Earlestown Football Club was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club from

Earlestown Earlestown ( ) is a town contiguous with Newton-le-Willows in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. At the 2011 Census the town had a population of 10,830. The towns named is derived from one of its early settlers, Hard ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

History

The club was founded in 1880 and it made its senior football bow in the

Lancashire Senior Cup The Lancashire County Football Association Cup (commonly known as the Lancashire Senior Cup) is an association football knockout tournament involving teams from Lancashire, England. It is a County Cup competition of the Lancashire County Footbal ...

in 1881. The club's greatest successes came in the era before the game turned professional. It was a strong power in the west Lancashire area, and reached the

Liverpool Senior Cup The Liverpool County Football Association Senior Cup, commonly known as the Liverpool Senior Cup, is a Football (soccer), football knockout tournament involving teams from the city of Liverpool, England and surrounding areas. It is the County cu ...

final in 1883–84, 1884–85, and 1888–89. Its first two finals were both against Everton, and a 1–0 win at Hawthorne Road in 1885 in front of over 4,000 (with 700 fans travelling on a special train), the goal coming from a scrimmage which bundled goalkeeper Lindsay over the line, saw the Cup go to Earlestown for the only time. The power of the resources available to clubs in the new

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

however was quickly demonstrated - in 1889–90, Earlestown met Everton in the semi-final, and was hammered 13–2. Earlestown was one of the founder members of the Lancashire League in 1889, having turned professional in 1888, and having its expenditure increase to £200. The club lost its first four matches, before picking up a win by beating the similarly pointless

Rossendale Rossendale may refer to several places and organizations in Lancashire, England: Places *Rossendale Valley, a river valley *Borough of Rossendale, a local government district *Rossendale (UK Parliament constituency) Rossendale was a United King ...

5–3 at home in October. Earlestown won four matches - the others being a double over West Manchester, which was top of the table when Earlestown won the home fixture, and a breathless 6–5 win in the return at Rossendale - and one more win, against Hyde, was stricken from the record because of crowd violence. The match was never re-played; Earlestown was expelled before season end for not fulfilling its fixtures, with the club only ahead of Rossendale at the time. The club re-entered league football via the Lancashire Alliance in 1894, winning that competition in 1895–96 and 1898–99. Off the back of this latter success, it re-joined the Lancashire League before the 1899–1900 season, staying in mid-table until the competition was absorbed into the

Lancashire Combination The Lancashire Combination was a football league founded in the North West of England in 1891–92. It absorbed the Lancashire League in 1903. In 1968 the Combination lost five of its clubs to the newly formed Northern Premier League. In 1982 i ...

in 1903. Earlestown started off in the second division, and was promoted in its first season. It yo-yoed between the two divisions over the next decade, its best finish being 14th (out of 18) in the first division in 1904–05. Despite its early prominence, Earlestown did not enter the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

until 1900–01, and in its first entry it reached the fourth qualifying round, the penultimate stage; the match at home to

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture ...

was considered to be a foregone conclusion, but the visitors won 3–2. That run proved to be Earlestown's best, which it matched in 1905–06, when it lost 2–0 at

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

. Before the start of the 1911–12 season, the reserve sides of

clubs, which had been the backbone of the Combination, withdrew for a new competition. Denuded of clubs, the Combination "promoted" 11 of its division two sides - including Earlestown - into the first division. However the costs and standard proved too much for the club, and Earlestown disbanded in October due to lack of support, with a debt of £200, albeit that was eventually cleared. Earlestown's record of 1 win in its 5 fixtures (in which it had conceded 21 goals) was taken over by second division side Heywood United, and

Barnoldswick Barnoldswick (pronounced ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Pendle, Lancashire, England. It lies within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic West Riding of Yorkshire, West Ri ...

was elected to the second to fill the second division vacancy.

Colours

The club's original colours were blue and white, changing in 1886 to white jerseys with what was described as a red

Maltese cross The Maltese cross is a cross symbol, consisting of four " V" or arrowhead shaped concave quadrilaterals converging at a central vertex at right angles, two tips pointing outward symmetrically. It is a heraldic cross variant which develope ...

on the right breast, although photographic evidence shows it to have been a

cross pattée A cross pattée or cross patty (, ), also known as a cross formée or cross formy, or even a Templar cross, is a type of Christian cross with arms that are narrow at the centre and often flared in a curve or straight line shape to be broader at th ...

. The club retained the design until at least 1902, and by 1905 had changed to light blue shirts.

Ground

The club played at The Mesnes, originally using the Sunbeam Inn for facilities.

Notable players

* Tom Bradshaw *

Andrew Gara Andrew Gara (born 15 August 1878; date of death unknown) was an Irish Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Club career Gara joined Wigan County F.C., Wigan County on the foundation of the clu ...

* Arthur Gee *

Owen Jones Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a left-wing British newspaper columnist, commentator, journalist, author and political activist. He writes a column for ''The Guardian'' and contributes to the ''New Statesman'', ''Tribune (magazine), Tribune ...

* Fred Valentine

Honours

*Lancashire Alliance **Winner: 1895–96, 1898–99 *Liverpool Senior Cup **Winner: 1884–85 **Runner-up: 1883–84, 1888–89

External links

Lancashire Combination until 1909

References

{{reflist Defunct football clubs in England Association football clubs established in 1880 Association football clubs disestablished in 1911 1880 establishments in England 1911 disestablishments in England Football in Lancashire