A Look Into Histories

A LOOK INTO HISTORY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE

THE FIRST AUTOMATIC PROMOTION – SCARBOROUGH FC

The 15th August 1987 and was a lovely sunny day on the Yorkshire Coast, the town of Scarborough had been celebrating a very historic occasion as League Champions since their formation in 1879 though three F A Trophy successes in 1973, 1975-76 and 1976-77 should not be forgotten. They had been founder members of the Alliance League (Conference) and spent £120,000 in ground improvements at their Seamer Road Athletic Ground, home since 1898.

Season 1986-87 with new Manager Neil Warnock in charge was very successful and would be the first ever that the champions of the GM Vauxhall Conference would have automatic promotion to the Football League. That team was Scarborough FC with a 6 point cushion over Barnet.

Our Match Programme was a sell out on the day with 7,314 present, the best of the season. A glossy large edition with the League Presentation on the front. The game was v Wolverhampton Wanderers who had been on a downward spiral for years. The Vice Chairman opened with a page on the Impossible Dream, two pages on the opposition, photos, all fixtures and a comprehensive history of the club taking up three pages. A final Conference League table was followed by 5-25 years of matches. Neil Warnock said his piece as did Graham Kelly the F A Secretary. Plentiful adverts were included from fans and sponsors and the teams were on the back cover.

Normally that would all that had to said about such a happy day but that is not the case as very serious crowd trouble erupted, first of all delaying the start then the teams having to leave the field twice, once when a fan fell through the roof (Anyone who cares to view this can go to the various YouTube videos that are still available). At half-time it all erupted once again thus delaying the second half but the game was concluded and Scarborough had a huge £20,000 bill for damages. Wolves were severely punished and fans banned for the next six matches with all Away matches being made all-ticket. On the field, Wolves excelled and won the League with promotion to Division Three.

Neil Warnock left for Notts County after a few seasons and life was never the same losing their Football League status after a 1-1 draw with Peterborough on 8th May 1999 and all this was due to Jimmy Glass the on loan keeper for Carlisle United scoring in the 90th minute to keep their League status (Another famous video). In June 2007 with 2.5million in debt, Scarborough were wound up. Having finished 20th in the Conference North they would have been relegated to the Northern Premier League but the more serious issues put paid to that. The Athletic Ground laid to waste and in 2011 was sold to LIDL.