Gainsborough Trinity F.C.

Gainsborough Trinity

Full name	Gainsborough Trinity Football Club
Nickname(s)	Trinity, The Holy Blues
Founded	1873
Ground	The Northolme, Gainsborough
Capacity	4,340 (504 seated)[1]
Chairman	Dave Horsley & John Myskiw
Manager	Russ Wilcox
League	Northern Premier League Premier Division
2023–24	Northern Premier League Premier Division, 8th of 21
Website	http://www.gainsboroughtrinity.com
Home colours Away colours

Gainsborough Trinity Football Club is a football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Established in 1873, the club became members of the Football League in 1893 and remained members of the Second Division until 1912, making Gainsborough one of the smallest towns in England to have had a Football League team. They are currently members of the Northern Premier League Premier Division, the seventh tier of English football, and play at the Northolme.

The club was established in 1873 as Trinity Recreationists by the Reverend George Langton Hodgkinson, vicar of Holy Trinity parish, Gainsborough.^[2] In 1889 the club were founder members of the Midland League, which they won in 1890–91.^[3] The club finished as runners-up the following season and again in 1895–96, after which they applied for election to the Football League. In the vote they finished third, ahead of existing members Port Vale and Crewe Alexandra, and were elected into the Second Division.^[4] The club's first season in Division Two of the League saw them finish seventh, but a gradual decline in form saw them finish in the bottom half of the table every season until 1904. In 1901–02 Trinity finished bottom of the division, but were re-elected.^[5] In 1904–05 the club finished sixth in Division Two, their best performance during their Football League membership.^[3]

In 1911–12 Gainsborough finished bottom of the Second Division for a second time, and failed to be re-elected, receiving just nine votes to the 27 received by newly elected Lincoln City.^[6] The club returned to the Midland League, finishing third in 1912–13 and second in 1913–14,^[3] after which they unsuccessfully applied for readmission to the Football League.^[6] When the Football League created a new Third Division North in 1921, Trinity applied for membership, but were again unsuccessful.^[7] The club won the Midland League title in 1927–28, and the following season defeated Football League opposition in the FA Cup for the first time since losing their League status, beating Crewe 3–1 in the first round, before losing to Chesterfield in the second round.^[3] In 1931–32 they beat Crewe again in the first round, before losing 5–2 at home to Watford. In 1937–38 Trinity beat Port Vale in the first round, before losing to fellow non-League club Yeovil & Petters United.^[3] Another Football League team was beaten the following season, when Trinity knocked out Gateshead in the first round, before losing to Doncaster Rovers.^[3]

Following World War II Gainsborough had further success in the FA Cup, reaching the first round of the FA Cup in 1945–46, losing to Mansfield Town, and in 1946–47, when they were beaten by Darlington. In 1948–49 they reached the second round after defeating Witton Albion in the first round, before losing 4–3 at Walsall. They went on to win a third Midland League title that season. First round appearances in the FA Cup followed in 1950–51 (losing 3–0 to Plymouth) and 1951–52 (losing to Witton), before the 1952–53 season saw another second round appearance; after beating Netherfield in a first round replay, they lost 2–1 at Newport County. They reached the first round again the following season, before losing 4–1 at home to Chesterfield. The club failed to repeat the feat until 1959–60, when they lost to Doncaster Rovers in a replay.

At the end of the 1959–60 season, the Midland League was disbanded. Gainsborough spent a single season playing in both the Central Alliance and Division Two of the Yorkshire League,^[8][3] before returning to a reformed Midland League in 1961. Trinity won their fourth Midland League title in 1966–67, also reaching the first round of the FA Cup (losing 1–0 at home to Colchester United), before becoming founder members of the new Northern Premier League in 1968. The club applied to join the Football League again in 1975 and 1976, but received only a single vote on each occasion.^[6] The 1983–84 season saw them reach the first round of the FA Cup for over a decade, as they lost 2–0 at home to Blackpool.

When the Northern Premier League added a second division in 1987, Gainsborough were placed in the Premier Division. In 1997–98 FA Cup saw them drawn against local rivals Lincoln City, who after a 1–1 draw lost 3–2 in a 'home' replay that was played at Lincoln's Sincil Bank.^[3] Another first round appearance in 2003–04 ended with a 7–1 defeat at Brentford.^[3] At the end of the season a tenth-place finish saw the club become founder members of the Conference North.^[3] FA Cup first round appearances followed in 2006–07 (a 3–1 defeat by Barnet) and 2007–08 (a 6–0 loss at home to Hartlepool United). In 2011–12 the club finished fourth, qualifying for the promotion play-offs. However, after beating FC Halifax Town in the semi-finals, Trinity lost the final 1–0 to Nuneaton Town. During the 2012–13 season they reached the semi-finals of the FA Trophy and managed to beat Wrexham 2–1 at home but would lose 4–3 on aggregate.^[9][3] In another FA Cup first round appearance in 2015–16, the club were beaten 1–0 by Shrewsbury Town.^[3] The club were relegated for the first time in their history at the end of the 2017–18 season, dropping into the Northern Premier League's Premier Division.

Gainsborough finished fourth in the Premier Division in 2022–23, qualifying for the promotion play-offs. They subsequently lost 5–3 on penalties to Bamber Bridge in the semi-finals after a 1–1 draw.

On 2 November 2024, Trinity beat Hednesford Town to reach the FA Cup second round for the first time since 1952. The game saw Gainsborough come from 3–0 down after 65 minutes, to draw 3–3 and force extra time. Extra time finished 4–4 but Dylan Wharton made three saves in the penalty shootout to swing momentum in favour of Trinity, who were finally able to close out victory when Jordan Helliwell fired home the winning spot kick.^[10]

Trinity moved to the Northolme ground, then also a cricket venue, in 1884.^[11] During their time in the Football League the club also played home matches at the Bowling Green Ground in the north-west of the town and Sincil Bank in Lincoln when the Northolme was being used for cricket.^[11] The record attendance of 9,760 was set for a Midland League match against local rivals Scunthorpe United in 1948.^[2]

Gainsborough Trinity's location on the bank of the River Trent pits them against a host of clubs from Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. The most noted local derbies for Gainsborough are against Boston United and Worksop Town, as both clubs have spent numerous seasons in both the Northern Premier League and Conference North divisions with Trinity. Games with Boston or Worksop are traditionally played on Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

Professional clubs in traditional Lincolnshire such as Lincoln City, Scunthorpe United and Grimsby Town have rarely played Trinity outside of pre-season tournaments such as the Lincolnshire Senior Cup. The last competitive match between Trinity and a professional Lincolnshire club was when they played Lincoln City in the first round of the FA Cup in the 1996–97 season, with Trinity eventually losing 3–2 in the replay following a 1–1 draw at Sincil Bank.

As of 14 November 2023^[12]

Dates	Name	Notes	First Game	Last Game	P	W	D	L
1959–1960	Charles Walker
1960–1961	Tom Daley
1961–1963	Gladstone Guest
1964–1971	Russell Green
1971–1973	Jim Kilkenny
?-?	Bobby Ham
1979–1980	Roy Ellam
1980–1981	Neil Warnock
1985–1987	Pat Buckley
1991–1993	Gary Simpson		24 August 1991	9 October 1993	96	30	26	40
1993–1994	Leighton James		26 October 1993	3 January 1994	11	4	3	4
1994–1995	Gary Brook		12 February 1994	29 April 1995	52	18	15	19
1995–1998	Ernie Moss		19 August 1995	27 April 1998	128	60	34	34
1998–1999	Steve Richards		22 August 1998	15 October 1999	52	23	10	19
1999–2000	Ernie Moss		6 November 1999	24 April 2000	33	11	13	9
2000	Greg Fee		19 August 2000	21 October 2000	14	2	4	8
2000–2001	Phil Tingay		24 October 2000	20 October 2001	44	20	13	11
2001	Phil Brown & Frank Nicholson	Caretakers	27 October 2001	17 November 2001	5	2	1	2
2001–2002	Dave Norton	Player/Manager	24 November 2001	23 April 02	25	6	6	13
2002–2003	Phil Stant	Player/Manager	17 August 2002	26 April 2003	44	16	11	17
2003–2007	Paul Mitchell		16 August 2003	1 December 2007	186	63	51	72
2007–2009	Steve Charles	Caretaker until 5 January 2008 then permanent	8 December 2007	17 August 2009	72	24	22	26
2009	Dave Reeves & Steve Blatherwick	Caretaker Managers	22 August 2009	22 August 2009	1	0	0	1
2009	Adie Moses	Caretaker Manager	22 August 2009	28 August 2009	3	1	0	2
2009–2011	Brian Little		28 August 2009	20 August 2011	80	25	17	38
2011–2016	Steve Housham		20 August 2011	8 March 2016	201	80	36	85
2016–2017	Dominic Roma	Player/Manager	12 March 2016	4 February 2017
2017	Adam Quinn	Caretaker Manager	11 February 2017	11 February 2017
2017–2018	Dave Frecklington		18 February 2017	5 February 2018[13]
2018	Nathan Jarman & Adam Quinn	Caretaker Managers	10 February 2018	10 February 2018	1	0	0	1
2018–2019	Lee Sinnott
2019	Ross Hannah & Liam King
2019–2021	Curtis Woodhouse
2021–2022	Tom Shaw
2022–2023	Neal Bishop & Damon Parkinson
2023	Neal Bishop
2023	Darryn Stamp
2023–	Russ Wilcox

• Midland League
  • Champions 1890–91, 1927–28, 1948–49, 1966–67
• Northern Premier League
  • Challenge Cup winners 1981–82, 1996–97
• Lincolnshire Senior Cup
  • Winners 1889–90, 1892–93, 1894–95, 1897–98, 1903–04, 1904–05, 1906–07, 1910–11, 1970–71, 2002–03, 2017–18
• Lincolnshire County Senior Cup
  • Winners 1946–47, 1947–48, 1948–49
• Lincolnshire Senior 'A' Cup
  • Winners 1950–51, 1951–52, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1963–64
• Lincolnshire Shield
  • Winners 2007–08, 2011–12

• Best FA Cup performance: Third round, 1886–87^[3]
• Best FA Trophy performance: Semi-finals, 2012–13^[3]
• Record attendance: 9,760 vs Scunthorpe United, Midland League, 1948^[1]
• Biggest victory: 7–0 vs Fleetwood Town; 7–0 vs Great Harwood Town^[1]
• Heaviest defeat: 1–7 vs Stalybridge Celtic, Northern Premier League, 2000–01; 1–7 vs Brentford, FA Cup, 2003–04^[1]
• Record transfer fee paid: £3,000 to Burton Albion for Stuart Lowe^[1]
• Record transfer fee received: £30,000 from Lincoln City for Tony James^[1]

• Gainsborough Trinity F.C. players
• Gainsborough Trinity F.C. managers

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gainsborough Trinity F.C..

• Official website
• Gainsborough Trinity – official YouTube channel