Garforth Town

Simon Clifford spent little on ordinary signings and a lot on names supporters had watched on television. In 2004 he brought Sócrates to Garforth, a Brazilian midfielder who had captained his country at a World Cup and led the political revolt known as Corinthians Democracy, out onto a pitch he shared with a team that had spent its history several divisions below anything he had known. Lee Sharpe, once of Manchester United, played that same year. A friendly the following year brought Careca, the Brazilian who had led the line for Napoli alongside Diego Maradona. None of it changed the club's level, but it put Garforth Town's name in newspapers that had never had cause to print it.

The club was not built for that kind of attention. It started in 1964 as a pub side, the Miners Arms, and carried the trade of the town in its name even after 1978, when Yorkshire League rules against pub teams forced a change to Garforth Miners. A further reorganisation in 1985 gave it its current name and a place in the Northern Counties East League, where in 1997–98 it won Division One and reached the Premier Division. Relegation followed in 2002–03, promotion back in 2004–05, and a further step up to the Northern Premier League in 2006–07. The club dropped back into the NCEL in 2012–13 and stayed there until 2023–24, when it won a play-off run against Rossington Main and then Albion Sports, both decided on penalties, to return to the Northern Premier League.

Against Pontefract Collieries, the fixture known locally as the West Yorkshire Derby, none of that history needs explaining twice. The BD Community Stadium holds 3,000, a modest ground for a club whose colours, blue and yellow, have been worn by a World Cup captain. Sócrates remains the name people bring up first.