Whitby Town

Gary Liddle spent long enough at Whitby Town to become player-coach and then manager before Hartlepool United took him in 2026. The Turnbull Ground on Upgang Lane holds 3,500, a fraction of them under cover in the West Stand, and the players who have walked out there in blue and white include Lewis Hawkins, on the books from 2011 to 2026, a stretch long enough to outlast several managers.

The shirts are blue for a specific reason: they were cut in the style of Sampdoria's. The club itself started life in October 1880 as Streaneshalch, went through a spell as Whitby Church Temperance, and only became Whitby Town in 1949.

Nothing the club has done since matches the 1996–97 season. Whitby beat North Ferriby United 3–0 at Wembley to win the FA Vase, and did it in the same campaign as a Northern League title, a double that still anchors the honours list above the Northern Premier League First Division championship that followed a year later.

Scarborough Athletic remain the fixture that matters most. Whitby sit in the non-league pyramid where they have always sat.