Blackburn Park Road F.C.

Football club

Blackburn Park RoadFull name| Blackburn Park Road Football Club

|

Nickname(s)| the Roadsters[1]
Founded| 1875
Dissolved| 1890
Ground| Audley Hall Ground, Park Road

Home colours

Blackburn Park Road F.C. was a football team formed in 1875. They played in Blackburn, Lancashire, near to the railway station.

## History

[edit]

The club was formed in 1875 out of the Park Road cricket club.

### Lancashire Senior Cup runners-up

[edit]

Despite some good results they were rarely a match for the two major town teams of that time, Blackburn Rovers and Blackburn Olympic, largely because the Roadsters relied solely on local players.[2] The club did however reach the final of the Lancashire Senior Cup in 1881, in part thanks to an argument between Blackburn Rovers and Darwen F.C. over their quarter-final tie which saw them both expelled from the competition;[3] Park Road beat Bolton Wanderers 6–1 in the semi-final[4] but lost 6–4 to Accrington F.C. in the final at Darwen. The Roadsters walked off the field with five minutes to go in protest at the refereeing, and put in an unsuccessful protest, one reporter stating that the second Accrington goal was seen as handball "by every reporter present" and the sixth Accrington goal was so far offside that "the referee (William Peirce-Dix of Sheffield) was obviously bribed or neglecting his duty as a final judge",[5] another stating that "the greatest wrongdoer in this last piece of business connected with the already ugly career of the Lancashire Association Challenge Cup is the referee of Saturday last".[6]

### FA Cup appearances

[edit]

In 1883–84 Park Road beat Clitheroe Low Moor 6–0, all of the goals coming in the first half, and Holden scoring a hat-trick.[7] This proved to be the Roadsters' only victory in the main draw of the competition. In the second round, the club lost 3–2 to Accrington to a late goal, having come from 2–0 down, in front of 1,000 spectators.[8] The Owd Reds were consequently disqualified because one of the club's players (Beresford) was a professional, but Park Road declined the invitation to participate in the third round, as the club faced a likely defeat against Blackburn Olympic.[9]

In the 1885–86 competition the club lost 4–2 at Scottish side Third Lanark, having been 2–0 up; the tie only went ahead on the Football Association confirming to the Scottish side that none of the Roadsters was a registered professional,[10] the fear being that the Scottish Football Association's antagonistic attitude to professionalism would lead to a sanction for the Hi-Hi for playing against professional players.[11]

In 1887–88, the club beat (Northern) Irish invitee (Lisburn) Distillery 2–1 in the FA Cup, but Distillery protested on the basis that the pitch markings were not in conformity with the regulations, lacking the centre spot, centre circle, and six-yard arcs;[12] the protest was upheld and rather than replay the tie Park Road scratched from the competition to play Distillery's rivals Cliftonville F.C., who had beaten the Roadsters in the first round the previous year, in a friendly instead. The club however finished the season with its only trophy success, winning the East Lancashire Charity Shield, coming from behind to beat Bell's Temperance of Accrington at Rovers' Leamington Road ground.[13]

### Lancashire League

[edit]

As the fourth club in Blackburn, behind Rovers, Olympic, and Witton, the club did not consider joining any of the national leagues being set up in the late 1880s. Instead it was a founder member of the Lancashire League in 1889.[14] After a mid-table finish in its one-season,[15] the club left the League, with most of its players being released.[16] The club survived long enough to play in the first round of the Lancashire Junior Cup in 1890–91; its opponent, the second Clitheroe club, forgot to notify its players of the fixture, and therefore could only field 8 players - nevertheless Clitheroe still beat Park Road 2–1 in "the poorest exhibition of football ever seen at the Clitheroe ground".[17] There is no record of the club playing again.

## Second club

[edit]

In 1894, a new club emerged using the Park Road name, and in 1895 its committee took over the Audley End ground, "once the property of the once famous but now defunct Park Road".[18] The club played for four seasons in the Lancashire Combination, without ever finishing in the top half of the table. After then the club played in the North-East Lancashire League but could not finish the 1901–02 season. The club's final seasons were in the extremely low-key Blackburn & District Amateur League, and Park Road finally disbanded after a 10–3 defeat at Wilpshire at the end of the 1903–04 season.[19]

## Colours

[edit]

The club's original colours were white jerseys, blue knickers, and blue and white hose.[20] In 1880 they changed to light red and blue jerseys,[21] later confirmed as being in halves.

## Grounds

[edit]

In 1880, the club moved from its original Haslingden Road ground to Place Farm, a mile and a quarter from Blackburn Station.[22] By 1883 the club was playing at the Audley Hall Ground.[23] The club introduced electric floodlighting for three matches in 1889–90, but the experiment was not successful.[24]

## Honours

[edit]

* Lancashire Senior Cup
* Runner-up 1880–81
* East Lancashire Charity Shield
* Winner 1887–88

## Notable former players

[edit]

International players:

* Jack Reynolds

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Blackburn Park Road v Clitheroe Low Moor". Blackburn Times: 6. 3 November 1883.
2. ^ "Football Notes". Manchester Courier: 3. 5 November 1883.
3. ^ "Lancashire Association Challenge Cup Competition Fourth Round". Guardian: 7. 14 March 1881.
4. ^ "Football". Blackburn Weekly Standard: 3. 9 April 1881.
5. ^ "Lancashire Challenge Cup". Blackburn Weekly News: 8. 30 April 1881.
6. ^ "Notes from Free-Kick". Blackburn Weekly News: 2. 30 April 1881.
7. ^ "report". Blackburn Times: 6. 3 November 1883.
8. ^ "report". Blackburn Times: 3. 1 December 1883.
9. ^ "report". Blackburn Standard: 3. 1 December 1883.
10. ^ "report". Glasgow Herald: 10. 19 October 1885.
11. ^ Thirds withdrew from the second round rather than playing the professional side Church F.C.
12. ^ "report". Sport (Dublin): 27. 15 October 1887.
13. ^ "The East Lancashire Charity Shield - Final". Blackburn Standard: 8. 9 June 1888.
14. ^ "Suggested Football League for Junior Clubs". Blackburn Weekly Standard: 5. 2 March 1889.
15. ^ "1889/90 Season Summary". Southport F.C. 11 December 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
16. ^ "Football prospects". Lancashire Evening Post: 4. 30 August 1890.
17. ^ "Clitheroe v Blackburn Park-Road". Preston Herald: 7. 22 October 1890.
18. ^ "Athletic & Sporting Gossip". Blackburn Weekly Standard: 3. 30 November 1895.
19. ^ "Blackburn & District Amateur League". Guardian: 3. 21 March 1904.
20. ^ Alcock, Charles (1879). Football Annual. p. 111.
21. ^ Alcock, Charles (1880). Football Annual. p. 108.
22. ^ Alcock, Charles (1880). Football Annual. p. 108.
23. ^ Alcock, Charles (1883). Football Annual. p. 203.
24. ^ "Blackburn Park Road". Lancashire Evening Post: 2. 7 June 1890.

## Sources

[edit]

* The Guinness Record of the FA Cup

## External links

[edit]

* Football club history database

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