in 1887. Before the club became professional they spent their time competing in the Northern League. It was in 1927 the Yorkshire club became professional and joined the Midland League. After only three years they became champions of it, breaking the record for most points in a season. The same year, the club were performing respectably in the FA Cup, reaching the Third Round before going out 2–1 to Grimsby Town who were in the nation's top league at the time. Club attendance records were broken when the club reached the same stage of the FA Cup again, during the 1937–38 season. The game against Luton Town, which was a 1–1 draw, saw 11,162 people packed into the Athletic Ground. Unfortunately for Scarborough they were soundly defeated 5–1 in the replay. 1970s FA Trophy success Because of their decent performance in the Midlands League, the club were entitled to become one of the founding clubs in the new Northern Premier League in 1968. The 1970s would prove to be a successful time for the club; Scarborough FC won the FA Trophy three times at Wembley Stadium, beating Wigan Athletic, Stafford Rangers and Dagenham in the process. However, there was also a tragedy for the club during the 1970s. On 18 May 1977, 21-year-old winger Tony Aveyard died after collapsing as a result of a head injury suffered in a match two days earlier. The 1970s also saw the club performing well in the FA Cup. They reached the Third Round in the 1975–76 season before losing 2–1 to Crystal Palace in a match that was featured on BBC's Match of the Day. During the 1977–78 season, they reached these heights again, with a Third Round clash against Brighton and Hove Albion; they lost the tie 3–0 at the Goldstone Ground in front of 23,748 spectators. They also took part in the Anglo-Italian Cup twice, beating Udinese 4–0 in 1976 and then beating Parma 2–0 during the following year's competition. In 1976 they lost 4–1 on aggregate to Italian side US Lecce in the final match of the Anglo-Italian Semiprofessional Tournament. Gordon Banks played for Scarborough, in the opening game of that season’s competition (versus S.S. Monza 1912). By the end of the 1970s, Scarborough had been selected to be part of the new Alliance Premier League, known today as the Football Conference. They stayed in this league for several seasons