A public meeting at the Industrial hall Darwen on the 3rd May 1899, was held to discuss the future of Darwen Football club, and a agreement was reached to form a new organization again using the name Darwen Football club. Playing at the newly accuired ground near Anchor farm.
A new management committee was elected and initial resolutions were passed that the club's expences were to be kept down to the minimum ( £15 per week and no summer wages paid to players.)
Councillor Walter Knowles JP. was the only member of the old club board to be elected to the new club, and he remained a director until the First World War, he later became the Mayor of Darwen.
In the weeks that followed further meetings appointed Mr A. W. Huntington as President of the new club and Thomas Hindle as treasurer, Thomas had held positions on the old clubs board before moving to the LFA.
There was a lot of discussion as to which league the new club was to play in and most were in favour of the Lancashire league which was also professional, it makes very interesting reading to see what the "Darwen news " had to say at the time on the subject!
" The more Lancashire clubs there are that find themselves at the bottom of the First League ( Football League ) the sooner will the Lancashire league be looked to as the more suitable Combination to join. With the Southern league at one end and the Lancashire league at the other, there seems every possibility that the Second Division of the Football League will go to the wall!
Of course in some ways this prediction did come true but, instead of the lower section of the Football League collapsing, it actually grew stronger with the incorporation of the Southern League as a Third Division in 1920.
The Lancashire League was formed in 1888/89 to offer a league structure for the other teams in Lancashire that did not qualify for either the Football League or the Alliance League.
These initially included eventual League members such as Blackpool, Bury and Liverpool, but the highly prestigious Lancashire League absolutely refused to accept membership applications from reserve sides of League clubs, because of this a group of League teams including Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, and Preston North End set up their own rival competition - The Lancashire Combination for the 1891/92 season.
However - the situation soon reversed itself as the leading Lancashire League clubs gradually began to win election to the Football league. and the competition began to lose it's attraction, suffering decline in attendances.
Ironically the clubs that had earlier wanted to exclude the reseve teams of Fooball League clubs then suddenly decided that it would be better to be playing in the same League with them after all! and most of them then decided to switch from the Lancs league to the Combination. The Lancs league continued to decline as more and more of it's members joined the Combination and in the end the clubs that remained were transfered en-bloc to the newly formed second division of the combination in 1903/04 which had been formed to cope with the extra numbers.
However the newly found status quo did not last long, In May 1911 once again outnumbered by the non-league clubs, the football league reserve sides found they kept being out-voted on key issues and once again began to feel aggrieved. As a result they broke away and formed the " Central League"
A few seasons later, the Cheshire league clubs left the Combination to form the Cheshire County League and the Combination suffered further when many of the top clubs were drafted into the newly formed Third Division North of the Football League in 1921.
The field that was to become the Anchor ground was attached to the Anchor farm and had been previously open pasture.
The new club initially leased it at a rent of £10 per season with a seperate agreement for pratice games in August.
At the beginning of August 1899, arrangments were made to transfer the old "Barrel Grandstand " from Barley Bank over to the Anchor. The tenant of Anchor farm - Mr Dick Smith - who was subletting the ground to the club kindly loaned them the sum of £100 to buy the stand and transport it to the Anchor.
The club had decided to change colours from their black and white striped shirts to a " Turkey red and black striped shirt" with blue shorts.
The club started it's new life in the Lancs league in thrifty style for an away game to Stockport county, the players had to walk from Manchester Victoria station to Manchester Piccadily ( or London road as it was known then ) and then again from Heaton Norris station to the Stockport ground. Not suprisingly they lost the game 3-0.
By Christmas the Salmoners were third in the table and getting reasonable gates at their new home, even though it was much more difficult to get to than Barley Bank.
They were drawn against local rivals Chorley in both the Lancashire and FA cups and took each to a replay before succmbing in both. Overall life was not quite as easy in the lower league as might have been expected. Gone were the big name players and the ex-internationals,and gone were the expensive imports. The club was now firmly based on more locally based talent but come the end of the season Darwen could only manage 5th place out of 15 teams, having won 13 out of 28 games.
The 1900/01 season was much the same although they improved slightly on their league position finishing 4th albeit in a weakened league of only 11 teams winning 10 out of 20 games.
there was however one piece of silverware to celebrate as Darwen FC beat the Mighty Blackburn Rovers at Ewood park to win the East Lancs Charity shield. The details of the game are now lost to history other that the fact that the Rovers team that day boasted many prestigious internationals including England captain Bob Crompton.
After two mid-table seasons during which time the Anchor ground was being made to look like a football stadium rather than the cowfield it had been! the 1901/02 season was the one when everything fell into place.
Darwen got off to the best possible start when on the 29th October they overcame Football League rivals Burnley 2-1 after two replays to win the prestigious East Lancs Charity cup.
They built on this to make a unbeaten start to the season, and at the same time saw off Blackpool, Southport and Nelson to reach the 1st round proper of the FA cup, they wre drawn against Woolwich Arsenal at home and some 7,000 fans - Darwen's biggest for years - packed into the Anchor ground to watch the spectacle!
The Darwen team for the match was : Mc Ivor (goal) Collinson and Haslam (backs) Bridge, Walker, Kenyon ( halfbacks) Humphreys, Cooper, Hulligan, Gates and Leeming (forwards)
In the event the minnows lost the game 2-0 but were unlucky to do so! Beaten in the FA cup but still unbeaten in the League Darwen managed to go the whole season without defeat!
They ended up Champions of the Lancashire League with a record of P 24 -- W18 -- D6 -- L0, -- Finishing 6 points ahead of Southport Central.
Writing some 50 years later Alderman Taylor said of the game against Woolwich Arsenal ( the only game Darwen lost all season ) he said : "Darwen completely outplayed the London side, they lost two of the softest goals I have ever seen"
one of Darwen's key players was local born Daniel Cooper who was one of the leading goalscorers for the season.
The following season Darwen were once again triumphant in the East Lancs Charity Cup, beating Accrington Stanley 2-1 in a closely fought final on the 6th December 1902, they were not however able to replicate their league success of the previous season and finished up runners up in the Lancashire league, 5 points behind champions Southport Central. This was their last year in the Lancashire League and in common with many of the other leading clubs, they switched over to the Lancashire Combination for the following season.
A Darwen team had played in the Lancashire combination in season 1892/93 and 1893/94 finishing 2nd and 3rd in the table respectively. It may well have been that the club used these extra fixtures to pad out their competitive fixtures and this argument is borne out by the fact that in the following season the "Palatine league " was created by the other league clubs for this purpose.
Certainly in the 1894/95 season the Darwen team was now called the Darwen reserves and this is the team that played in the Combination until finances became to streched for it to continue.
The senior Darwen side joined the combination for the 1903/04 season and they met with reasonable success. they finished 5th of 18 teams twice in a row 1903/04 and 1904/05 and the following season were runners-up to Accrington Stanley.
Then the clubs fortunes fell into freefall as in successive seasons they finished 7th, - 16th - and then 17th -- in the combination. that final performance was enough to see them relegated to the second Division at the end of the 1908/09 season.
If anybody had been hoping for a quick return to the top flight they would have been disappointed with the first season down in division two. A terrible run saw the Salmoners win only 13 of their 34 games against supposedly lower quality opposition and they ended up in 17th place out of 20 teams.
Luckily that was the lowest the club dropped to in footballing terms but despite still attracting crowds of around 2,000, financial problems were never far away. Not for the first time, the reserve team was disbanded to save costs and it was only due to the timely albeit " Catastropic" intervention of World War One that saved Darwen Football club from drifting further into obscurity.
The Combination carried on in various formats throughout the war but Darwen did not play again until 1920.

Post WW1
Partially as a result of the departure of the leagues clubs reserve teams in the years before the war and also due to the inability of some clubs to get reoranised after it, the Lancashire Combination reverted to a single league competition which Darwen rejoined for the 1920/21 season.
Before them lay a programme of rebuilding,, not just of the team but also the ground -- as the Northern Daily Telegraph observed : " the ground at the Anchor was barren land, everything that had furnished it before the war has gone!"
In all the 20's were good to Darwen Football club, they performed well in the Lancashire Combination with two 4th place finishes in their first two seasons back, followed by three consecutive 3rd places in 23/24/25.
Bob Jackson was one of Darwen's top players during this period but he was snatched up by Football league side Bury in October 1922, as part of the deal, Bury visited Darwen at the Anchor ground for a friendly match on the 23rd April 1923, which Darwen won 3-1 Jackson later became the most successful manager in Portsmouth's history!
The club had not won anything since 1902, but silverware was not far away. On the 18th November 1922 Darwen visited Accrington Stanley - who were by then playing in the Football league division 3 North - to play for the East Lancs Charity Shield and won 4-2 in-front of 6,000 fans at Peel Park Accrington.
By that time crowds of 4,000 - 5,000 - numbers that had not been seen in Darwen for some 40 years - had again become commonplace and the club was able to benifit from the increased revenue to gradually improve the ground.
In Anticipation of the 1923/24 season the Lancashire Daily post said of the club : Darwen's prospects for the season are distinctly good, a spacious grandstand on the westerly side of the groung will add greatly to the comfort of the spectators!"
This grandstand replaced the old " barrel stand " brought from the Barley Bank in 1900, and with it's passing went the Salmoners last link with their old spiritual "home" --- the Barley Bank ground.
In this photo of Darwens 1922 Lancs shield winners, ( click here ) despite the poor quality it is possible to see part of the frame structure of the old " Barley Bank "Barrel stand being dismantled. click here to see the grandstand at Barley Bank.
One year later, in 1924/25, the "Post" annual said: " though they still have a balance on the wrong side, Darwen's fianaces are better than was the case 12 months ago and the prospects for the club from every point are improved. Last season a large portion of the banking on one side of the ground was covered and on the other side of the field is a large stand which has now become the property of the club."
In 1925 Darwen once again played Accrington Stanley for the East lancs Charity sheild, this time over two legs on the 16th and 28th April.
The firstleg was away at Peel Park and Darwen's centre forward -- Livesey scored the only goal of the game after just 16 minutes to give the Salmoners a big boost for the second leg!
The return game - played on a pitch that was ankle deep in mud in some areas of the field - ended with a 1-0 win to the Stanley meaning that extra time was to be played to decide the winners, two periods of ten minutes each were played and just as it seemed that the stalemate would remain Accrington scored a vital goal with just 2 minutes left. As if that was'nt enough Darwen scored with the last kick of the game -- a free kick by Hart. -- to level the aggregate score again. The goal was greeted, according to the press report as : " such an outburst of enthusiasm that has not been seen on the Darwen ground for many a year"
It was agreed that the shield would be shared and each team recieved a full set of medals.
For the first game of the 1925/26 season, played on the 29th August Darwen made a little bit of history by being the opponents of Clitheroe's first ever league game in the Lancashire Combination.
More history was made that day as Jack Slater -- who would become an important member of the "Great" side of the 30;s -- made his debut for the club.
Over the course of the season the club had actually made a profit for the first time since it's reformation in 1920, although in the previous years a lot had been spent on rebuilding the ground.
The club was now in the "Black" and had a ground to rival any in the Combination. With a firm basis to build on, Darwen Football Club slowly began to put together the foundations of a successful team, under the direction of captain and later manager -- Bert Proos -- who had played with the great Blackburn Rovers team before the great war, alongside such immortals as Bob Crompton and Arthur Cowell.
It was not to happen overnight however, and there were still a couple of rocky seasons to get through before the club finally hit the right note with the combination of players.
In the 1926/27 season Darwen had their first sniff of success in the highly rated " Lancs Junior cup" reaching the semi-final before losing to Morecambe 1-0 But the league position was somewhat precarious as Darwen finished in 12th place - their lowest placing since the war.
The following season Albert Leeming made his debut for the club and Darwen again reached the semi-final of the "Junior Cup" this time the "hammered" Morcambe 7-2 in the 3rd round but, once again they came unstuck in the semi-final losing to Lancaster 3-1. Rather worringly, the league form plummeted even further and they finished second fron bottom of the league.
Towards the end of the 1927/28 season, Albert Robinson signed for the club from Fleetwood and the team was strengtened further during the summer with the arrival of Albert Pope -- former Fulham centre-half -- who joined as player coach, also George Shaw from Preston and Paddy Quigley from Accrington Joined the club and the basis the the great side of the 30's began to take shape!
Darwen only managed to finish in 11th place in the combination in the 1928/29 season, although that was already a improvement on the previous year! Another area of improvement came in the Lancashire Junior cup where they finally reached the final at the third time of asking.
They beat bacup 4-0 away after a replay in the second round before overcoming eventual champions Chorley, --- with whom an intense rivalry had built up over the years --- 5-2 in-front of 6,000 fans.
The semi-final was played in thick fog away to Ashton National who had several ex-Football league players in their ranks, Darwen went 1-0 down early on in the first half but equalised before half-time. Then a George Shaw goal early in the second half secured a 2-1 win! as the game wore on the visibility was said to be so bad that many of the travelling Darwen fans in the 3,500 crowd had not seen Shaws goal.
The final was played at Preston north End's Deepdale ground on the 12th January 1929, and Darwen's opponents were Lancaster Town who had appeared in the previous three finals and six in all!
the game was played in-front of 9,000 spectators, and remained on a knife-edge well into the second half, but Lancaster took the lead in the 72nd minute forcing Darwen to push forward to look for a equaliser.
George Shaw-- who had aggravated a existing injury early in the game and so was not able to play to his full potential and Lancaster scored again with 6 minutes left.
Darwen lost the match 2-0 on the day but in doing so gained some very useful experience of cup-finals that would hold the team in good-stead for the years that followed!
Hoping to build on the previous seasons rather disappointing 11th place in the league, Darwen FC announced that 9 first team players would be retained and that dispite attention from Manchester United, it was comfirmed that goalkeeper Mulkeen would be staying with the club.
To add to the 9 first team members retained from last season , several new signings were made at the start of the new campaign, including -- Clemmett -- an inside forward from Breightmet United and -- Wilson --- an outside left formerly with Scottish First Division side Cowdenbeath.
The season started off well for Darwen with a succession of victories and the club experimented with different forward lines. On the 30th August, they fought back from being 2-1 down away to Dick Kerrs at half-time to win the game 4-2 with second half goals from Shaw, Robinson and Gaskell.
On the 17th September a new forward-line of Monks, Shaw and Clemmett ran riot against Lytham winning 7-0 after a slender 1-0 lead at half-time and Clemmett was once again the star of the match on the 5th October scoring 3 goals as Darwen beat Great Harwood 8-1 in the Combination Cup.
On the first day of November, the team was further strengthened with a player who was to become very important to the side over the next few years -- forward Bob Dale - brother of the great Manchester United and later Man City Defender -- John Dale. Bob was signed from a Manchester Amatuer team.
Dale made a immediate impact by scoring on his debut for the club the very next day in a 5-1 win over Barnoldswick Town, although Clemmett was man of the match once again with another 4 goals!
Manchester Central were unbeaten in the league when Darwen were drawn against them in the Lancs Junior cup. Clemmett struck first and it looked as if Darwen were on their way to an unexpected victory -- until former Bolton Legend Joe Smith scored a late equaliser for Manchester to force a replay. The Salmoners warmed up for the replay with a big home win over the previous season's champions Chorley, then came the replay against Manchester which the Salmoners won 3-2 Robinson scoring the winning goal with just 5 minutes to go!
In the semi-final they were drawn to play Morecambe at the Anchor ground, and fielding a unchanged side and aided by a fierce wind at their backs Darwen went into a 3-0 lead at half-time, they added two more goals in the second half to win the game 5-1 and it meant that Darwen had reached the final of the Lancs Junior cup for the second successive season --- this time their opponents would be Horwich RMI.
Preperations for the final did not go well, however on the 21st December they slumped to a 6-0 league defeat away at Manchester Central and had to play most of the second half with 10 men losing Paddy Quigley with a injury. Then their home game against Atherton was abandoned because of bad weather after Darwen had raced into a 2-0 lead against the wind!
Furthermore, Darwen were drawn against Horwich in the 3rd round of the combination cup --- as well! That game was played at the Anchor ground on the 2nd January and Darwen won 2-1 both goals coming from Shaw, the deciding strike coming as a second half penalty.
Darwen fans might have expected that victory to boost their teams confidence for the big final that was again played at Deepdale, unfortunately that was not to be the case and the day before the match the news that George Shaw would probably miss the big game through a knee injury.
That meant that from the previous seasons cup final team, only Mulkeen, Jenkinson, Slater, Williamson, Quigley and Robinson remained.
The weather conditions for the final were not good and there was a thin carpet of snow on the Deepdale pitch, coming in for George Shaw was -- Harry Brogden -- a former Oxford Blue - to play up front.
The Darwen team for the final was : Williamson, Jenkinson, Quigley, Mulkeen, Dawson, Slater, Robinson, Prest, Brogden, Clemmett, and Wilson.
As the game got underway, the Darwen team appeared to be showing signs of nerves. Horwich RMI had much the less of play but the Samoners were unable to take advantage in a goaless first half. In the end Horwich won the game 2-0 but most observers felt that this was mostly down to deficiences of the Darwen side rather than then any superiority on the Horwich RMI 's part
The local press report went : " Darwen had much the better of the play throughout the contest but a fine goalkeeper and two snap goals gave Horwich the cup"
Two days later the young rising star of the Salmoners side --- Tommy Prest --- a local lad was sold to Burnley for £600. He had actually been sold to Burnley some weeks before but a clause in his contract allowed him to play for the Salmoners until after the final!
Darwen then played Horwich for an incredable third time in as many weeks when they travelled to meet the railwaymen in a league game on the 25th January , this time there were no nerves and after drawing at half-time 2-2, the Salmoners came away with a vengeful 6-3 away victory.
The following week Darwen were due to entertain Manchester Central and were able to gain revenge for their earlier hammering in Manchester by inflicting Central's first league defeat of the season they beat them 4-2 at the Anchor, with Bob Dale netting twice.
On the 8th April there was a brief break from competitive action as the Anchor hosted a benefit for Darwen's John Slater, ( photo click here ) little is known about the game or the final score but the Northern Evening Telegraph said : " a well deserved tribute to the sevices he has rendered to the club over the years!"
On the 14th March Darwen beat Accrington Stanley reserves 3-0 at home in the semi-final of the Combination Cup to reach their second final of the season. Shaw scored twice and Dale got the third but it could well have been 5 such was the Salmoners Superiority.
Two days later Darwen suffered their first home defeat for some 5 months losing to Lancaster who went on to become Champions! the first half was goalless and dispite leading 1-0 and then 2-1 Darwen lost the match 4-2 with the latter part of the game being played in vertually total darkness!
Losing at home in the shield just a few days beforehand could not have been very good preparation for Darwen's 3rd final of the season, especially as they had to cram in 6 games in 10 days. the task was doubly daunting as the Salmoners would have to play Prescot Cables away at Prescot in the final, The game was played on the evening of Monday 28th April and working on the basis of the motto "third time lucky" Darwen came out with full guns blazing.
Both sides had their chances but as the first half wore on Darwen took control. In the 40th minute Wilson took a quick corner and Paddy Quigley headed into the net to give Darwen the lead. almost straight from the kick-off Darwen were back in the Prescot penalty area and Shaw hit the underside of the bar and the ball fell into the net only to bounce back out without the referee seeing it! so the Cables escaped.
Prescot through everything they could muster at the Salmoners defence but Mulkeen played out of his skin in goal for the Salmoners, and with a long throw he picked out Shaw in some space who sped off and beat the Prescot keeper to score Darwen's second goal for a final score of 2-0 ( interestingly this was the same cup Darwen had won in 1902 as Champions of the old defunct Lancashire league )
In the league Darwen finished 4th but after losing the Junior cup-final they had won 19 and lost only 5 of their remaining 25 games, had they played like that all season they could well have finished Champions.
The team was more settled and only 28 players were used in the 38 League games. Mulkeen and Robinson played in all 51 league and cup matches, and of the 128 league and cup goals scored overall 43 came from Shaw.
1930/31 season.
Having won the Combination cup the previous year, Darwen were keen to improve on their 4th place in the league.
The Blackburn times of 16th Auaust reported that the team would remain very much the same as last year, the only notable exception being goalkeeper Mulkeen who had moved to Kent for work reasons.
As the season got under way, centre-forward Clemmett was transferred to Preston North End, but any loss was soon forgotten as in early September Darwen pulled off a huge coup by signing Joe Smith the former Bolton Wanderers and England star, from Manchester Central.
The inside forward had spent 19 years with Bolton in the Football League winning the FA cup twice and making 5 apperances for England, also to replace Malkeen in goal Darwen signed Harry Rowlands from Aston Villa in July.
A huge crowd was in attendance at the Anchor on the 9th September to witness Smith's debut for the Salmoners, and they were not dissapointed as they were treated to a 10-2 demolition of visiting Wigan Reserves, with Dale and Shaw scoring 5 goals each!
Darwen set the early pace in the Lancashire combination, notching up 11 points from a possible 12 in their first 6 games and they headed the table by mid-September. Then came the first defeat of the season to Dick Kerrs 1-2 at home.
On the 13th December, Reginal Preedy -- who had just months before had been playing in the Clitheroe Youth league -- was promoted to the first team and scored a hat-trick on his debut!
Two weeks later when Darwen beat Rochdale reserves 12-1 Joe Smith scored 5 of the goals and Preedy scored six to bring his total to 15 in just 5 games, with onlookers suggesting he was the new "Johnny Ball".
However, such goal-scoring form did not go unnoticed and Burnley quickly swooped for the promising young 20 year old, who had by then added a third hat-trick to his tally. But Preedy was still only registered as a amateur with Darwen His rise to prominence had been so quick that he had not been offered better terms by the club and he had to be released with no fee changing hands.
Darwen were unhappy as they had not been officially approached by Burnley, before the "Clarets" had offered Preedy a contract and the move was discribed in the clubs records as a " dirty low-down trick"
But the loss of Preedy did not stop the Salmoners rollercoaster, after the New Year holiday games Darwen were back up to second in the table, and a week later were top of the league on goal average with two games in hand over second placed Dick Kerrs.
On the 20th January, Fred Dawson was promoted from the reserves to the first team and he too scored a hat-trick , thus becoming the third Darwen debutant in that position to score a hat-trickin the past two months.
On the 17th February, Darwen entertained Clitheroe in the East Lancs Charity Cup at the Anchor Ground, The weather conditions were appaling with a strong icy wind and snow on the ground.
It was 1-1 at half-time courtesy of a Shaw goal but as the second half got underway more snow began to fall. Darwen now had the advantage of a very strong gale behind them and Shaw scored two more goals within 90 seconds of the restart. It was so cold that the referee called the players off the field for a short time and when they returned to restart the game only 10 Darwen players emerged and 7 from Clitheroe. Joe Smith added three more goals in the second half as one by one the remaining Clitheroe players succumbed to the cold and left the field.
By the time the referee abandoned the game with just 8 minutes remaining Darwen were leading 7-1 and Clitheroe had only 4 men remaining, rather than face a replay Clitheroe scratched from the competition.
Back in the league Darwen travelled the short distance to Peel Park Accrington on the 21st February to face the Stanley reserves -- on a ground they had not taken a point on for 6 years. The crowd of 2,000 witnessed a 1-1 draw which was a great morale booster to the Salmoners Championship hopes.
Reginald Preedy after a unhappy time at Burney was allowed to return to Darwen in January for the rest of the season to bolster the clubs trophy hopes!
A 5-1 defeat away to fellow title contenders Prescot Cables was quickly avenged with a 3-0 home win three days later but Darwen's championship hopes would have to depend on other results going their way!
Darwen virtually assured themselves of the title with a resounding 8-0 win over Great Harwood, learning at the same time that Prescot Cables had lost their game on the same day!
Darwen opened their defence of the Combination Cup with a 5-1 win over Great Harwood in which Joe Smith scored 3 goals.
In the next round they faced Clitheroe in a match that they won 4-2 after being 1-2 down at half-time, Fred Dawson scored the equaliser and the all-important third goal.
The semi-final against Chorley was a hard fought affair and Darwen lost Paddy Quigley after just 10 minutes through injury and were reduced to only four forwards for the rest of the match, Chorley were leading 1-0 at half-time and in the second half Joe Smith showing some of the great "Bolton fighting spirit of the 20's" scoring a last minute equaliser to earn Darwen a replay.
A 5,000 crowd was present for the replay at Chorleys "Victory park" on the 20 April, this time a fully fit Darwen side made light work of the opposition winning 3-1 with goals from Joe Smith ( 2 ) and Robinson.
The final was played on the 28th April and the Salmoners faced Southport Reserves at the Haigh park before a 3,500 crowd, Joe Smith scored two first half goals and Shaw added two more in the second to give the Salmoners a well diserved win 4-0
In the Charity Shield Darwen once again faced Bacup Borough in the final, Dawson missed a penalty before half-time by which time the Borough had taken a 2 goal lead. Luckily for the Salmoners Bob Dale pulled two goals back in the second half to level the game with just 9 minutes to go. In the replay at the Anchor Dale again scored twice in a 2-0 win that secured the Salmoners their third Trophy of the season. To view a photo of the team and officials with the three trophy's click here
The final league game of the season was played away at Clitheroe on the 2nd of May 1931 but in reality it was more of a carnaval than a football match as Darwen had already won the League title, Cup, and Shield. Many hundreds of travelling Darwen fans celebrated on the ground and the Darwen town band played to the crowd before the game.
For the record the game ended in a 1-1 draw. George Shaw scoring a second half penalty for the Salmoners to level the score, but the game was of secondary importance to the travelling fans that day, and all three trophy's were on show in the Clitheroe grandstand, decorated in Darwen's colours and a formal presetation was made after the game by Lancashire president T. P. Campbell. to view photo of this click here. to view the triumphant return to Darwen that day click here
Looking back over a great season, the club board were later to comment that the " success resulted in a greatly improved financial position of which many a Fooball League 3rd Division club would be glad"
1931/32 season
the optimism for the new season following the treble success was overshadowed by the fact that the previous season's leading light and goal machine Joe Smith had decided to hang up his boots and retire from playing. Joe later went on to manage Blackpool for some 23 years winning the FA Cup in the famous " Matthews Final" of 1953!.
With Fred Dawson being snatched up by Manchester United, Darwen would have to rely on Bob Dale and Reg preedy for their goals this time around.
Initially it was the various cup competitions that provided the most interest to the Darwen fans. On the 7th November Darwen played Horwich RMI away in the Lancs Junior Cup, this was the team that had beaten them in the 1929/30 final , but this time The Salmoners came away with a 9-0 win -- Reg Preedy scoring 6.!
In the FA Cup, they had successfully negotiated the various qualifiying rounds, beating Burscough, Dick Kerrs, Lytham and Prescot Cables to reach the first round proper of the competition for the first time since moving to the Anchor in 1899.
The opponents for the big tie were Peterborough and Fletton United of the Southern League, Darwen beat them easily with goals from Dale ( 2 ) Quigley ( 1 ) and new - comer Norman Crompton ( 1 ) for a 4-0 win ( Crompton had been signed from Horwich RMI a week before the game )
Darwen were then drawn against Chester City -- then top of the 3rd Division North -- in the second round, but the Salmoners had a anxious wait after Peterborough complained to the FA that Darwen had played a ineligible player --- Harry Rowlands -- who has it happens was signed on with the Salmoners at the beginning of the season but somehow his registration had gone missing?
Luckily because Harry had played with Darwen the previous season the protest was dismissed and on the 12th December, they faced the 3rd Division North leaders at the Anchor in what was the biggest game for the club in years.
The game attracted a record 6,500 crowd and Bert Pross Jr. who as the Darwen mascot saw the game recalls : " it was absolutely packed out that day I am sure they could not get another soul into the ground if they tried!"
Things got off ot a bad start when Darwen full-back Murray scored an own goal, but Darwen kept their heads and refused to give in to this early set-back. In what has been discribed as " one of the best games ever to be seen at the Anchor " Reg Preedy scored twice to clinch the game for the Salmoners 2-1.
To celebrate the great victory, a rhyme sprung up around Darwen as former Secretary Jack Howarth quotes it as :

" There are people in sleepy Chester
Bemoan they have not won
There's a ground by the river Darwen
On which they scored but one
and there's Robinson Preedy and Quigley
Who tell how this deed was done ... !

The draw for the third round was keenly awaited and Darwen could not have been given a bigger pairing and a sterner test --- they were drawn against the "Mighty Arsenal" at Highbury! ( "Arsenal were the Countrys top team and the greatest team of their generation! they are to this day listed in history as the third greatest team of all time in English football, they were in 1932 hot favorites to win both the cup and League, eventually they would win the league but were beaten in the FA Cup Final of 1932!)
In the run up to the game there was alot of media interest, not just locally but nationally as well.
James Briggs the Darwen Manager at the time, told the Darwen news in a pre-match psychology statement that even Sir Alex Ferguson would have been proud of : there is not a better set of fighters anywere than our men! If it is a draw at highbury with only 20 minutes to go, Darwen will win. Our team is full of beans. They will play for every one of the 90 minutes and still be fresh -- and the heavier the ground the better!.
below are the occupations and residence of the Darwen players at the time of the match as listed in the Nothern Daily Telegraph in early January 1932:
Rowlands : Driver --- Heaton Moor.
Murray : Cotton Worker --- Heywood.
Jenkinson : Cotton mill operative --- Barnoldswick.
Slater : Mill operative --- Rishton.
Crompton : Unemployed --- Farnworth.
Leeming : Motor Body builder --- Preston.
Robinson : Fish dock worker ---- Fleetwood.
Dale : Labourer --- Mancester.
Preedy : Cotton mill worker --- Clitheroe.
Quigley : Post office worker --- Accrington.
Shaw : Driver --- Chorley
By todays standards the distances that these players had to travel for training and games may not seem to far but in the 30;s they represented a much greater obstacle to overcome. Quite often work commitments made it hard for players to get to the weekly training sessions.
In the run up to the biggest game of their lives, the Darwen players could not sit back and soak up the atmosphere, for they had to work during the week.( to view some photos of the Darwen team preparing for the match click here.)
The spirit in the Darwen camp was terrific, even Jack Slater who had not been selected to play and would only accompany the team down as a reserve travelled in for the latter part of the mid-week training session that his working hours would allow him to manage.
The Evening Telegraph reporter watched him and reported : He was running cheerfully around the pitch in the dark water soaked ground, then later punched a ball, was rubbed down and had a well deserved bath, which was all the training his work had left him time to do!
Albert Leeming was luckier, his working hours allowed him the time to go and have electro massage, radiant heat and sun-ray treatment at the hands of Joe Bishop, the clubs masseur - who had been with the club since the early twenties.
Joe Bishops daughter Nora Thompson -- now in her 80's -- remembers clearly the days when the players would walk down to the Bishops house at the bottom of Avondale road from the Anchor ground on training nights when they needed treatment. but, as her father could only treat one at a time , the others would play darts and table tennis with her and her friends while they were waiting for their turn on the massage table.
As it was such a special occasion, the Darwen players and officials travelled to London the day before the game and a large crowd congregated at Darwen station to cheer them off. to read more about the game and view photo's click here.
In the end the Arsenal were too good for the Salmoners and won the game 11-1.
The following day a large crowd braving the pouring rain greeted the team back.
Undetered by this and no longer in the FA Cup, Darwen moved to the top of the Lancashire Combination after a 2-0 win over leaders Nelson who only the previous season had been playing in the Football League.
At the beginning of April the Salmoners lost their first league game for 6 months and it could not have been worse as the 1-2 defeat came at the hands of Prescot Cables Darwen's nearest rivals for the championship, Luckily though Prescot went on to drop a point away at Accrington, which confimed Darwen has Champions for the second successive season.
On the 26th April Darwen beat Barnoldswick in the semi-final of the combination cup to reach the final for the third successive year, However the choice of venue for the final caused a bit of a stir, Darwen discovered they had to play Fleetwood at Fleetwood and as the club secretary of the time --Ellis Marsden commented : "The Fleetwood ground is so small that it gives the home team a distinct advantage"
The Darwen club thought that home advantage should have been decided by a toss of a coin, as had been the case on previous occations, but the cup committee countered with the argument that the venue had been chosen before the finalists were known.
So it was a rather half-hearted Darwen side that travelled to Fleetwood on the 3rd May 1932 and lost the final 5-0 in-front of a crowd of 5,900 - a record for the cup at that stage, this was the worst defeat ( Excluding the Arsenal Game ) that Darwen had suffered for some 3 years!
The final game of the season was just two days later on the 5th May and the Combination Championship trophy was presented to the Salmoners after the game, however the occasion was marred by the crowd who booed the League officials because of their intransigence over the cuo final venue. To view the Championship team click here.
Darwen's share of the £2,468 gate money from the FA Cup game at the Arsenal was enough to enable them to build a new covered stand behind the goal at the " Darwen End" .
According to the official programme for the grand opening ( photo click Here ) the steel structure was 74 tards by 8 yards and would provide accomodation for 3,000 fans. Mention was also made of the generosity of the "supporters club in the venture"
The stand was officially opened by Darwen captain Paddy Quigley and guest's of honour for the occasion were the Mayor of Darwen -- Cllr W. Knowles -- and the " Cotton Queen "Miss Marjorie Knowles" who was the Kate Moss of her day!
1932/33 season
The following season 1932/33 Darwen were unable to continue their defence of the Lancashire Combination and could only manage to finish in 4th place, by then Darwen had lost Harry Rowlands to Mancester United in a transfer they could well have done with-out, plus Crompton had decided to move nearer home and joined Nelson!
However they did finally win the Lancashire Junior Cup in the 1933 final played at Preston's Deepdale.
The game played on the 1st May 1933 saw them pitted against old enemies Lancaster City and the Darwen team that day was : Vickers ( goal ) Murray, Jenkinson, Slater, Summers, Leeming, Edwards, Cooper, Whitty, Preedy and Quigley.
The match finished goaless and was replayed 4 days later at Deepdale. On this occasion there was no stopping Darwen and they finished up winning 5-0 George Shaw who missed the first game scored twice and the other goals came fron Quigley, Cooper and Preedy
1933 -- 39
After that 1933 cup win, the "Great Darwen team " that had won the title twice in a row gradually began to split up, some of the players were coming to the end of their careers, whilst the younger ones who had been in the spotlight in recent times were snatched up by other clubs.
The crowds that had in recent years, flocked to the Anchor to see a winning side had started to dwingle off as the teams results began to fall away! Thus the gate revenue began to fall, the club who had enjoyed some six years of untold success were to find themselves back into finacial difficulties, and this time round there was no heathy FA Cup tie around the corner to bail the club out.
The 1932/33 season saw Darwen battle through two hard fought replays with local rivals Chorley to get through to the FA Cup 1st round, They were drawn away at 3rd Division side Halifax but made a poor showing coming away 2-0 losers.
The following season they once again got through to the first round of the FA Cup and once again drew third Division opposition.
The opponents were Gateshead who , Ironically at the time were in a worse financial state than Darwen , the game played before a huge 7,700 crowd at the Redheugh Park was a bruising encounter and ended in a 5-2 mauling for Darwen. George Shaw got injured and in his absence Darwen flattered going into the last half of the season, and while the gate money and the promise of a " big Tie" in the next round of the cup could not save Gateshead from " Bankrupcy"
On two occasions during the mid-thirties Darwen tried to join the Cheshire League but both times they were unsuccesful!
One reason for trying to join the Cheshire league was that by then most of the Combinations top teams had themselves joined, and it was thought that joining them would mean "Bigger Gates" for the Salmoners, but History would tell that it would take Darwen some 40 -- plus years before they would become successful by which time the Cheshire League would have been devalued.
In 1934 Both of Darwen's star full-backs -- Maurice Reeday and Arthur Grimes -- were transferred to Blackpool for no fee!
Both players were out of contract at Darwen but had been placed by Darwen on the retained list, however as they had not been re-signed by Darwen at the time, of Blackpool's approach they had to be released without a fee that they would undoubtable have commanded! but this would not be the last time Darwen would lose a valuable player for no fee!
By 1935/36 Darwen were well and truly on the slippery slope down the Combination table, they had not been able to recreate the "Halycon Days " of the early 30's. and a 4th and 5th place finish was followed this time by a 8th league position in 1936
The team had made a interesting signing in 1935 when one of the first Black players to play football in England - a west Indian -- Alf Charles -- who had played Cricket for the West Indies signed for the Salmoners, The season also saw the debut of 17 year old " wonder- Boy" George Holden who was snapped up by Arsenal in late 1936.
In November Darwen visited Scarborough in the FA Cup, hopeful that a good cup run could help ease the club's financial plight, unfortunately they lost 2-0 but reports say Darwen should have had 2 penalties!
By now the club's finance's were at a very low ebb! and a public appeal for donations to keep them afloat -- but only £50 was forthcoming from a Darwen public that had turned out in their thousands only four years before!
The 1936/37 season saw the signing of ex-England legend -- Thomas Johnson -- a FA cup winner with Everton in 1933, plus he was joined by Aussie Campbell from Blackburn Rovers and Matthew Johnson from Rochdale.
In a season that saw Reg Preedy make his 300 th Appearance for the club, Darwen finished in their highest position since the 1932 championship win ending up in 3rd place!
They also ended off the season with some silverware or at least a share of it! Since the Back to Back Championship wins of the early 30,s Darwen had found themselves invited back into the Lancashire Senior cup after some 42 years! but made little impression.
They had also recieved regular beatings at the hands of Accrington Stanley in the Charity shield so when Darwen were paired with Accrington again in the East Lancs Charity Cup again in the final! in April 1937 the outcome seemed to be easy to predict
The match was played at the Anchor ground on the 28th April 1937 and at the end of 90 minutes the game remained scoreless It had been previously announced that in the event of a draw there would be a replay at Peel Park a few days later but prior to that, the fans were expecting extra time with a chance to find a winner on the day.
The two teams held a conference off the pitch during which the fans started booing and jeering once it became clear the teams were not coming back out to finish the contest.
The officals of the clubs then decided to dispense with the replay altogether and share the trophy between them. That did not go down well with the expectant fans either, but the ensuing noisy demonstration did nothing to change the minds of the two sets of officials and thus Darwen recieved one half share of a senoir trophy!
1937/38 started badly for the Salmoners and they did not win until the 6th game of the season. Dispite good new signings in -- Alec Finney -- the former Bolton Wanderers full-back and Peter Vause from Blackburn Rovers plus Joe Read an outside right from Morecambe -- Darwen dropped 9 points from a possible 18.
They had a good performance at South Liverpool in the FA cup drawing 0-0 away but in the replay on the following Tuesday Darwen found themselves down to ten men after 10 minutes after a injury to full-back King, they eventually lost the game 6-2
In the league Darwen suffered a heavy 10-1 defeat at South Liverpool. The Darwen goalkeeper Ingham hit his head against the post while making a diving save early in the first half. he played the rest of the game with concussion and had to stay in hospital in Liverpool afterwards. he said later that he had no recollection of the 10 goals that pasted him!
In the earlier part of the season there had been talk of Darwen winning the championship again, but the team struggled with injuries throughout the season and in the event were lucky to finish in 7th place in the league!
The 1938/39 season started once again with high hopes but these were soon dashed as Darwen lost 3 of their first 4 home games in the league.
Goals were already a problem with two centre-forwards injured -- including Reg Preedy and the situation was not helped when Peter Vause -- who had joined the club the season before moved to Blackpool on the 1st October 1938.
In December 1938 the whole of Darwen's footballing public was shocked to learn that after 7 years with the club-- top scorer Reg Preedy had signed for Rossendale. In 327 games for the club he had scored 334 goals to make him still to this day the Salmoners greatest goalscorer ! his departure left George Shaw as the only player left from the team that had faced the Arsenal in 1932.
By a strange quirk of fate Darwen had no home fixtures between October and December 1938 and the clubs finances suffered badly through having no gate money, then in January Bert Pross resigned as club trainer after 12 years in the job. He had initially joined the club as a player in the 1911-12 season and had played for the Salmoners until 1927.
In October Clifford Chadburn was signed from Burnley to solve the goalscoring problem and looked likely to become the " next Reg Preedy" He scored 46 goals from the time he joined the club until the end of the season including 5 on two occasions Dispite his great efforts the team was sadly in decline and finished in 13th place in the league their lowest position since 1928.
The intervention of World War Two would mean that no-body would ever know if Chadburn would have become the "new Preedy"
It also came at a time when the club was again struggling desperately to survive and having somehow managed to keep afloat, Darwen Football Club Shut up shop for the Duration of Hostilities!

History breakdown

And here we come to the end of the first 64 years of the "Salmoners"

Acknowledgements and special thanks for the history scource, photo's and information in this section are made to :
Dave Twydell -- Yare Publications
Stewart Fells -- Radcliffe
Ken Ormerod -- Morecambe
Dave Howgate -- Southport
Slater Family
Gareth Rowlands -- Canada
Hamiltron Family -- Austrailia
Newspaper cuttings from the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Darwen News and Darwen Advertiser
Blackburn Rovers
Burnley Football Club
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
Nora Thompson, Darwen
Marjorie Bibby, Darwen
Bert Pross, (Darwen FC mascot at Highbury 1932)
Bob Eccles, Darwen
Vic Gavagan, Darwen
Paul Breeze -- Memories of Darwen Football club "Posh up North Publishing"
The England Football Online website: www.englandfootballonline.com
and a special thanks to all of the people dedicated to the running of the club and also to the staff at Blackburn with Darwen Library.

The Salmoners 2003

DARWEN FOOTBALL CLUB 1875-1939