Haslingden Association FC was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

club based in

Haslingden Haslingden is a town in Rossendale, Lancashire, England. It is north of Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...

History

Haslingden Association - the Association added to the club's name to distinguish it from neighbours Haslingden Grane F.C., founded in the same year - was an original member of the

Lancashire Football Association The Lancashire County Football Association, also known simply as the Lancashire FA, is the governing body of football within the historical county boundaries of Lancashire, England. They are responsible for the governance and development of foo ...

, taking part in the first

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

in 1879–80. The club beat

Padiham Padiham ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Calder, about west of Burnley, Lancashire, England. It forms part of the Borough of Burnley. Originally by the River Calder, it is edged by the foothills of Pendle Hill to the north-west ...

in the first round - indeed, the first tie in the competition to be played, in front of 1,400 spectators at Padiham - but was beaten 12–1 by

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to the south ...

in the second. The scoreline would have been worse but Darwen agreed for three disputed goals not to be counted. The club did not enter the competition again until 1882, losing in the first round to Greenwood's Millers, but, despite the club's low-key presence, it entered the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

in the same season. Thanks to the

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

forgetting to include the club in the first round draw, Association was given a bye to the second round. The club was drawn to play Darwen Ramblers away, and, after the referee refused a Haslingden claim of offside for a late winning goal for the Ramblers, the club walked off the pitch. The club's FA membership lapsed from the 1883–84 season; the club remained a member of the Lancashire Association, but entered the junior rather than the senior cup. The club was a founder member of the

North-East Lancashire League The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

in 1889; it was however £20 in debt, and spending £50 on wages against gate income of under £120. The club appears to have dissolved after finishing near the bottom of the League in 1892–93, the season including a 13–0 defeat by

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River ...

's reserve side Burnley Swifts, and having been excluded from the competition after the league cut down from 12 clubs to 10. A Haslingden club lost in the first round of the Lancashire Junior Cup in 1897 but it is not clear whether this is a new club or an attempt to revive the old club.

Colours

The earliest cited colours for the club, from the 1878–79 season, are maroon and white shirts, white knickerbockers and socks. The following season the club changed to navy blue shirts, knickers, and socks.

Ground

The club originally played at Rye Hill, but from 1880–81 moved to the Show Ground, Flaxmoss.

References

{{Reflist Defunct football clubs in England Sport in Lancashire Defunct football clubs in Lancashire Haslingden