mark Patterson replaced him. Patterson re-signed striker Tony Hackworth and defender Mark Hotte. The club started their first season in the Conference 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 at Hucknall Town[2] but Scarborough finished 20th meaning that had they survived until the start of the 2007-08 season, they would have been relegated to the Northern Premier League. On 4 May 2007 Mark Patterson left the Club after failing to agree a new deal.
[edit] 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 the Scarborough Borough Council that its proposals would raise enough money to both to pay off the debts and build a new ground.[7]
On Friday 8 June 2007, the FA in London said that it was a very strong possibility that by June 12 Scarborough FC may well go out of business. However, on Tuesday 12 June, Scarborough F.C. were given an eight day 'stay of execution' following a 'change of heart' by their local Borough Council. But, on June 20, they were wound up in the High Court, ending its 128-year run as a club with debts of £2.5m.[1][8]
However, the winding up of Scarborough F.C paved the way for the supporter's trust to form a club as Scarborough Athletic and secure a place in the Northern Counties East League.[3] Meanwhile the Centre of Excellence, youth team and Football in the Community sections of Scarborough Football Club moved to the nearby George Pindar Community Sports College with some assistance from Sheffield United FC. In 2008 the youth system was extended by adding an adult team named Scarborough Town which was admitted to the Tessside League for 2008-09.
[edit] Managers
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[edit] Players
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For more details on this topic, see List of Scarborough F.C. players.
Clubman of the Year
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[edit] Honours
- Nationwide Conference
- Champions - 1987
- Northern Premier League Cup
- Winners - 1977
- North Riding Senior Cup
- Winners - on 19 occasions since 1909
- North Eastern League Cup
- Winner - 1963
- 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
- Pontin's Central League, Division 3
- Champions 1998
- Northern Counties East League, Division 1 (North)
- Champions 1983
- Yorkshire Combination
- Runners-up 1911
[edit] Records
- FA Cup, Best Performance: 2004, 4th Round v Chelsea F.C.
- Football League Cup, Best Performance: 1992-3, 4th Round v Arsenal
- Record Victory: 11-0 over Stamford, 14 Dec 1963
- Record Defeat: 1-16 by Southbank, 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: 11,130 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
[edit] Programme and fanzine
The match-day programme at Scarborough, The Boro Review, won the Conference North programme awards for 2006-07.[9] The club also had a fanzine, Abandon Chip!, which at the end of the 2006-07 season had reached Issue 5.
[edit] Stadium information
- Name - McCain Stadium
- City - Scarborough
- Capacity - 6,408
- Inauguration - 1898
- Closed - 2007
- Pitch Size - 114 x 74 yards[10]
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Scarborough FC wound up after 128 years", Yorkshire Post, 20 June 2007
- ^ a b "Hucknall Town 0 Scarborough 1", Hucknall Town F.C. official site
- ^ a b "Town's fans get new football club" - BBC Sport
- ^ "Scarborough FC: club history", BBC, 12 October 2005
- ^ "The Anglo-Italian Cup Results 1976", English Football Archive
- ^ "The Anglo-Italian Cup Results 1977", English Football Archive
- ^ "Boro begin hunt for new home", The Press, 22 June 2007
- ^ "Scarborough FC go out of business", BBC Sport, 20 June 2007
- ^ "The Boro Review wins award", Scarborough F.C. official site, 26 March 2007
- ^ "McCain Stadium", Soccerbase.com
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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Scarborough Football Club
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