The footballing world is always concerned with the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal, the teams who always bring home the big trophies. However, there are plenty of other teams throughout the leagues worthy of your time and attention. One such team is the league two side, Harrogate Town FC.
The small Yorkshire club hasn’t had many big victories in its history, but that has never dampened the spirits of the loyal Harrogate Town fans. They are always around to cheer on the team every week whether there is rain or shine. Perhaps you would be willing to join them if you knew a bit more about the club.
The Beginning
Harrogate Town was founded a bit later than many other English clubs. While most of the teams in the league were created in the late eighteen hundreds, Harrogate Town was first established just after the first world war in 1919.
The club became a team when the founder, C.H. Marsden, bought up six acres of land for a football team to train. This plot of land is now known as Wetherby Road where the team currently still plays its home games today. The team first joined the local West Riding League and the Yorkshire League simultaneously. The club would then go on to win the West Riding Trophy in 1925.
Becoming Harrogate Town
Anyone looking for a history of Harrogate Town before the year 1948 will struggle because the team was known as the Harrogate Hotspurs before then. The team known as Harrogate Town was forced to disband in the early 1930s but returned in 1935 as a new team known as Harrogate Hotspur. Unfortunately, the team had to go on a break in 1939 when the second world war began.
Luckily, the team was able to return and continue as normal once the war had ended. The team continued to play in the West Riding League but changed their name back to Harrogate Town in 1948. This was a decision made to put the team in line with other clubs in the same league. Who knows what a Hotspur is anyway?
Name Of The Mascot
Every league team in the UK has a mascot. These creative characters are used as a marketing tool to help better establish the brand of the club. What’s more, it is a great way to bring kids into the game. This is because the team mascot usually attends the games in a costume to interact with the fans.
The mascot for Harrogate Town is Harry Gator, an anthropomorphic alligator who wears the team’s kit. What does an alligator have to do with Yorkshire? Nothing really. The design for the mascot was chosen and designed by students at the local Henshaws College in 2018. The mascot’s most recent achievement was walking the children of Hookstone Chase Primary School in a bid to reduce carbon emissions in the town.
Biggest Game
For a team that has been around for over one hundred years, it is difficult to pick just one game in the club’s history as the biggest game. Although, many fabs agree that the biggest game for Harrogate Town FC was against Boreham Wood in 2020.
Harrogate Town had always done well in the Conference League; however, fans could tell that something was different in the 2019/20 season. It had been a good season for Harrogate. Such a good season in fact that their monumental game against Boreham Wood was a round in the playoffs that could see the team reach the final and have a chance at promotion into League Two. Sadly, the social distancing guidelines at the time meant that many fans couldn’t enter the stadium to watch the team live. Fortunately, they were able to show their support by placing bets on Harrogate at the best online sports betting site. Even better the team managed to beat Boreham Wood and make it to Wembley for the final!
Promotion
Since you know that Harrogate Town is currently playing League Two football, you can assume that they won the next match at Wembley to get promoted from the Conference. Fortunately, this is exactly what happened.
Harrogate Town’s next match in the final was against Notts County. Harrogate was able to surpass their performance in the semi-final by beating out Notts County 3-1 to win the league that season. Harrogate Town FC has been in League Two ever since and has narrowly escaped relegation in the most recent season.
Conclusion
Who can say where Harrogate Town FC is going to go next? All you can know for sure is that the team will still have a loyal, local following no matter what happens. You never know, the team might even have picked up a few more fans now that you know everything about the team.
