Scarborough FC was a football club representing the town
of the same name, who were formed in 1879, originally as Scarborough Cricketers
FC as a way of staying fit for the cricket players during the winter months.
The team played their games at Scarborough Cricket Club on North Marine Road before moving to the
nearby Recreation Ground, where Woodall Avenue now stands.
The team initially played in local football before being
accepted into the Northern League, after two failed attempts, and being placed
in Division Two for the 1898-99 season. At the same time, the club moved across
town to play at the Athletic Ground on Seamer Road.
In the 1909-10 season, the club competed in the FA Amateur
Cup. One of the club’s players had been ill, and a fundraising game had assisted
him with his treatment. ‘Boro’ defeated Preston Winckley, but their opponents
were awarded the game as the FA had deemed the raising of money meant that the
club were professional.
The following season saw Scarborough join the Yorkshire
Combination, where they finished as runners-up in their debut season, before
reverting to the Northern League in 1914-15. The club joined the Yorkshire
League in 1926-27 for one season before turning professional and becoming
members of the Midland League. The reserve side joined the Yorkshire League in
1928.
After finishing as runners-up in the Midland League in
1927-28, Scarborough were crowned as champions in 1929-30. In the 1938-39
season, Boro defeated North Shields, Darlington and Bromley in the FA Cup to set
up a third-round tie with Luton Town. The game ended 1-1 at the Athletic Ground
in front of a crowd of 11,162 before the team bowed out 5-1 in the replay at
Kenilworth Road.
The club left the Midland League over the War years, playing a comeback campaign in the Scarborough & District League, before
returning for the 1946-47 season with George Hall in charge of the team. Harold
Taylor, who took the side to the second round of the FA Cup, and then Frank
Taylor had short spells as manager before former Leicester City player Reg
Halton took over.
Throughout the 1950’s Scarborough regularly appeared in
the first round of the FA Cup where they were defeated on a couple of occasions
by Rhyl, as well as Mansfield Town, Wigan Athletic, York City and Bradford City
with George Higgins taking over as manager in 1957 before Andy Smailes replaced
him a couple of years later.
In 1960-61, the 'Seasiders’ became founder members of the Northern Counties League before making the move to the re-formed North Eastern
League in 1962-63, becoming champions at the first attempt under popular
manager Eddy Brown.
The title persuaded the club to rejoin the Midland League
for the following season, where they ended as runners-up. Former players Albert
Franks and then Stuart Myers had spells as manager before the club directors
looked after team affairs as Scarborough became founder members of the Northern
Premier League in 1968-69.
That debut season saw Boro narrowly escape relegation,
which led the club to employ local lad Colin Appleton as player-manager after
his successful spells as skipper of Leicester City and Charlton Athletic, as
well as a term as Barrow manager.
The 1960s had seen Scarborough appear in the FA Cup
first round on several occasions, with memorable ties with Bradford Park Avenue,
Crewe Alexandra and Altrincham. The 1964-65 season saw Boro defeat Bradford
City before being defeated by Doncaster Rovers in a replay.
The transformation under Appleton’s stewardship was
instant as the team never left the top four positions for the following four
seasons, coming close to lifting the title in 1968-69. However, it would be in
the cup competitions that Scarborough gave their fans so many memorable moments
throughout the 1970s.
The team had reached the first round of the FA Cup, going
out to Workington and then Hartlepool United, before the 1972-73 run saw a win
against Oldham Athletic in a replay at the Athletic Ground before going out to
Doncaster Rovers.
The FA Trophy of that season would be etched forever in the club's history. Wins against Macclesfield Town, Sandbach Ramblers,
Mexborough Town and Chelmsford City set up a semi-final against Ashford Town of
Kent at London Road, Peterborough, in the final season of neutral grounds being
used.
Appleton fired Boro to Wembley with a second-half penalty.
In the final against Wigan Athletic, Malcolm Leask put Scarborough ahead before
being pegged back in stoppage time. Malcolm Thompson’s extra-time goal won the
match 2-1.
Appleton headed off at the end of the season to become
the assistant to Lawrie McMenemy at Grimsby Town, with Kenny Boyes taking charge
of the team as Crewe Alexandra were put out of the FA Cup before the side were
defeated away to Port Vale.
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My drawings of the Athletic Ground of the 80s & 70s, along with team kits and club crests. Click on the images for larger views. |
Former Hull City player Ken Houghton came in as
player-manager in the summer of 1974 and made some wise signings. His side went
on another FA Trophy run, defeating Gateshead United, Boston United, Enfield,
Wimbledon in front of over 8,000 fans at the Athletic Ground, and then Bedford
Town to face Matlock Town at Wembley.
The match saw Boro lay siege on the Matlock goal, but they
could not convert their chances, while the Derbyshire side scored from each of
their attempts on target to win 4-0.
Appleton returned as manager in the 1975 postseason and set
about more heroics. By now, Boro had been given an exemption to begin their FA Cup
campaign from the first round. Morecambe and Preston North End were defeated
before eventual semi-finalists Crystal Palace ended the run, in front of the
Match of the Day cameras.
However, any disappointment for Boro fans soon gave way
in the FA Trophy. Wins against Willington, Goole Town, Dagenham, Tooting &
Mitcham United and Enfield set up a final against rival Northern Premier League
side Stafford Rangers.
Once again, Boro were taken to extra time before they
could claim a 3-2 victory with goals from John Woodall, Derek Abbey and a last-minute penalty from Sean Marshall. The season also saw Boro play in the Anglo-Italian Trophy, which ended in an aggregate defeat to US Lecce, while they also competed in the
Anglo-Italian Cup, in which Udinese were beaten.
In the 1976-77 season, Boro defeated
Parma before going on to retain the FA Trophy with victories over Frickley
Athletic, Walthamstow Avenue, Hitchin Town, Nuneaton Borough and an epic four-game semi-final against Altrincham, setting up a Wembley final against Dagenham.
In the 1977 final, Boro had to come back from a goal down
to win with two late goals from Abbey and a Harry ‘A’ Dunn penalty. The joy turned
to terrible sadness just a few days later when twenty-one-year-old winger Tony
Aveyard died as a result of a head collision.
The 1977-78 season saw another fine FA Cup run with wins
over Rochdale and Crewe Alexandra before a third-round defeat away to Brighton
& Hove Albion. The following season, Boro were beaten in round two at York
City. Throughout the stellar cup year, the side never finished outside the top
five in league action.
Scarborough were founder members of the Alliance Premier
League in 1979-80 while legendary manager Colin Appleton moved aside in 1981
with Jim McAnearney his replacement, whose spell lasted just a couple of years.
Stalwart skipper and record appearance holder Harry Dunn
had a short spell at the helm before he was replaced by John Cottam. Boro were
a struggling club at the time. Former chairman Don Robinson had taken charge at
Hull City, where he appointed Colin Appleton as manager. His entrepreneurial
talents were missed. Gates and finances were both low.
Harry Dunn had a longer spell in charge between 1984 and
1986 as the league was renamed the Gola League and then the Football
Conference, before the chairman of the day, Barry Adamson, made an appointment which
would change the club forever.
Neil Warnock was appointed from Burton Albion as the new
Scarborough manager as he signed on fifteen new players, and despite starting
the season as 50/1 outsiders, they went on to win the Conference title to
become the first club to be automatically promoted into The Football League.
Boro also reached the last eight of the FA Trophy before going out to Fareham
Town.
Stars of the season were Kevin Blackwell, Ces Podd, Steve
Richards, Tommy Graham, Ray McHale, Mitch Cook and Stewart Mell. The season was marred when chairman Adamson died of a
heart attack while trying to break up crowd trouble at the Trophy match against
Morecambe.
Former player Terry Wood took his place until the end of the season, when Peter Gargett took over the chair. The squad was strengthened for their first season in the
Football League. Improvements were made to the Athletic Ground, but the first
few home games were marred by crowd trouble. Within a few months, high fences
were fitted at the front of the terraced areas.
Boro completed a successful first season in a mid-table
position. The club was sold to Leeds-based businessman Geoffrey Richmond in the
summer of 1988. The owner of Ronson lighters, Richmond, authorised several big-money signings such as forward Steve Norris.
In a groundbreaking move, the Athletic Ground became the
first football ground in the League to be renamed under a sponsorship deal, as
it became the McCain Stadium. On New Year's Eve, Boro went top of Division Four
when the news broke that Warnock had resigned.
His replacement was veteran winger Colin Morris, who took
the side to the playoffs, where Boro went out to Leyton Orient in the
semi-final. The League Cup brought national media attention to the club as
Halifax Town and Portsmouth were defeated before Boro went out to Southampton
in a replay at The Dell.
It was during the run that a TV voiceover rounding up the
goals on national TV mentioned in the Portsmouth game about the ‘Seadogs of
Scarborough’. From that time on, the fans and eventually the club took on that
nickname.
Richmond announced plans for the club to move to a new
stadium on the edge of town on the Dunslow Road Trading Estate. Morris led the side to wins against Scunthorpe United and
Chelsea in the League Cup the following season, with record signing Martin
Russell starring. Boro went out in the next round 7-0 to Oldham Athletic on the
artificial pitch at Boundary Park.
Morris departed in early 1989, with Ray McHale taking his
place. Russell and goalkeeper Ian Ironside were sold on during his tenure,
which was not helped when chairman Richmond put on unnecessary pressure by
promising free season tickets to those purchasing the previous season if Boro
failed to reach the play-offs.
This was despite McHale putting together a fantastic side
featuring Tommy Mooney and Darren Foreman, who played some lovely football as
Bradford City, Coventry City and Plymouth Argyle were knocked out of the League
Cup before Arsenal won at a fogbound McCain Stadium in round four.
McHale was replaced by his assistant Phil Chambers, who
lasted just a few months before Steve Wicks came in. Richmond swapped his
chairman position with the chairman of Bradford City, Dave Simpson, who, in turn, sold Scarborough FC to locally based businessman John Russell.
Wicks got the team playing some excellent football before
he was sacked in a dispute over budgets before the start of the 1994-95
campaign. The new boss was a former Boro hero, Billy Ayre, who played at centre
back in the final two Wembley triumphs.
Unfortunately, a mixture of poor form and a poor budget
meant that things didn’t work out for Ayre, who was replaced by the returning
McHale. The season had seen Boro reach the third round of the FA Cup following
victories over Chesterfield and Port Vale, before the Seadogs went out in a
replay at Vicarage Road against Watford.
Both the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons saw Boro hang on to their
League status by the skin of their teeth after finishing second from bottom of
the table, at a time when only the bottom side went down. Toward the end of the
latter season, Mitch Cook had replaced McHale in an unsuccessful term.
The summer of 1996 saw Mick Wadsworth arrive as manager, as
Hull City were defeated in the League Cup before Boro went out to Leicester
City. Wadsworth built a fine side with Gareth Williams, Steve Brodie, Andy
Ritchie, Gary Bennett and Jason Rocket starring. After a mid-table finish, Boro reached the playoffs in
1997-98 as money was thrown at the squad.
The experienced Ian Snodin and Paul
Atkins came in, but injuries and the age of the side eventually did for Boro as
they went out in the semi-final to Torquay United. The defeat was to prove costly for the club. It became
obvious that Russell had gambled the club's finances on the win as the stadium
had been fitted with two new stands.
Several players were forced to depart
because of budgetary constraints. With the team struggling, Wadsworth departed in January
1999. Derek Mountfield and Ray McHale took charge of a couple of games with the
squad down to bare bones before the experienced Colin Addison arrived at the
club.
The new manager brought in a plethora of new and loan
signings, including goalkeeper Tony Parks and full-back Graeme Atkinson. Heartbreakingly, Boro were relegated in stoppage time on the final day of
the season when Jimmy Glass, Carlisle United’s loan goalkeeper, scored in their
game with Plymouth Argyle to leapfrog the Seadogs.
Back in the Conference, Boro finished in third spot in the
1999-00 season. Wins against Ilkeston Town, Stocksbridge Park Steels and
Burnham saw the team reach the fifth round of the FA Trophy before going out
away to Bishop Auckland.
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The McCain Stadium at the turn of the millennium and team kits. For a larger view, click on the image. |
Addison resigned soon after the start of the following campaign, as Neil
Thompson was appointed. Russell was now losing popularity at quite a
rate. The club entered into a CVA, and Russell sold the club to Darryl
Littlewood from Halifax, who used the money from a friend's lottery win to buy
the club.
Football philanthropist and future Gretna owner and
Northern League sponsor, Brooks Mileson, got involved in October 2000 and
brought in Keith Agar, a man with a controversial football background, as
General Manager.
The club had spent a second spell in Administration, and a
CVA failed when Mileson sold the club in November 2001 to Malcolm Reynolds, a
businessman with a financial background. He appointed the experienced Russell
Slade as manager with Boro ten points adrift at the bottom of the table.
The change with Slade in charge was remarkable as he
found hungry young players who reached the fourth round of the FA Trophy with
wins over Hednesford Town and Barnet before bowing out to Morecambe in a
replay. In the league, the side finished in mid-table. Fans were expecting a challenge for the play-offs the
following season, but Boro finished in seventh place.
The 2003-04 campaign saw
the team slip to a finish below halfway, but it was in the FA Cup that the
Seadogs got worldwide attention. The run saw Hinckley United, Doncaster Rovers, Port Vale, and Southend United dispatched. This took Scarborough to the fourth round for
the first ever time, where they were drawn at home to Chelsea in a game that saw
the Blues win 1-0 before a live audience on Sky TV.
The run was desperately required as the club continued to
struggle financially. Reynolds and his colleague on the board, Ian Scobbie, announced that the Cup money would secure the club's future. Slade departed for
Grimsby Town at the end of the season. Reynolds unveiled plans for a new stadium near the
railway line off Dunslow Road, near where Richmond had intended to build his
new stadium back in 1989.
Moneys were borrowed in advance to keep the club in
business. Slade was replaced by midfielder Nick Henry, whose side
finished unbeaten at home during the 2004-05 campaign, but poor away form led
to a mid-table finish. Henry’s budget was extremely tight, and he was replaced for the 2005-06 season by midfielder Neil Redfearn.
Once again, another manager was hamstrung by financial
constraints. This, allied to some terrible performances, saw Boro relegated to
Conference North at the end of the season.
The finances got worse as Reynolds was barred from being a
company director as Boro were found to be trading illegally. Scobbie took over
as chairman while the team were deducted ten points because of their financial
position, with the club being severely restricted in their signing of players.
Former midfield man Mark Patterson came in as manager to
work alongside Mitch Cook. Gates dropped as supporters lost faith in those
running the club. The team put in some remarkable performances under the
circumstances, but the ten-point penalty proved too much to drag back while the
signing embargo remained in place.
In April 2007, Scarborough FC were relegated from the Conference
North after a home draw against Leigh RMI. They should have played in the
Northern Premier League Premier Division in the 2007-08 season. However, after several brushes with the courts and the
FA, Scarborough FC was wound up by the High Court on the 20th June 2007 with
debts of £2.5M.
The supporters' Seadogs Trust had been set up the previous
November; initially to try and obtain shares in the club and eventually run it
as a fan-owned organisation. However, as it was becoming more obvious that the
club could fold, the trust made preparations to form a replacement club.
On the 25th June 2007, Scarborough Athletic FC
were successful in their application for membership to the Northern Counties
East League and the NRCFA. To read about Athletic, click here.
Unfortunately, not all supporters agreed with the setting
up of the new club. A year later, some of them formed Scarborough Town FC, which
entered the Wearside League. Please click here to read about Town.
RIP Scarborough Football Club and The Athletic Ground
5 comments:
top quality rob m8, loved the away trips, the home games, and the boys who travelled, but reading what ya said....richmond was atwat, others were worse...but john russell was a total CUNT, excuse my language those ov you reading this. my best memories were with this great club, and 1 thing will always stay with me....BORO TILL I DIE.xx
Thanks for the memories rob,lots of sadness but I like to remember the lafs,funniest moment ever was when neil trebble scored (funny in it's self)and frogga hurdeled the hordings waiting for his hero arms outstreched only for neil to flattern the hapless frogga god we did laf i don't need to put date and team cos no doubt rob yo'll know. lyn was just saying your knowledge is phenomenal you should have been a journalist......gone but not forgotten see u at weaponess in 3 years. all the best 4 2011. baz
Like the blog mate, found it originally googling for pictures of dog racing for our blog of greyhound racing pictures, specifically of Clapton Dogs.
Sadly couldn't find any of Clapton, but on google your picture of Bristol Rover's old Gasworks dog track popped up
Visited the Stadium of Chips with Barnet in the early 2000's, was 2-2 if memory serves me correctly, and there was a motor bike race going on around the hill behind the stadium. Sad to see the club fold, ditto to Halifax (also happy away days at the Shay).
Chris
Happy days Rob. Remember when we did a days work, drove to Southampton for a cup tie and drove back just in time to go back to work.
Hartlepool police treating the lads on the mini bus as potential hooligans...age range from 11 to 60. Just to make sure we didn't stop in Guisborough we had a police escort from Hartlepool to Whitby boundary.
Great days with the bar my army. I'd have them back tomorrow. Scarborough til I die.
RC
Great piece. Don't know if you are still active on here but I would love to pick your brains on Scarborough's 96/97 squad. I am currently writing a comedy book and would like to just get a couple of fan perspectives from that season.
Feel free to email me on alexjameshall@hotmail.com
Cheers
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