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Bolton Association F.C. was an English association football club from Bolton in Lancashire. The Association was part of the club name, rather than a descriptor for the code the team played.

Bolton Association

Full name	Bolton Association Football Club
Nickname(s)	the Boltonians,[1] the Association
Founded	1883
Dissolved	1892?
Ground	Green Lane

History

The club was founded in 1883 by a Mr J. Walker of the Bolton Cricket Club,[2] who became the club's captain, as a contrast to the illegal professionalism of Bolton Wanderers. 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";[3] 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.[4]

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,[5] it lost 3-2 at home to minnows Enfield in the first round of the Lancashire Cup,[6] 7-1 at Notts County,[7] 6-1 at Preston North End,[8] 11-0 at Great Lever (despite playing with 13 men),[9] and 12-2 at Blackburn Olympic.[10] 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.[11]

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.[12]

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,[13] 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".[14]

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,[15] but in the second round an "indifferent" team[16] lost 7-2 at Darwen Old Wanderers.

References

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