 |
Darwen v Aston Villa F. A. Cup 1st Round 1893 |  |
This was the Salmoner's greatest hour, on a cold bitter
January day the visitors Aston Villa arrived unbeaten, and red-hot favorites to
win the cup and league. The two teams had met twice before in the cup, the first
time in 1887-- played at Birmingham in the quarter finals Villa ran out 3-2 winners
and went on to win the cup. The second meeting the previous year (1892) again
saw Villa win 2-0 and reach the final only to be beaten by West Brom.
Cup
fever ran through the town and 7,300 tickets were sold for the game. At half time
the score stood 1-3 to the Villa, Devey, Brown and Cowan scoring for Villa and
Entwistle for the Salmoners.
In the second
half Darwen stormed the Villa goal and in a 20 minute spell scored three goals
to make the score 4-3, but with 10 minutes to go Aston Villa scored again to make
for a grandstand finish 4-4.
Once again Entwistle breached the Villa defence
to score a last minute winner for the Salmoners and the game ended 5-4 to Darwen.
The scorers in the second half Entwistle 2 , McKennie and Sutherland for Darwen,
Athersmith for Villa.
This result caused riots and disbelief in North Birmingham,
whilst the townsfolk of Darwen celebrated their greatest win.
For the record:
two rounds later Darwen lost to the eventual winners Wolverhampton Wanderers,
but they did gain promotion to the First Division winning their playoff with Notts
County 3-1. Whilst Aston Villa dropped off in the league, for soon after the game
with Darwen Villa lost 4 games on the trot and went on to lose out on the championship
to Sunderland, but in the following six years they redeemed themselves by winning
the championship five times and the cup twice.
Speaking to the Darwen News
and Advertiser some 35 years after the game Jonathon Entwistle said "Aston
Villa were the best team we ever played, with such great players as Devey Athersmith
and Cowans in their side knowbody gave us a chance, but the Darwen team of 1893
was a very very good team the best team I had ever played with, and had we not
been cruelly hit with sickness and injuries myself included for the quarter-final
game with Wolverhampton I am sure we could have gone on and won the Football Association
cup that year"
Many people in Darwen although some now well into old
age still spoke of this game over fifty years later. -- and now looking back from
a distance of over 100 years it seems strange to realise that Darwen could well
have won the FA cup in 1893, for had they beaten Wolverhampton Wanderers ( which
they did in a league game later that year ) a mouth-watering semi final against
arch rivals Blackburn Rovers stood in their way and in 1893 Darwen did defeat
the Rovers twice - in a friendly and in a East Lancs cup tie!
But it was not
to be and this would be the "Salmoners" last realistic chance of ever
winning the coverted FA cup.
Final score : Darwen 5 Aston Villa 4
To
view the full cup draw click here
To view the Wolves
side that knocked out the Salmoners in the quarter final and won the FA cup in
1893 click here
Below are photo's and profiles
of some of the Villa players from the game:
To view Albert Evans the Villa
full back in this game click here
To view
Charlie Athersmith the Villa right winger in this game click
here
To view John Henry George Devey the Villa center forward in this
game click here
To view John Reynolds the half
back with Villa in this game click here
