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Bolton Association F.C. was an English association football club from Bolton in Lancashire.
The club was founded in 1883 by a Mr J. Walker of the Bolton Cricket Club,[3] who became the club's captain, as a contrast to the illegal professionalism of Bolton Wanderers. The Association was part of the club name, rather than a descriptor for the code the team played, to avoid confusion with the Bolton Rugby Football Club.[4]
The club started as a side "solely for the recreation to be obtained from its pursuit, and not with the exclusive determination to win at all hazards which actuates the management of the other organisation";[5] when trying to recruit players, the club relied on persuasion rather than "inducement", an attitude contrasting with a local unnamed club offering 5 shillings per win and half-a-crown per defeat.[6]
The quixotic nature of such an approach, and the change in the nature of the game, were shown up almost instantly; although the Association beat Cambridge University 2–1 at home at Christmas 1883 and Chorley by 10 goals to 1 a month before,[7] as well as only going down 3–1 at home to Preston North End,[8] it lost 3–2 at home to minnows Enfield in the first round of the Lancashire Cup,[9] 7–1 at Notts County,[10] 6–1 in the return at Preston North End,[11] 11–0 at Great Lever (despite playing with 13 men),[12] and 12–2 at Blackburn Olympic.[13] At the end of the club's first season, one of their better players, George Dobson, left the club to become a professional at Bolton Wanderers. Walker had the consolation of representing the Lancashire FA, called up as a reserve in late 1883 for a match against the Sheffield FA.[14]
Despite the club's adherence to amateurism, the club was part of a proposed breakaway group, the British Football Association, which agitated for professionalism. It proved counter to the club's hopes for a successful side and the last references to the club are in 1891 playing junior football.[15]
FA Cup
The club entered the FA Cup in 1883–84 and 1884–85. In the first entry, the club easily beat Bradshaw 5–1 in the first round,[16] and was considered to have done well to restrict Bolton Wanderers to three goals in the second round, especially as the forward Sowerbutts was "rendered almost useless by a violent charge early in the game".[17]
The following season the club got a walkover in the first round, scheduled opponents Astley Bridge withdrawing after the Lancashire FA fell out with the Football Association over professionalism,[18] but in the second round an "indifferent" team[19] lost 7–2 at Darwen Old Wanderers.
The club adopted colours which were "quite out of the common"; dark blue and canary yellow vertical striped shirts, rather than jerseys.[20]
The club played at Green Lane, which was the cricket club's ground, and reputed to be the best in the county.[21]
- Richard Turner, who played for the club in its first season,[22] and won the FA Cup with Blackburn Rovers in 1885
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