This was the first ever final of the Lancashire cup, the Lancashire Football Association had been formed in 1879, and Darwen Football Club had been the main organisers in it's formation, ( see T. Hindle )
The Lancs Cup had been the Association's first Competition and even before the first draw it had been decided to play the final at the Barley Bank the home of Darwen FC. In the semi finals Darwen beat Great Lever ( Bolton ) 4-3. Whilst the Rovers beat Church 1-0.
This was the first competitive game the two old rivals played, the games before had been only friendlies ( if you could call them that )
Because of the local rivalry and the passion of both sets of supporters some 8,000 people turned up at the Barley Bank for the final -- The biggest attendance for a football match at that time!.
One hour before the kick-off the large crowds were gathering outside the ground, and it was necessary to have six match selling ticket positions to cope with the throng. Twelve lorries were commandeered as temporary seated stands on the North side of the ground, and these were soon filled to overflowing. Even team photographs were taken and in the two teams two future England internationals were on show Tom Marshall of Darwen and the Blackburn Rovers captain John Hargreaves. Rovers quickly established control of the game but against the run of play Darwen went ahead through Bury which caused "Hats and Sticks to fly in all directions" in the second half Darwen began to pile on the pressure and eventually ran out easy winners 3-0, the third goal had been hotly disputed by the Rovers and the two umpires could not make a decision, eventually the referee made the decision and awarded Darwen the goal -an amazing compromise for such a thing was not covered in the rules at the time, ironically this was to be the only time Darwen would ever win this trophy
The match was surrounded with more controversy though, the rules of the competition required that players should reside within a certain distance of their clubs. In this instance there was one questionable player in each team, the Rovers sought from the association a ruling of the matter, and received the incredible reply, to the effect that, each player could play their suspect player if they wished; Their final ruling would then be determined after the game thus Rovers choose not to play their star A. N. Hornby, whilst Darwen went ahead and played their "foreigner" R. Kirkham. The Darwen committee maintained that only Hornby was the questionable player and saw no reason why they should not play Kirkham, Darwen also created a smear campaign against their neighbours, this plus the decision to play the final at Barley bank the home of Darwen FC had the Rovers quite riled long before the day of the game.

Final score : Darwen 3 Blackburn Rovers 0

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