Darwen Football Club -- facts and stats
First game as Association football club: v Turton 1875.
Colours:
Black and White hoop shirts, Black shorts 1875 - 1888
Black and White Stripe shirts, White shorts 1888 - 1891
Salmon pink shirts, Indigo shorts 1891 - 1892
Salmon pink shirts, White shorts 1892 - 1893
Black and White stripe shirts, White shorts 1893 - 1899
Red and Black stripe shirts, Black shorts 1900 - 1914
Black and White stripe shirts, Black shorts 1920 - 1933
Red shirts with white sleeves, White shorts 1933 - ?
Red shirts , White shorts
Present Red shirts , Red shorts
All blue was worn in 1972/3/4 and green shirts were worn in 1962/3
Nicknames: The Darreners, The Salmoners.
First Football League game: 5th September 1891 v Bolton Wanderers, ( home ) lost 1-2, Attendance 7,100.
Last Football League game; April 22nd 1899 v Newton Heath, ( home ) Draw 1-1, Attendance 1,300
Record attendance Barley Bank: 12,500 v Blackburn Rovers friendly. 18th March 1885.
Record attendance for FA cup tie Home: 10.000 v Blackburn Rovers 2nd December, 1882 Barley Bank.
Record attendance any league game home: 1st Jan 1892 v Preston North End. 8,000 Barley Bank.
Record attendance for any Darwen game home or away: v Arsenal F.A. Cup third round 1932 at Highbury 37,486. (Gate reciepts £2,468.)
Record attendance Anchor Ground: 6,500 --- 12th December 1931 v Chester City FA Cup second round
Four Darwen players have won England caps (as Darwen players): T. Brindle 2. (1880) T. Marshall 1. (1881) T. Rostron 2. (1881) J. Marsden 1. (1891)
Darwen born Thurston Rostron is the second youngest player ever to represent England in a full international, at 17 years and 312 days old when he played for England against Wales on the 26th February 1881 he was 59 days older than the youngest ever -- James Prinsep of Clapham Rovers. (Thurston was 112 days younger than Micheal Owen) for the full list click here
Tom Brindle is the only Darwen player to score for England: Wales 2--3 England Played at Wrexham on the 15th March 1880. Scorers: Wales: J. Roberts W. Roberts. England: Sparks (2) Brindle.
All time record of goals conceded (Football League): 1898/99 ---141 in 34 games. Average over 4 per game still a football League record by any club.
All time record consecutive defeats: 18 in 1898/99.
Worst season: 1898/99 which included three 10-0 defeats against Walsall, Man city and Loughborough, the away goals difference that season 6 (for) 109 (against).
Best League win: 1896/97 v Walsall at home 12-0.
Worst league defeat: 1891/92 v West Bromwich Albion away 0-12 still a record for any First Division game.
Darwens full Football League record: 2 seasons in Division 1. 1891/92, 1893/94. and 6 seasons in Division 2. In total they played 232 games of which they won 75, drew 27 and lost 130. scoring 401 goals and conceding 619. total points:177.
Regarded as the first club to field a professional footballer: Fergie Suter, a Glasgwegian who played for the club between 1877 and 1881, although Darwen always denied paying for his services.
In the first game against the Old Etonians at the Kennington Oval in 1879 Darwen came back from 5-0 down at half time to finish the game 5-5, four of the goals came in the last 15 minutes, many historians regard this as one of the greatest if not the greatest fightback in the history of the competition.
A total of fourteen England Internationals have played for Darwen over the years, four of them winning caps as Darwen players.
Two Darwen players J. Orr and R. McEvoy were selected to represent the North against the Midlands, played on the 24th October 1892 at Bramall lane Sheffield. The score finished 3-2 for the Midlands. The attendance was 6,000
Darwen have been knocked out of the FA cup by the eventual winners on four occasions: Old Etonians 1879, Old Carthusians 1881, Aston Villa 1887, Wolverhampton Wanderers 1893. And knocked out by the losing finalists on three occasions: Blackburn Rovers 1882, Aston Villa 1892, Arsenal 1932.
Darwen has a link with the longest unbeaten run in FA cup history, it was on the 2nd December 1882 at Barley Bank that Darwen would beat Local rivals Blackburn Rovers 1-0 in a second round FA cup tie, it was to be the last time Rovers would be beaten in a cup match in the next 24 ties. The run ended on the 27th November 1886 when they lost to Scottish team Renton 2-0 in a 2nd round replay at home. During the cup run the Rovers would win the cup three times. This record has stood for 115 years. To View the Rovers team click here
Darwen and Sheffield United became the first teams to win promotion to the First Division of the Football League in 1893.
On the 14th January 1896 played at Barley Bank, Darwen defeated Accrington Football club 12-0 in a Lancashire Senior cup-tie. It was to be the last game the "Owd Reds" would ever play, they disbanded after the game and became the only founder member of the Football League to go out of existence. Accrington Stanley (Stanley Villa) have no association with the "Owd Reds"
Darwen Football Clubs matchday programmes from their Football League days (and some have survived) are extremely valuable collecters items, of the two hundred plus programmes sold for their last ever Football League game against Newton Heath at Barley Bank in 1899 only one is known to have survived and has been in a private collection since 1962.

Acknowledgements for the history in this section are made to :  Darwen RBL -- who originally published this page in 2002 Dave Twydell -- Yare Publications, Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Blackburn Rovers, Burnley FC, League Football and the men who made it -- Simon Inglis, The Guinness record of the FA Cup -- Mike Collett, Richard Rundle -- The Football club History database, Blackburn with Darwen Library.