Fish and Chipps Twice !!!

 And so, on a weekend of other insignificant derbies, to the one that really matters - The Fish Derby at, appropriately enough, the Anchor Ground. The Salmoners of AFC Darwen host the Pikes of Pickering Town in the Buildbase FA Vase First Qualifying Round.

Darwen FC was formed in 1870 and was a member of the Football League between 1891 and 1899. In their first season they were relegated from the First Division, finishing 14th of 14, and becoming founder members of the new Second Division. In 1893, after finishing 3rd, they were promoted via the test matches (the Victorian version of the play offs !!), but relegated the following season.

 

In their final season as a league club they set two unwanted Football League records that still stand - the most number of consecutive League defeats (18) and the most number of goals conceded by a club in a Football League season (141). The club nickname, 'The Salmoners', is a throwback to the salmon and pink shirts they wore at this time.

 

After leaving the Football League the club moved from Barley Bank to the Anchor Ground, and joined the Lancashire League, which they won in 1902. They then entered the Lancashire Combination, playing there for the next 70 years (apart from a World War 1 break) and winning it four times.

 

After their last championship in 1976 the Salmoners joined the Cheshire County League before becoming inaugural members of the North West Counties Football League in 1982. In 2003 Carlsberg Tetley tried to wind up the football club but liquidation was avoided.

 

However in April 2008 another winding up petition from Bee radio station was joined by Thwaites Brewery and ING, and in May 2009 Darwen FC was liquidated. That same month AFC Darwen was formed, playing in the West Lancashire League for one season, before being re-elected to the North West Counties for the 2010/11 season, and winning promotion to the top division two seasons ago.

Pickering Town FC, the visitors from Mill Lane with an ‘unusual’ badge, was formed in 1888, the same year the Football League was founded. The Pikes for many years competed in the local Scarborough and York Leagues, before stepping up to the Yorkshire League in 1972.

 

The club became founder members of the Northern Counties East League in 1982 when the Yorkshire and Midlands Central Leagues merged. The Pikes' best finish was as runners up in the Premier Division in 1992/93, losing out to Spennymoor United on goal difference.

 

1998/99 was a terrible season as, following a 1-11 walloping by Bedlington Terriers in the FA Cup, the Pikes were relegated. Promoted back in 2001 Pickering reached the FA Vase quarter finals in the 2005/06 season, losing out to eventual winners, the Dabbers of Nantwich Town.

So passing the 12 foot giraffe and baby sculpture, part of Sale Art Zoo, then Heart for Art (coming soon !) it appears Elvis is making a comeback..... at Garveys... To the M60, smart motorway and only 14 vehicles ran out of fuel in August, before I join the M61 - where I resist the urge to pull over for 'Incontinence Supplies at Internet Prices'......

 

Just beyond Botany Bay and then the M65 leading to the Devil's Road, the A666, which takes me into Darwen. Onto the Anchor Estate where the Anchor Ground is situated, surrounded by housing on two sides and the Crown Paints facility on the other two.

 

Inside the dressing rooms are in one corner, whilst the clubhouse and snack bar is again the smart Howarth Timber & Building Supplies Stand. The other three sides are uncovered terracing (No Standing On The Grass !) with only a railing protecting the pitch. There is the ubiquitous shipping container behind the goal at the Darwen End, which is overlooked by Darwen Hill and the impressive octagonal Jubilee Tower, from where you can view five counties and the Isle of Man on a clear day.

Before kick off we're treated to firecrackers and fighter jets flying past in formation. Darwen are in all red and the Pikes in change lime green. Within ten seconds the Salmoners are on the attack, and Nick Hepple's low shot to the corner forces a good save. Three minutes in the Pikes net, with Robert Chipps scuffing his shot past home keeper Danny Jackson, after some awful defending.

 

The game is stretched but chances are few and far between, and starts to become niggly as both sides have penalty claims turned down. Pikes' captain Nial Tilsley is forced into a change of footwear and spends the rest of the half wearing one blue and one black boot - wonder whether that will catch on ??

 

The second half sees Tilsley wearing two blue boots and a fairly mundane start until, after great work from Ged Dalton, Chipps scores with a wondrous finish into the top corner. The Salmoners take the game to the Pikes and almost immediately pull one back as Hepple, clearly offside, bursts through and scores at the second time of asking. This one of a series of baffling decisions from the referee and his assistants ('It's embarrassing').....

 

The comeback is almost complete when Hepple's acrobatic and thunderous volley hits the underside of the bar with twenty minutes to go. Sixty seconds later he is dismissed for a second yellow card for dissent.

 

The Pikes weigh Anchor and comfortably repel the Salmoners in the final twenty minutes. Ryan Blott has the opportunity to seal the victory with a couple of minutes remaining but, having rounded Jackson, hits the post and sees his follow up smuggled off the line. It is immaterial and the Pikes avoid extra time and go through as 2-1 winners.