Although Blackburn no longer had a team that could rule the nation for three years of FA Cup winning glory, they had one that would go close! Three cups in a row may have been a bridge too far but there would certainly be more glory for Rovers in the attempt. The Football Association had recognised the strength of the new Football League by exempting the members from the new qualifying round for the FA Cup, although that was not extended to the sides of the new Football Alliance league. Set up by clubs excluded from the new league in 1888, after one season it was absorbed to become the new Second Division of the Football League. The first winners of the Alliance had been Sheffield Wednesday (soon to play Rovers in a famous final) and the second champions, Sunderland, were promoted to top flight for the start of the next season (1890/91) and replaced the team that were to finish bottom in the second season of the Football League, Stoke. There were now two league divisions and league football was here to stay, as all acknowledged. Other members of that Football Alliance had been Darwen, the old enemies of Rovers who would soon lock horns again before fizzling out into mainly non-league obscurity.

Rovers brought in many new players for their second season of league football. Those to be the most influential throughout the season were the Scottish right-back Tommy Brandon who make over 200 league appearances for the club in two spells, another Scot in the inside left Henry Campbell. Finally there was the future cup final scoring centre half George Dewar (I’m sure by now you can guess which country he hailed from!) who would fall just short of playing in two hundred league and cup games for Rovers over the course of eight years. Not for the first time the side was dominated by Scots and, again not for the first time, they would be the driving force behind cup glory for the club.

The top scorer for the club would again be the newly capped England international Jack Southworth, although new boy Campbell would also reach double figures in the league along with Nat Walton whereas Billy Townley seemed to prefer his goals for the FA Cup if possible, as we shall soon see. The league would again be won by Preston North End although were no longer quite so invincible, losing four league games and being the victims of a shock defeat by Bolton Wanderers in the second round.