History has been made for the Harrogate Town football team this season, as they come to the end of yet another successful league campaign. Never before has the team reached the heights of the football league and after many years of waiting, they have finally arrived. In recent years they have slingshotted up regional leagues with back-to-back promotions, showing the other teams just how it is done. They will now face the likes of Bolton Wanderers (who 12 years ago were playing European giants Bayern Munich), local rivals Bradford FC and lower league rivals Salford FC.
Their journey to the big leagues has been typical of any small town club, no progress and stagnation for many many years until a recent boom in form and success that has granted them access to top tier football.
Harrogate Town AFC History
Harrogate Town FC was founded in 1914 and have been sitting in lower league football since their humble beginnings. Their first-ever football match was way back in 1919 at Starbeck Lane Ground against a local Leeds team called Horsforth. They managed to win this match 1-0.
Harrogate became Yorkshire League Champions in 1926-27 with Bob Morphet scoring a record 44 goals, they then made their move up from the regional leagues to the National League.
After the team disbanded in 1932, the football club returned as “Harrogate Hotspur but after WWII thy were renamed as Harrogate Town.
The Climb To The Top
After the rebrand, the team spent many years in lower league football and in the year of 1982 they became founding members of the New Northern Counties East Football League. Eager to climb the newly instated “football league pyramid” Harrogate Town FC sought to improve their ground and installed floodlights in a bid to compete at a higher level. In more modern times, 2018-2020 the clubs have seen successive promotions and now, they are challenging in League 2 football. Although they will have to completely change their pitch from artificial to a real grass pitch.
Harrogate Town AFC Team
Now we are in a place where the team is in a bit of a limbo situation due to the end of an old season and the beginning of a new one. The team is likely to have many changes of personnel on the field. So, for the sake of being “present” let’s take a look at the team and squad numbers they play for the 2019-2020 season.
- James Belshaw
- Ryan Fallowfield
- George Smith
- Josh Falkingham
- Callum Howe
- Warren Burrell
- George Thomson
- Jack Emmett
- Mark Beck
- Sam Jones
- Joe Leesley
- Joe Cracknell
- Brendan Kiernan
- Jon Stead
- Lloyd Kerry
- Jack Muldoon
- Toby Lees
- Connor Hall
- Scott Brown
- Will Smith
- Liam Agnew
About Harrogate – the town
Known in Victorian times for being a hotspot for tourists due to the alleged “healing sulphite waters” of the Harrogate Spring (which also gave Harrogate Town AFC the nickname “The Suplphites”. Harrogate, in more modern times, has still continued to be a very popular UK tourist town. Located right in the heart of Yorkshire and known regionally as “The Jewel of the North” this town is highly prosperous and is one of the most expensive places to live in Northern England. Due to this incredible “pull factor” and with the famous Yorkshire Dales so close by and a huge International Business Centre, people from all over the world come to visit for both pleasure and business. As a result of its booming tourism industry, the town boasts many wonderful restaurants, hotels and more recently many amazing, luxurious B&B’s and self catering Harrogate accommodation choices.
Harrogate Town AFC is clearly a football team on the up and long may their journey up the tables continue! Let’s hope they can weather the storm of the Football League 2, they have many many great teams to battle against and we hope they come out on top more often than not. Thank you for such a great story Harrogate!
