Scunthorpe

Grudges around Glanford Park run local rather than national — the Lincolnshire Senior Cup has stayed a fixture on the calendar even in years when the league table gave the club little else to celebrate, and the win over Cleethorpes Town in the 2025 final sits alongside fourteen earlier county titles. That kind of trophy does not travel well outside the county, but at Scunthorpe it counts.

The club took its current shape in stages. It started out in 1899, merged with North Lindsey United in 1910 to become Scunthorpe & Lindsey United, and only settled on Scunthorpe United in 1958 — the same year it won the old Third Division North. The Iron, in claret and blue, still play at Glanford Park, now carrying the sponsored name The Attis Arena and holding 9,183 supporters.

Kevin Keegan spent four years on the books between 1967 and 1971, scoring 18 goals in 124 appearances before he went on to win the Ballon d'Or twice over — a fact the club has never let anyone forget. A decade earlier, Barrie Thomas did something rarer at this level: 30 goals in just 22 league appearances in 1958/59, a return that helped push Scunthorpe into the Second Division before he moved on to Newcastle and Sheffield Wednesday. Nigel Adkins, in charge from 2006 to 2010, took the club up as League One champions in 2007 and built a run without defeat that stood as a club record.

Since then the story has mostly been one of near misses rather than promotions — runners-up finishes in League Two and, more recently, in National League North in successive seasons, without the step up that would follow. The Iron have not been back in the Football League since dropping out of it, and getting there remains the unfinished business.