Darwen v Newton Heath Football League 1899

This was not so much a " Great Game" But a passing of an era, for when Darwen played Newton Heath on the 22nd of April 1899 it was to be Darwen Football Club's last-ever Football League game.
The Darwen team that day was : McIvor ( goal ) Woolfall and Cawthorne ( backs ) Moore, Livesey and Radcliffe ( half-backs ) Wilson, Bleasdale, Pilkington, Eccles and Collinson ( forwards ) Jack Whitley was sold a day earlier for £50 to Aston Villa which helped pay off the players wages!
1,100 spectators turned out to watch the Salmoners swansong and judging by past results that season would have been quite suprised when the Salmoners took a first half lead through Pilkington somewhat against the run of play! In the second half the Heathians hit back and equalised but the newspaper reports suggest that the Darwen players did not lose heart and might well have scored a well deserved winner before the end, but the final score ended 1-1 and the Salmoners went out of the Football League with a little Pride!, and from that day the two clubs fortunes moved in different directions, Darwen moving to non-league football whilst three years later Newton Heath changed their name to Manchester United ( J.J. Bentley) becoming one of Englands most successful clubs, and would move from their spiritual home in Clayton Manchester to Old Trafford close to the boundary with the City of Salford in 1910.
Of the two hundred plus programmes sold for this game only one is known to have survived and has been in a private collection since 1962, making it one of the most valuable football programmes to exist

Final score : Darwen 1 Newton Heath 1

To view the team that played Newton Heath and the last team photo to be taken at Barley Bank click here.
To view a photo of the Newton Heath team that won the Lancashire cup in 1899 beating Blackburn Rovers 2-1 in final click here