Wednesday 18 July 2018

Scarborough Athletic - Scarborough Sports Village


Scarborough Athletic FC
Scarborough Sports Village
5 Ashburn Road
Scarborough
North Yorkshire
YO11 2JW


Ground: 49
Date: Saturday 14th July 2018
Scarborough Athletic 2-2 Spennymoor Town
Pre-Season Friendly
Attendance: 250

Scarborough Athletic FC - History

Scarborough Athletic were founded in 2007 by The Seadog Trust (a supporters' club) after the original club Scarborough FC were wound up in the High Court due to high debts. The new club started in Division 1 of the Northern Counties East League, groundsharing with Bridlington Town due to there being no suitable ground in Scarborough. The first season in Division 1 saw the club finish 5th, but the following season saw them dominate the league and finish as champions, losing just 2 games throughout the entire campaign.

After this, the club spent four seasons in the Premier Division, finishing 5th, then 10th and then 3rd before winning the title in the 2012/13 season, losing just 3 games all season. This earned the club promotion to the Northern Premier League Division 1 South, where they remained for one season before being transferred into Division 1 North.

The club finished 6th in their first season in Division 1 North, but the 2015/16 season was a real struggle for the club, a 20th-place finish just enough to avoid relegation back into the NCEL. The following season saw a dramatic turnaround, the club finishing 3rd but falling short in the play-offs. 

In July 2017, the club was finally able to move back into the town with the opening of Scarborough Sports Village, and this was followed by a successful 2017/18 season, the club finishing 2nd in the league and doing enough to earn automatic promotion to the Northern Premier League Premier Division in the process.

In FA competitions, the club's best FA Cup run came last season as they reached the 4th Qualifying Round, beating Marske United, Workington, Sunderland Ryhope Community Association and Stratford Town before losing to league rivals Hyde United. In the FA Trophy, the club's best run came in the 2013/14 season when they reached the 3rd Qualifying Round, beating Prescot Cables, Stocksbridge Park Steels and Cambridge City before losing to AFC Telford United. As for the FA Vase, the club's best run saw them reach the 4th Round in the 2008/09 season, beating Birtley Town, Esh Winning, Sunderland Nissan and Blackstones before losing to Bideford.


My Visit

With the World Cup coming to an end and the 2018/19 season beginning to get underway, I was looking to start groundhopping again as soon as possible. Initially, I was hoping to visit FC Parson Drove on Monday last week for the beginning of Yaxley's pre-season, but that ultimately wasn't to be. As such, it became clear that my first groundhop of the season would have to occur while on holiday in Whitby for the long weekend (from last Friday to Monday).

I started looking at options for this around a month ago, with it quickly becoming clear that my options would be rather limited, with Whitby Town away from home on the Saturday (just my luck, really), along with other localish clubs such as Guisborough Town. As such, it became apparent that Scarborough was the only truly feasible option, but it took a while to convince my family to allow it. In fact, such was how long it took that I even started to look below Step 7 last week, at Whitby-based Fishburn Park to see if they would be at home on the Saturday (which, of course, they weren't).

Eventually, on the day before the game, I was able to get the go ahead for the game, so after some shopping in Whitby on Saturday morning, I was driven and dropped off at the football ground while everyone else in the family went off shopping in Scarborough itself.

I paid £10 for admission (surprisingly steep for a non-league pre-season friendly, if you ask me) and started to quickly do my circuit of photos with kick-off rapidly approaching (I arrived at around 1:45pm, just 15 minutes before kick-off), only to notice as I went that, to my surprise, a programme was on sale for £2, along with teamsheets for 20p. Having not anticipated this, I had only taken out enough money to cover admission, so this was a little frustrating for me, to say the least: hopefully I'll be able to acquire one off of eBay at some point soon.

In any event, I finished my circuit of photos shortly after kick-off and, with it being oppressively hot and sunny, I took shelter in the covered standing terrace behind the near goal to watch the game unfold.



As everyone knows, results in pre-season don't matter much (if at all), so I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of the match, other than knowing that Scarborough play at Step 3 while Spennymoor play at Step 2, something that I assumed would have an impact on proceedings.

Here's my, admittedly brief, report on what was a surprisingly entertaining and competitive pre-season friendly, much better than what I've come to expect such matches to be:


In the first half, Spennymoor dominated and made the difference in level show; they were much faster on and off the ball, much more organised and creating many more chances. As such, it was unsurprising when they took the lead on 20 minutes, Rob Ramshaw lobbing the ball over Scarborough keeper Tommy Taylor from the edge of the box. This was followed by a second goal eight minutes later from Glen Taylor, a defensive mistake allowing Spennymoor to get a cross into the box, with Taylor then striking a powerful volley from the centre of the box. The half continued with Spennymoor in almost complete control, though Scarborough created a couple of chances of their own, as speculative as they were.

The second half saw the tables turn entirely, with Scarborough being in complete control and pulling a goal back almost straight from the kick off, the ball being played across the box and Will Annan getting the tap in at the near post. Scarborough then equalised thirteen minutes later with an absolutely brilliant curved free kick from around 25 yards out; it's only my first game of the season, and that could well be a goal of the season contender already. The rest of the game saw both sides create chances here and there, although the game did begin to die down at this point, which in the heat was no surprise at all.

 



As far as starting the season is concerned, this was a fine way to go about it: a surprisingly entertaining match, a good ground and one that I would not normally have any real chance of getting to. It would have perhaps been nice to have been able to save this for my 50th groundhop, but there's not really much I can do about it turning out as it has, and I certainly won't be complaining.

As for what my plan for that landmark is, it's looking likely that it'll be Wellingborough Town for the first part of the UCL Groundhop's Wellingborough double on the 29th of July. I had intended to avoid that as number 50 if possible, but it's looking likely that I'll have to settle for that, assuming of course I'm able to get to the Wellingborough double at all that is.


The Ground

By the standard of new builds, Scarborough Sports Village is a good ground, dominated by a tall 250-seater main stand on the near side. The only other area of cover at the ground is a large covered standing terrace behind the near goal, which can probably also hold around 250 people. 

The rest of the ground is open hard standing, with not much room to expand in the current ground boundaries. However, it looks as if there would be scope to expand the boundaries to allow for ground expansion, should it prove necessary. That aside, the ground is notable for having a 3G pitch and for incorporating a gate from the ground of the original club (the 3rd photo in the "Photos" section below).

The ground has an overall capacity of 2,070, with a record crowd of 2,022 for a league game against Ossett Albion on 28th April 2018. The first game at the ground was against a Sheffield United XI on 15th July 2017.


Photos




















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