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Lancashire football is flowering again
The Crowd
Roar Guru
22nd April, 2009
13
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The Crowd
Roar Guru
22nd April, 2009
13

The abolition of the maximum wage for footballers at the start of the 1960s brought cataclysmic changes to English football.

Smaller town Lancashire clubs, like Preston North End, Burnley, Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers, had all been strong clubs in the First Division at one stage or another.

However, the abolition of the maximum wage paved the way for domination of the English game by the “big city” clubs of the North-West, London and, to an extent, the Midlands.

It was the decade that Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Leeds United, Tottenham and Chelsea became powerhouse clubs to some extent or another (Arsenal hadn’t picked up a trophy for years at that time).

The decline of the old Lancashire clubs – some of whom had been founder members of the Football League – meant that Preston North End, Blackpool, Bolton and Burnley would never again rank among the top clubs in the country; all of whom suffered a decline in fortunes in the 60s and 70s, with Preston, Bolton and Blackburn in the Third Division by the early 70s. Although, all three clubs regained Second Division status soon afterwards, and Bolton and Burnley still enjoyed First Division stays during the 1970s.

The 1980s were dark days for most of the Lancashire clubs, perhaps mirroring the economic decay of the region – anybody who’s seen Burnley, and is aware of its reputation, will attest to that.

Only Blackburn had anything like prosperity, spending the entire decade in the Second Division, usually near the top of it.

Oldham were another fairly strong Second Division side throughout this time, and even Bury and newcomers Wigan Athletic were doing rather better in the Third Division.

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Blackpool, Preston North End, Burnley and Bolton all felt the bitter taste of Fourth Division football.

Blackpool and Preston had to apply for re-election to the league – prior to the introduction of automatic relegation from the Fourth in 1986/87 – but escaped the basement division before too long.

Burnley, a top six club as recently as 1974, were facing relegation from the League altogether by 1987, but escaped on the final day. They took until 1992 to leave the bottom tier.

Bolton had the shortest stay in the basement – one season – and their gradual recovery remains a testament to giving a manager (in this case Phil Neal) time.

Blackburn and Bolton became Premier League clubs in the 1990s, with Blackburn even winning the league itself in 1995. And both clubs remained Premier League clubs this decade. Though precariously at times.

The recovery of Burnley, Preston North End and Blackpool has been one of the biggest change to the football landscape outside the Premiership in the past decade.

The first two returned to the second tier after lengthy absences in 2000. Blackpool were promoted to the Championship in 2007, after 29 years out of that level.

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Burnley and Preston are now promotion contenders, and they’d gladly take that after some wretched decades earlier.

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