HOPES that Harrogate Town soccer club could expand its ground by relocating to the Great Yorkshire Showground have been dashed.

But club chairman Bill Fotherby says the search for a new ground continues apace.

Talks between the club and Yorkshire Agricultural Society, owners of the showground, earmarked three possible sites for a ground and five-a-side pitches.

One was to use the showground's main arena, which already has several thousand seats. Another was using an adjoining arena.

And a third was developing a new ground on a ten-acre site near the main Wetherby Road entrance, alongside Sainsbury's superstore.

Mr Fotherby, former chairman of Leeds United, said preliminary talks with show officials proved very fruitful, but the idea was eventually turned down by the society's executive.

Mr Fotherby said he had not given up on the idea of the move and would be returning to the society with further ideas.

But the soccer chief said he was not resting the issue and had been involved in talks with others in a bid to find a new ground.