History of Scarborough Football Club
The Recreational Ground
Scarborough Football Club is one of the oldest in the country, having been formed in 1879 and celebrated its 125th anniversary on 2nd October 2004. The club was formed by members of the local cricket team and originally played at the town's cricket ground in North Marine Road, but in 1898 moved to the Athletic Ground on Seamer Road which remains their home to this day despite having changed its name to the McCain Stadium in 1988 under a pioneering sponsorship deal.
The club first entered the FA Cup in 1887, and from 1898 played in the Northern League until the club turned professional and joined the Midland League in 1927. They were champions of this league in 1930 with a record number of points, and the following season reached the FA Cup Third Round where they lost 2-1 to top-division Grimsby Town in front of over 8,000 at the Athletic Ground. Boro reached this same stage of the FA Cup again in 1937-38, where a home game against Luton Town set the all-time attendance record of 11,162 at the Athletic Ground. The game finished 1-1, and Boro lost 5-1 in the replay. Local folklore states that the gate money from this game was put aboard the team coach but had become considerably less after visits to various hostelries on the way home!
Scarborough FC 1929-30
Scarborough's Midland League performances entitled them to become founder-members of the new Northern Premier League in 1968 and set the scene the most successful era of Boro's history, with three F.A. Trophy triumphs at Wembley. The trophy was won with a 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic in 1973, a 3-2 victory over Stafford Rangers in 1976 and a 2-1 win over Dagenham in 1977. 1975-76 saw the club reach the Third Round of the FA Cup for the third time in its history, with the 2-1 defeat to Malcolm Allison's Crystal Palace watched by over 8,000 at the Athletic Ground and millions more on BBC TV's "Match of the Day". Two years later, victories over Rochdale and Crewe saw Boro reach the Third Round again, where a visit to Brighton ended in a 3-0 defeat watched by 23,748 at the Goldstone Ground.
Scarborough's Northern Premier League results were consistent enough for the club to be selected as founder-members of the new Alliance Premier League in 1979. After seven seasons of generally finishing in mid-table, new manager Neil Warnock assembled a team which became champions of the re-named Vauxhall Conference in 1987 and was therefore promoted into the Football League under the brand-new system of automatic promotion.
Neil Warnock
The club's twelve-year period in the Football League was a mixture of highs and lows, with two appearances in the promotion play-offs but several seasons struggling near the bottom. The real highlights came in the League Cup - a magnificent 3-2 victory over Chelsea after a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in 1989, a 7-6 aggregate win over Preston North End followed by a 5-3 aggregate defeat to Southampton in 1991, and the best run of all in 1992-93 when victories over Bradford City, Coventry City and Plymouth Argyle brought the mighty Arsenal up to Yorkshire, where a solitary Nigel Winterburn goal gave the Gunners a narrow win.
The season of 1998-99 brought the very first relegation in Scarborough's entire history, when they finished bottom of the Football League and dropped back down to the Conference. Boro actually finished the season with 48 points from 46 games, but on the final day of the season Carlisle United gained a miraculous reprieve when on-loan goalkeeper Jimmy Glass went up for a corner deep into injury time and netted the winner which pushed Carlisle above Boro in the final league table.
Relegation from the Football League brought enormous financial worries for Boro. A high turnover of unsuccessful chairmen/owners worsened the monetary problems, and the club was on the verge of folding on several occasions. Season 2001-02 was particularly traumatic, but new chairman Malcolm Reynolds brought in Russell Slade as manager to oversee a quite dramatic turnaround at the club. From bottom-of-the-table no-hopers at Christmas, Boro put together a marvellous run which saw them climb to mid-table safety in the final placings. Boro were 7th place in the league table in 2002-03, and the following season the league performances were overshadowed by a tremendous FA Cup run with wins over Doncaster Rovers, Port Vale and Southend United ending in the Fourth Round with a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea.
With the departure of Russell Slade to Grimsby in the summer of 2004, player-coach Nick Henry stepped up to take charge of the team. Neil Redfearn arrived at the club as his assistant. Boro were on the fringes of the play-off zone for much of the 2004-05 season before fading away to finish in 13th position, but nevertheless went the whole season undefeated at home.
In early 2005/06 Nick Henry was relieved of his position following a run of poor results, and Neil Redfearn stepped up to take charge. However results remained poor, and Boro finished bottom of the Conference table. Redfearn left the club shortly afterwards.
Mark Patterson took over as head coach for 2006/07 in Conference North, but was faced by major probems when the Conference deducted ten points for the club being in administration, decided not to give the club its share of the league sponsorship money, and imposed an embargo on the club signing new players. These problems proved too much, and Boro finished in the relegation positions once again.