History
The club was formed in 1873 by The Reverend George Langton Hodgkinson, Vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Gainsborough, and was originally known as Trinity Recreationalists. In 1889 they joined the Midland League, and finished 7th in their first season. In the 1890–91 season the club finished as Champions, but had to wait until 1896 to be elected to the Second Division of The Football League. Also Trinity were the first team to play Manchester United in a competitive fixture – on 6 September 1902 in a Second Division match – after they had changed their name from Newton Heath.
After several years of struggle, the club was voted out of the league in 1912, being replaced by local rivals Lincoln City, and returned to the Midland League. During the 1940s, the club recorded its record attendance, when 9,760 saw a match against local rivals, the then non-league Scunthorpe United. The club won three Championships (1928, 1949 and 1967 – by which time the league had become the Midland Counties League) before becoming founder members of the newly-created Northern Premier League in 1969, where it remained until 2004.
At the end of the 2003–04 season, the club finished in a high enough position to become founder members of the newly-created Conference North.
As a non-league club, Trinity have recorded five wins against Football League opposition (a feat known in English football as giant-killing). Victories were recorded against Crewe Alexandra in 1928 and 1931, Port Vale in 1937, Gateshead in 1938 and Mansfield Town in 1946.
Trinity claim to be one of the few English clubs never to have experienced a relegation, as they were voted out of the Football League rather than being directly relegated. They were also the first and last opponents of Middlesbrough Ironopolis. The club recently was bought out by new chairman Peter Swann, who owns the majority of the shares in the club after buying out long serving chairman Patrick Lobley. Swann also secured a new 10 year lease on the clubs home ground by agreeing terms with the ground's owners the Blues Club.
In 2009 money provided by the new chairman was able to bring in a large number of professionals from the Football League. The biggest coup though was when the club announced that former Aston Villa boss Brian Little would be taking over as manager.
Despite Little's expertise in the professional game, Trinity have struggled in the Conference North under his guidance. After finishing 14th in 2009–10, the club faced a relegation battle in 2010–11, eventually pulling away from the drop-zone after a late run of victories to finish 19th.
After a poor start to the 2011/12 campaign, Little was sacked and replaced by Steve Housham, who signed a deal until the end of the season. The club saw an immediate turn-around, losing just one of the next nine games and moving into a play-off position. They beat F.C. Halifax Town 3-2 on aggregate in the play-off semi finals before losing to Nuneaton Town 1-0 in the final.
Read more about this topic: Gainsborough Trinity F.C.
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