For
the 1891/2 season, it was decided to expand the Football League by a additional
two teams - from it's original 12 to 14
The Leagues bottom four clubs from
the 1890/1 season had to re-apply for re-election and six hopeful candidates joined
them in the draw for the six places that would be available in the newly expanded
league. The four existing Football League clubs West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa,
Accrington and Derby County not suprisingly were re-elected to the league and
were joined by Darwen and Stoke.
Despite having only finished in 6th place
in the Football Alliance for the second season running, Darwen actually pooled
the third highest vote tally of all 10 candidates in the draw, Sunderland Albion
- who many had expected to be elected - missed out, as did Nottington Forest and
Newton Heath. Although hard to understand from a distance of some 120 years, the
reason in fact may be an obvious one, With so many other Lancashire clubs already
playing in the League, the attraction of having two more derby games per season
( with their guaranteed high attendances ) would have been justification for the
other Lancashire clubs to vote for Darwen, instead of voting for a club 100's
of miles away such as Sunderland and Nottingham.
The prospects of action with
the elite, stirred the locals up, and at public practice matches up-to 5,000 crowds
packed into Barley Bank.
Alarm bells had
begun to ring the year before when Blackburn Rovers had decided to move to a larger
ground at the side of the river Darwen at Ewood near Lower Darwen, only just a
little over one and three quarter miles from Barley Bank. The name of the ground
was decided as "Ewood Park" -- park being a popular name for a football
ground in those days. The ground had already been used as a sports field for some
ten years before the Rovers purchased the ground, it had been the home of the
"Blackburn Association" and "Over Darwen"... football clubs
who had folded in the late 1880's. The local Darwen news had reported in 1890
about the large number of Darwen townsfolk taking the short Tram journey to Ewood
park to watch the Rovers. ( Darwen and Rovers had always played their home games
on alternate weekends as to avoid a clash ) This made success in the Football
League a necessity for the Salmoners,( but history would one day mean the Rovers
move to Ewood would finish Darwen off as a football power as the two teams started
bying for the same local support ) To make matters worse for the Salmoners Blackburn
Rovers would win the FA Cup "back to back" in the early 1890's making
it five wins in all and a much more attractive team to support !
Darwen had
made several signings for the coming season, including Slater and Duckworth, but
were somewhat dismayed to be ordered to change their first choice colours, as
their black and white were the same as fellow leaguers Notts County! The choice
was made ( with the help of Everton who had once worn Salmon pink pre league )
Salmon pink shirts and indigo shorts were chosen. ( thus the nickname "Salmoners"
was born ) improvements were carried out to the ground, new dressing rooms were
erected ( they used to change at the Alexandra hotel ) the new dressing rooms
were at the "Clough end " of the ground, and in addition to the permanent
grandstand, a temporary one was erected again on the "Clough end".
one draw back however was the decision of club captain Joe
Marsden to leave the club for Everton before the start of the coming season,
Joe had won a England Cap the previous year in Englands 6-1 win over Ireland in
the home championships.
In preparation for the big day, a friendy match was
played at Blackpool, and on the 5th September Bolton Wanderers came to Darwen
for the Salmoners first Football League game. A special train had brought a large
contingent of away supporters who helped to swell the crowd to 7,000. The kick-off
was delayed for ten minutes, due to the late arrival of the referee!
Things
did not go well for the club and the Wanderers took a two goal lead, then Entwistle
the Darwen winger scored to make the score at half-time 1-2, there were no more
goals scored and as with their first initiation to league football two years earlier
in the Alliance Darwen had suffered defeat in their first game. the team for this
historic game consisted of: Mc Owen, Leach, Simmons, Thornber,
Owen, Haddow, Alexander, Heap, Smith, Carty and Entwistle.
Two days
later a high scoring game went against the Salmoners, when they were defeated
3-5 at Everton . The misery pilied up for the Salmoners for dispite playing well
at Bolton on the 12th September, an exciting game saw them go down to a single
goal. This defeat put the Salmoners at the bottom of the table, and although the
first win came on the 18th September when they defeated Accrington at Barley Bank
5-2, followed by another victory on the 3rd October over fellow strugglers Stoke
( 9-1 the biggest score that time in the football league and still the third highest
win ever for a game in the top flight ) by November things were looking bleak!
In a article in the local Darwen news was the question:
" In what
position will the Salmoners be at the end of the season ...... Week after week
the salmoners are beaten, but none the less the committee do not get good men!
How often were these sentiments to be repeated by other clubs in the years
to follow! Significantly the team generally consisted of ten English players and
one Scot. This led to several disputes between these players and the committee,
as the latter searched for suitable replacements from over the border.
The
season had started with good attendances, but as the clubs fortunes dropped so
did the interest in attending games, not helped by the 6d ( 2.5p ) for entrance
money now imposed. If the home record was poor the away results were even worse
four goals shared at Wolverhampton in late September, and another draw at
Accrington, constituted the only points picked up on their travels all season.
Apart from a suprise 3-1 home victory over the current Champions Everton on the
14th November, the run-up to the year end produced such defeats as the ones at
Aston Villa and Derby to the tune of seven unopposed goals!
The second half
of the season became a nightmare when every game was lost except a 1-1 draw with
West Brom. Amongst the defeats were a 9 goal thrashing at Burnley and an even
worse 0-12 defeat at West Brom a team they drew with only 14 days before! ( this
is the highest scoreline ever for a top flight game )
Refering to the 12-0
defeat by West Bromwich Albion two years later after Darwen had won promotion
to the top flight at the first attempt a Mr Tomlinson Sports reporter of the Darwen
news who was fiercely partizan towards the Salmoners wrote :
" This
week the Salmoners entertain West Bromwich who bagged a dozen the last time the
teams met ( 1891 was the first season nets were used and people then referred
to them has bags over the goal, hence the saying ) he went on to say that "
this time the "Baggies" would be on the other end of a thrashing"
West Bromwich Albion have been nicknamed the "Baggies" since that
day. ( although not a thrashing Darwen did beat West Brom 1-0 to gain revenge
)
The end of the season showed the appaling record of 4 wins, 3 draws and
19 defeats. with the awful goal difference of 38 for and 112 against. This represented
the conceding of a average of 4 goals per game ( still a record in the top flight
)
Darwen finished bottom of the league! in general the attendances had slumpted,
but even so the local derby games with the large travelling support attracted
good crowds, and on the 1st January with Championship challenging Preston North
End's visit to Barley Bank the clubs record attendance was recorded with 8,000
paying spectators.
In the FA Cup, an exit was made in the 2nd round with a
2 goal defeat to Aston Villa - which records say should have been won! and in
the County cup a 2-3 defeat was sustained at the semi-final stage, at home to
Blackburn Rovers, before a crowd of 6,000.
At the clubs A.G.M. the chairman
( Mr T. Hindle ) was scathing in his remarks about the players. He stated that
he believed drink was the reason for the team losing matches ( it should be added
that he had oppposed having any publicans on the committee ) The players he considered
were not training sufficently but spending their time in pubs from morning till
night!
With the final legalising of professional football in Scotland in 1892,
the club ( in common with others ) found those Scots that they had managed to
secure were "defecting" back to their homeland.
Three of the four
bottom clubs had to seek re-election, West Brom by winning the FA Cup were re-elected
automatically, Accrington ( 20 pts ) and Stoke ( 14 pts ) scraped through, but
Darwen ( 11 pts ) were re-jected and along with a influx of new clubs helped to
to become founder members of the Football League Division Two. In to replace Darwen
came Newton Heath who had finished Champions of the Alliance League, along with
Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday.
1891/92
Division One final positions:
| P | W | D | L | F | A | PTS | ||
| 1 | Sunderland | 26 | 21 | 0 | 5 | 93 | 36 | 42 |
| 2 | Preston North End | 26 | 18 | 1 | 7 | 61 | 31 | 37 |
| 3 | Bolton Wanderers | 26 | 17 | 2 | 7 | 51 | 37 | 36 |
| 4 | Aston Villa | 26 | 15 | 0 | 11 | 89 | 56 | 30 |
| 5 | Everton | 26 | 12 | 4 | 10 | 49 | 49 | 28 |
| 6 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 26 | 11 | 4 | 11 | 59 | 46 | 26 |
| 7 | Burnley | 26 | 11 | 4 | 11 | 49 | 45 | 26 |
| 8 | Notts County | 26 | 11 | 4 | 11 | 55 | 51 | 26 |
| 9 | Blackburn Rovers | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 58 | 65 | 26 |
| 10 | Derby County | 26 | 10 | 4 | 12 | 46 | 52 | 24 |
| 11 | Accrington | 26 | 8 | 4 | 14 | 40 | 78 | 20 |
| 12 | West Bromwich Albion | 26 | 6 | 6 | 14 | 51 | 58 | 18 |
| 13 | Stoke City | 26 | 5 | 4 | 17 | 38 | 61 | 14 |
| 14 | DARWEN | 26 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 38 | 112 | 11 |
To view the full scores for the 1891/2
season click here
Darwen
FC Football League Record v All Clubs.
