Who are Scarborough?
Formed in 1879, the Seadogs had a long story to tell. But, as ever, we don’t have the time to tell it for you. So, we’re going to stick with the important bits. Funnily enough, it was ‘cos the town’s cricket team needed something to do in the winter that the club came to be.
For the first 100 years-and-a-bit, the Seadogs were a non-league team; starting out in the Northern League and members of the Yorkshire Combination, Yorkshire League, Midland League and North Eastern League over the years. There were even a few titles along the way. Not a lot, but enough to keep the trophy cabinet free from dust.
In 1968, the club were founder members of the Northern Premier League. And it started a nice little spell for the Seadogs. While the 1972-3 league title eluded them, the FA Trophy did not. The pot came back to the Athletic Stadium twice more (1976 and 1977) too. And, in 1979, they were among the non-league elite who formed the Alliance Premier League.
It capped a slow-burning first 100 years for the club, to be fair. But the first decade of their second century barely past the halfway stage before things stepped up a gear; promotion to the Football League under the leadership of Neil Warnock. In fact, they were the first to be promoted to the League as Conference champions. There’s your quiz answer.
Why do we know Scarborough?
The Seadogs had a 12-year run in the Football League, twice coming close in the playoffs for promotion to the third tier. On the first occasion, they were edged out by Leyton Orient in only their second campaign as a Division Four side. The next time was after the league had now been renamed Division Three; Scabby thrashed by Torquay United in 1997-8.
But then it all went wrong.
From promotion pushers to relegation in the space of a season, goalkeeper Jimmy Glass scored the last-gasp goal for Carlisle United that condemned the Seadogs to rock bottom of the table. And, with it, came relegation to the Conference. It was a return to non-league football for the North Yorkshire side. And it had changed a bit since they’d last been there.
