About:

Scarborough Athletic Football Club was formed on 25th June 2007 following the liquidation of Scarborough FC. The new club was set up by the Seadog Trust, a group of supporters who originally started the trust with the aim of gaining fan representation on the board of Scarborough FC. However, as a result of the old club’s liquidation, the Seadog Trust moved quickly to ensure a football team continued to represent the town at the highest level possible. On 25th June 2007, Scarborough Athletic were accepted into the NCEL Division 1 for the 2007/08 season, and an agreement was reached for the club to use Bridlington’s Queensgate stadium as part of a ground share with no suitable stadium able to be used in Scarborough.

The Club appointed the experienced Brian France as manager. The former manager of North Ferriby United brought with him his son Darren as his assistant. Brian started to bring in players for the forthcoming season, favouring a mix of players from his former club, as well as some local players unearthed at an open trial held within days of the club’s formation.

The club kicked off with a game against local side Edgehill at Hunmanby’s Sands Lane Ground finished 0-0, before embarking in a friendly at Northallerton Town. The match finished 2-2, with Shaun Chadburn taking the honour of the club’s first ever goal.

The team’s first ever League match came in the NCEL Division One at Teversal on August 11th 2007. Boro fans marked the occasion by dressing up in suits to show their status of Joint Owners of the club through their membership of the Seadog Trust. Dave Thompson entered himself into the history books as he netted the club’s first competitive goal, but a last minute winner saw Teversal claim a 2-1 win.

The team’s first few weeks in existence saw its elimination from several cup competitions, coupled with inconsistent league form, highlights from the first season included an 8-0 thumping of Borrowash Victoria and the club winning through to the North Riding Senior Cup Semi Final. The club finished the season in a respectable fifth place.

The 2008/09 season saw the club claim its first promotion and championship, despite suffering a slow start to the league season. Boro proceeded on a tremendous run of form.

As well as the league, the club also progressed in the FA Vase, with victories over Birtley, Esh Winning, Sunderland Nissan and Blackstones, before unluckily losing to Bideford in the fourth round.

Promotion was achieved with a 2-1 win at Teversal on March 21st, with the championship secured a week later at home against Brighouse Town. Nearly 800 were in attendance to see the club lift the league trophy after the final home against Leeds Carnegie.

Promotion to the NCEL Premier Division in such convincing fashion meant fans started the new season looking for the club to challenge for a second successive promotion. The season started badly with two consecutive defeats. However, the team regrouped and produced a run of 9 successive wins, which saw the team and its fans dreaming of more silverware, but a 4-3 loss at Parkgate was the start of a collapse in the team’s away form. The highlight of that season was a 13-0 win against Brodsworth.

2010/11 began with much promise, but a huge blow was suffered when manager Brian France was struck in the face with the ball at Liversedge, and later suffered a brain haemorrhage from the injury sustained. As the weeks went on it was clear Brian was going to be unable to continue, and Paul Olsson took over as manager in November 2010. Results were up and down, and in March Olsson left the club by mutual consent. He was replaced by Rudy Funk.

Funk's first season in charge saw the team have a fairly successful season, but some inconsistent performances saw them always playing catch up to eventual champions Retford United and perennial rivals Bridlington Town, who finished ten and eleven points ahead respectively.

The 2012/13 season though will certainly live long in the memory of many Boro fans as they finally clinched the NCEL title and promotion to the Evo Stik Northern League, the majority of the squad remained, and alongside new additions Peter Davidson, Andy Milne, Jimmy Beadle and Paddy Miller, the club enjoyed a terrific season suffering only two defeats all season.

Despite this they were pushed all the way by Brighouse Town, who matched them step for step, it all boiled down to a promotion decider between the 2 clubs on a rainy day in April when more than 800 Boro fans travelled to the Dual Seal Stadium, despite a nervous first half, Boro's experience finally paid dividends and a goal apiece from Ryan Blott and Beadle saw them virtually over the line, promotion was achieved the following week with a home victory against Retford United.

The Clubs first venture into the Evo-Stik Northern League meant an upheaval of the squad with no fewer than eleven new players signing on at the start, including the major coup of Gary Bradshaw and Paul Foot. Several favorite’s from the previous championship winning side departed the club. The club was placed in the Southern Section and their opening fixture was an away game at Kidsgrove Athletic. Despite having 3 players sent off they hung on for a creditable 1-1 draw. The new players took time to bed in and the team struggled in the early part of the season, but by October they had found their feet and slowly climbed the table with some impressive displays. The also enjoyed an excellent run in the FA Trophy that ended at Conference North side AFC Telford United. In an up and down sort of a season the club managed a creditable 7th place.

The following season the club was moved to the Northern section of NPL, after a decent start to the campaign the side became very inconsistent.

In November 2014 Rudy Funk resigned as manager of the club. Initially assistants Paul Foot and Bryan Hughes were placed in temporary charge before being installed as Joint Managers on a permanent basis in December 2014. The players certainly responded to the new “gaffers” style of play and with a couple of new players added went agonizingly close to a place off place.

The club has managed to keep the majority of last season’s squad, with the odd new signings giving the fans a lot of optimism for the 2015-16 season; this has been further enhanced by the news in early July 2015 that Scarborough Borough Council Planning and Development Committee have granted planning permission for the new leisure village at Weaponness.

Boro started the season in style with fours straight wins, conceding no goals and sitting top of the table following a 6-0 thrashing of Harrogate Railway at Station View. After losing to Consett in the FA Cup, the season unravelled slightly as Boro went nine league games without a win, finally ended with a 1-0 win against Trafford in mid-October.