History of Scarborough F.C.

[8] Scarborough were invited to become one of the founding members of the Cleveland Amateur League, but they left after one season, because as soon as a visiting club was beaten at the Recreation Ground, they would complain to get the result overturned due to the pitch size.

[12] Scarborough won their first North Riding Senior Cup final in 1909, a competition which they would win many times; during the league in the early 1900s they were consistently mid-table finishers.

[14] The First World War interrupted any meaningful sporting activities; Boro players Tommy Renwick and Sam Horsman died during it.

With James McGraham as player-coach, Scarborough played attractive attacking football and managed to surprise most by finishing runners-up to Gainsborough Trinity at their first attempt.

[19] After coming close to folding and disastrous league form, experienced former Manchester United man Thomas Boyle was brought in as player-manager and helped the club to improve drastically, with a decent FA Cup run in the year just after he left, where Boro reached the Third Round before going out to Luton Town after a replay.

[21] Scarborough finally returned to the Midland League by 1946–47; Peter Cook was the star player in the first post-war years, finishing as the club's top scorer for three seasons in a row.

[24] In 1951–52 the club managed to finish 6th in the league, with a strong squad including the likes of Bert Brenen, Bernard Massey and Jimmy Johnson.

[27] The arrival of Eddy Brown as manager and Bessie Braddock, MP for Liverpool Exchange, as president, heralded a new era for the club.

[28] The Midland Football League was back for 1963–64 with Scarborough deciding to rejoin; carrying momentum over from their previous season's success the Seasiders finished as runners-up, narrowly losing out to Grantham Town.

Scarborough knocked out league side Bradford City before going out to fellow Yorkshire club Doncaster Rovers 2–1 in a Second Round replay watched by 7,802 fans.

First in 1975–76, Scarborough knocked out Preston North End, before losing 2–1 to eventual semi-finalists Crystal Palace in a game screened on Match of the Day.

[33] Scarborough played in the Anglo-Italian Cup, a competition of semi-professional teams from the respective nations; with guest appearances from Gordon Banks and Alan A'Court, Boro managed to beat Udinese 4–0 in a game of the 1976 tournament.

[36] After building up a squad with seasoned former Football League players in 1980–81, Scarborough mounted a decent challenge for the championship but eventually finished third.

[37] Colin Williams was a key player for Scarborough during this time, finishing as Alliance Premier League topscorer for two seasons in a row.

[39] Dunn returned for a spell as part-time manager, guiding the side, which included the likes of Neil Thompson to a sixth-place finish during 1984–85.

[41] Scarborough went 22 games unbeaten during part of the season, four days after beating Sutton United 2–0, the club was declared champions and promoted to The Football League for the first time in their 108-year history.

[44] Despite a bad start to the following season, which led to the dismissal of Morris and his replacement by Ray McHale, Scarborough became giant killers when they dumped Chelsea out of the League Cup in October 1989, with Martin Russell scoring the winner in the 3–2 home victory.

They were again in play-off contention for much of 1992–93, but a dismal run of form saw McHale sacked and replaced by Phil Chambers as the season drew to a close.

Chambers in turn was dismissed only a few months into the following season after a poor start (though his cause was not helped by having had to sell off much of his squad during the summer), and replaced by Steve Wicks, who engineered a major turnaround in form to finish in 14th place.

The managerial merry-go-round came full circle as Ray McHale was reinstated as manager just a year-and-a-half since being sacked, but he had little more luck turning things around and they finished second-bottom of the Football League after statistically the club's worst-ever season, with only goals scored keeping them above bottom-place Exeter City.

1995–96 proved to be another thoroughly dismal campaign, and a horrific late-season run resulted in another second-bottom finish, albeit with a more comfortable gap over bottom-placed Torquay United.

[48] After finding a stable manager in Mick Wadsworth, Scarborough were able to overturn several seasons of struggle to secure a 12th-place finish in 1996–97, before reaching the Third Division playoffs the following year; unfortunately for the club they crashed 7–2 on aggregate to Torquay United.

[49] The following season in 1998–99 saw the club stuck to the bottom of the table for most of the campaign, leading to Wadsworth resigning and Colin Addison taking over as manager.