Founded in 1985 as R & R Scaffolding, the works team of a construction firm from Netherfield, the club played its first four seasons in the Notts Amateur League before adopting the Gedling Town name in 1990.

[6] Positive results were consistent throughout the campaign; according to Nottingham's Football Post, the team "thrashed" Celtic Athletic 9–1, while Santos "were no match" after losing to them 4–0.

[10] Prowess in the cup was matched by success in the league, and the team delivered on their slim promotion hopes to ascend to Division One ahead of 1987–88.

[25] A month later, the club entered the FA Vase for the first time, eventually losing 3–0 in a preliminary round replay to Walsall Wood.

[19][29] This season marked the arrival from Arnold Town of full-back Gary Ball, a player who later held the all-time club record for appearances with 216.

[5][30] The 1994–95 campaign proved difficult; the team were eliminated from title contention by January, and manager Dave Sands was sacked to be replaced by Ray Sully.

[40] Brodie and new assistant Everton Marsh strengthened the squad in pre-season, recruiting former Football League forward Gary Lund.

[3] Gedling transferred to the Northern Counties East Football League (NCEL) Division One at tier nine for 2000–01, and the team finished fifth in their first season.

[19][51] Haywood led Gedling into 2003–04 without Davis, only to be replaced in the new year by player-managers Mark Clarke, Paul Jepson and Craig Maddison.

[19] Additionally, in February, the club received a fee of £5,000 for forward Steve Scoffham, who joined Notts County of the Football League Second Division.

[3][19] The same tension frustrated Jimmy Albans and Graham Harrod as joint-managers for 2005–06; a 2–1 loss to Squires Gate at the same stage of the FA Vase accompanied a fourth-place finish, missing promotion by three points.

[5] Wilson and Albans oversaw a winning start to the campaign before leaving for Shepshed Dynamo in November,[3][60] a move that saw John Humphries return to management for the rest of the season, joined by assistant Tony Cox.

[3][19] Gedling was a founder member of the tenth-tier East Midlands Counties Football League (EMCFL) and its sole Premier Division for 2008–09.

[19][64] Under the new management of Duncan Broad and Mark Allison, the club enjoyed a seven-match unbeaten run in the early part of the campaign before finishing in fourth.

[3][19] In the August of 2009–10, chairman Roland Ash warned that Gedling could fold if not better supported by the community, citing low attendances exacerbated by the Great Recession and the pull of nearby professional clubs.

[65] Broad and Allison stood down in January and were replaced by Mick Galloway,[66][67] who oversaw an upturn in results despite an eventual ninth-place finish after a three-point deduction by the league.

[4] Four days later, a deal was announced that saw Ash relinquish his chairmanship to Tony Griffith, allowing the club to postpone resignation from the Nottinghamshire Football Association and fulfil its fixtures until the end of 2010–11.

[19][71] In January 2012, the Football Supporters' Federation listed Gedling among 13 English "clubs in crisis", with each threatened or collapsed by "insolvency events".

[4][5] This moniker derived from the location of the team's home ground, the Riverside Stadium, which was situated behind The Ferry Boat Inn pub.

[5] The club's principal local rivalry was with Arnold Town, exchanging players and competing with varying frequency in league and tournament fixtures.

[30][76] It also shared rivalries with Arnold Rovers and Pelican in the Notts Amateur League,[77][78] Dunkirk and Sneinton in the CML,[33][79] and Radford in the EMCFL.

[91][92] In August 2012, Real United, a Nottingham-based football team aiming to keep young people away from drugs and gang culture, took over the ground and renamed it the Inspire Stadium.

[93] By February 1995, the club, partnered with the Nottinghamshire Schools' Football Association and Gedling Borough Council, planned to build a new stadium near Victoria Park in Netherfield.

[96][97] A 100-seater terrace would have standing areas either side of it and overlook three floodlit pitches; one full-size, another for five-a-side and the last made all-weather for alternative sports such as hockey.

[95] Around 200,000 recycled bricks were set aside for the stadium in February 1999, the same month that the Borough Council launched its second National Lottery bid, hoping to secure 35% of the overall funds.