Gainsborough Trinity

Gainsborough is a market town on the River Trent, and for most of the year Trinity is the loudest thing happening in it. The club began life in 1873 as Trinity Recreationists, took the Gainsborough Trinity name around 1889–90, and settled at The Northolme in 1884 — a ground it has never left, even through the years cricket took priority there and matches had to be shifted to the Bowling Green Ground or across to Sincil Bank in Lincoln.

What the town has to show for those years is a run in the Football League that lasted from 1893 to 1912, longer than many places twice its size managed. Trinity got in as Midland League runners-up, finished sixth in 1904–05 as their peak, and went down to Second Division bottom in 1901–02 without losing their place. The second time they finished last, in 1911–12, there was no reprieve: the vote went 27 to 9 in Lincoln City's favour, and nineteen years in the League ended on a show of hands. Two Cup results from the years that followed are still worth repeating locally — a League club, Crewe Alexandra, beaten 3–1 in 1928–29, and Port Vale accounted for in 1937–38.

The rivalry that still empties the town on Boxing Day is with Boston United and Worksop Town, though the older grudge runs against Lincoln City and Scunthorpe United, the sides that took Gainsborough's place in the wider game. Joe Maguire, whose brother Harry plays for Manchester United and England, wore Trinity's blue between 2018 and 2020, one of a handful of names who passed through The Northolme on their way to or from professional football elsewhere. Russ Wilcox, now in charge, once kept goal — no, played out — for Hull City, Preston North End and Doncaster Rovers before taking the job in Gainsborough.

The Northolme has never drawn a crowd close to the grounds of the clubs Trinity used to share a division with. Its record attendance, 9,760, was set in 1948 for a Midland League derby against Scunthorpe United.