Darwen Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club from

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 sout ...

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

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The club was formed in 2009 as A.F.C. Darwen, a successor to the original Darwen club, which had been wound up. They currently play in the and are based at the Anchor Ground.

History

On 22 December 2003 Carlsberg Tetley tried to wind up Darwen Football and Social Club. Although the club, then playing in Division One of the North West Counties League, avoided liquidation on that occasion, another winding up petition was brought by The Bee radio station on 14 April 2008 in respect of £8,000 owed for advertising. Plans were made for

Blackburn with Darwen Blackburn with Darwen is a borough and unitary authority area in Lancashire, North West England. It consists of the industrial town of Blackburn and the market town of Darwen including other villages around the two towns. Formation It was fou ...

Council to buy the Anchor Ground. However, following two further petitions for liquidation brought by

Thwaites Brewery Thwaites Brewery is a regional brewery founded in 1807 by Daniel Thwaites in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and now located near Mellor in the Ribble Valley. Part of the company's beer business was sold to Marston's in March 2015, and the ori ...

and ING Lease UK and their refusal of an offer of 25p in the pound, the 134-year old Darwen Football Club was wound up in the High Court on 14 May 2009. Almost immediately, there were plans for a new Darwen football club to be formed. This was achieved before the start of the 2009–10 season, with AFC Darwen created, taking over the Anchor Ground from the dissolved club. However, the new club had to start at step 7 (level 11) of the

football pyramid In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

. They successfully applied for admission to the

West Lancashire League The West Lancashire Football League is a football competition based in northern England, consisting of five divisions – three for first teams (Premier, One and Two), and two for reserve teams. The league is currently sponsored by Lancaster ...

, and were placed in the Premier Division. After finishing eighth in their first season, they were promoted to Division One of the North West Counties League. In 2014–15 the club won the Division One Trophy with a 3–1 win over Atherton Collieries in the final, also finishing third in Division One and qualifying for the promotion play-offs. After beating

Chadderton Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Oldham, south of Rochdale and north-east of Manchester. Hi ...

2–1 in the semi-finals, they defeated Hanley Town 5–3 in the final, earning promotion to the Premier Division.BIG SATURDAY INTERVIEW: Chairman Wayne Wild reflects on AFC Darwen’s sensational season
Lancashire Telegraph, 6 June 2015 The 2017–18 season saw AFC Darwen finish bottom of the Premier Division, resulting in relegation to Division One North. In June 2022 the club was renamed Darwen Football Club.

Honours

*North West Counties League **Division One Trophy winners 2014–15 *Martin Vizzard Memorial Trophy **Winners 2016

Records

*Best

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 competi ...

performance: Extra-preliminary round, 2015–16, 2016–17 *Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

performance: Third round, 2022–23 *Record attendance: 982 vs Bury AFC, North West Counties League Division One, 9 October 2021Thank You to all who attended yesterday. Your support was massively appreciated
AFC Darwen on Twitter

References

External links

Official website
{{Coord, 53, 42, 42.38, N, 2, 28, 38.25, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Football clubs in England Football clubs in Lancashire Association football clubs established in 2009 2009 establishments in England Sport in Blackburn with Darwen Darwen West Lancashire Football League North West Counties Football League clubs

History

Honours

Records

See also

References

External links