Scarborough Athletic FC a true Seadogs tale

Hey guys and welcome to Scarborough Athletic FC a true Seadogs tale. Recently I mentioned my new story would be delving into the depths of English Football and should prove to be my biggest challenge yet, you should now know the team and I can’t believe Tom guessed it in my last post, well done mate you obviously read every word I write. :) This may seem like a weird choice to most, so today I want to explain my history with Scarborough, why I want to manage them and what I hope to achieve. I will then go into the game itself and share the download required to go so low into Football Manager 2012 lower leagues.

My history with Scarborough FC

Back in 1986 a baby was born in Scarborough hospital, while he was raised in neighboring towns like Pickering and Malton he would revisit his place of birth at least once a week to be dragged around the shops by his mother. Seeing the boredom on the little boys face, now aged 7 she said ‘how would you like to see a game of Football with your Grandad, while I do the shopping.’ The little boy was prepared to jump at anything to get away from shopping and endured a 40 minute walk to the McCain stadium. Three hours later the boy returned with a big smile on his face and said, ‘We won 2-1!’

I didn’t even understand the rules of Football back then but Scarborough FC quickly became my team and I watched them play every weekend they were at home. Back then Scarborough played in Division 3 (which is now known as League 2.) You know those little kids that walk onto the pitch at the start of every game, usually hand in hand with one of the players? Well that was me on my 8th Birthday, I even became their ball boy for a short amount of time.

Scarborough usually finished around mid-table but then, in 1998, Scarborough fell one point short of automatic promotion and instead fell into the Division 3 play-offs. We were against Torquay and the the attendance was somehow higher than our capacity for the home leg. :) Unfortunately we lost the tie 5-2 on aggregate, but the whole experience was incredible. Then, next season in 1999, the unthinkable happened. Scarborough were relegated from the Football league after Carlisle’s goalkeeper scored two minutes past the allocated injury time to help them draw sending the Seadogs down and to rub salt into the wound, he was on loan under very dodgy circumstances. Either way, I was left distraught and close to tears, I just felt like this was such an injustice.

Scarborough never recovered from that and despite battling on in the Conference (now known as Blue Square Premier) we were relegated again seasons later. The club couldn’t cope financially, we had to sell the McCain stadium to the council and eventually went out of business. On the 20th June 2007 Scarborough FC were done, the crippling debt had proven too much and we ceased to exist, needless to say I was absolutely distraught. I still went to Scarborough for shopping and my route took me past the McCain stadium which went from this…

…To this…

The stadium is now been flattened for housing development as far as I’m aware, but some good news came shortly after Scarborough went out of business…later in 2007 a supporters trust formed the new Scarborough named Scarborough Athletic FC. We may have been dumped in the lower regions of the Northern Counties East league but Scarborough Athletic moved their way up to the Premier Division of this string of leagues and that is where my story begins, 5 promotions away from the Football league!! To help illustrate where I will begin my journey I have made an image of the ladder I must climb.

And here is the clubs information, we share our ground (Neil Hudgell Law Stadium, Bridlington) with Bridlington and it holds around 3,000 people. The clubs estimated worth is a lowly 22,000 pounds and we have just 110 season ticket holders. To give you an idea of the task at hand, I started this game and my first contract negotiation found me arguing with a scout over £5 a week wages…needless to say I lost the war of words and still can’t find a scout to sign for us.

Now to something important, I obviously had to download something to take me so low in the league ladder. For this I thank GASON & LEGHINF for their ‘English national league system update taking FM12 to level 12.’ As mentioned I have already begun the save and bar my game running slower than usual I have seen no glitches. On a side note I have not touched this database in anyway, I downloaded it and started playing, that’s it.

My targets with Scarborough Athletic FC

As you can see I have a long and rather depressing history with this club, but I love them and would like nothing more than to see Scarborough’s name back in the Football league. So, that is my aim, I want to get those five promotions required to take the Seadogs back into League Two. I also want to resolve my heartache of losing to Torquay in the play-off semi-final and get Scarborough into League One. From there, well it depends really. If the game is running smoothly without any glitches and the board aren’t making my job impossible then I may try and take Scarborough all the way, but if glitches are found or my board just won’t make promotions past League 2 or 1 possible then I will end the save with my head held high. :)

I won’t be putting a time stamp on anything and I have set myself no rules. I would expect to gain the first promotion straight away and maybe even make it consecutive promotions but after that things may slow down depending on budgets and finances. So, the next post will share my first season in charge of Scarborough Athletic and begin the long journey ahead, I hope this post has helped pass on some of my enthusiasm for the club and I hope you all be following. Thanks for reading and please feel free to ask any questions below.