Darwen F.C.
| Full name | Darwen Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Salmoners |
| Founded | 1870 |
| Dissolved | 2009 |
| Ground |
Anchor Ground Darwen |
| Capacity | 4,000 |
| 2008–09 |
North West Counties League Division Two, 13th |
Darwen F.C. was a football club from Darwen in Lancashire, North West England. The team, formed in 1870, was an early pioneer of professional football in Northern England, reaching the semi-finals of the 1880–81 FA Cup. They were a Football League member from 1891 to 1899. Darwen joined the Lancashire League in 1900 and remained in regional football afterwards. They last played in the First Division of the North West Counties Football League in 2008–09, when the club was wound-up. A successor team, A.F.C. Darwen, was founded soon after. Darwen played their home games at the Anchor Ground.
The club originally played rugby football, as well as cricket. It adopted association rules in 1875.
In October 1878, at their Barley Bank ground, Darwen played a representative team from Blackburn under floodlights. This is believed to be one of the first, if not the very first instance of their use in football. The game was a huge success (not only because Darwen won 3–0) but the experiment was not repeated in that era.
Darwen was the first club from Northern England to achieve any success in the FA Cup, reaching the quarter finals in 1879. They caused controversy in this competition by signing two professional players, Fergie Suter and James Love, both from Partick FC, a Scottish club based in Glasgow. This is believed to be the first involvement of professional players in English football. One London club proposed that "no side which does not consist entirely of amateurs, as defined by the rules to be drawn up by the committee, be entitled to compete in the Challenge Cup competition". (Note the words "rules to be drawn up", which imply that there was no rule forbidding professionals at the time.) The motion was defeated and Darwen travelled down to the Oval to play the great amateur side Old Etonians in the quarter-final. They needed to make the journey three times, drawing 5–5 and 2–2 before losing 6–2 in the second replay.
...
Wikipedia