A massive balloon about to be released to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria on 21st June 1897. After rising to above 3,000 feet, it eventually cam down fifty five minutes later in West Bradford, near Clitheroe. The buildings at the back to the right include the old Crown Hotel. That part of Victoria Street was demolished in 1965 and is now the dual carriageway of Barbara Castle Way. The buildings to the left remain. © Cottontown

The campaign began with three straight defeats and kind of went downhill from there. There were a couple of bright spots, they won both games against Liverpool and, in the highlight of the campaign, trounced Preston 4-1 at Ewood. The problems were obvious though; the style of football was frightful, certainly they were no entertainers this side and also they didn’t have anyone who could regularly hit the back of the net. John Proudfoot, a signing from Partick Thistle who stayed for just the one season before moving to Everton, was the top scorer with nine goals, meaning that for the third successive year no Rovers player reached double figures. Today we often talk about wanting a 20-goal a season player, in those days they’d been happy for someone who could score half that.

The chaos around the club at the time showed in the figures. Twenty nine players represented Rovers that year, 10 more than two seasons before and a ridiculous figure seeing how few games Rovers played and considering there was no such thing as substitutes then. There were some purchases that would be successes in the future, mainly the forward Ben Hulse and goalkeeper James Carter. Another interesting addition was the two Blackburns of Blackburn of Blackburn. Namely Arthur & Frederick Blackburn, born in Blackburn and now playing for Blackburn Rovers. Actually Arthur hardly ever played and soon left for Southampton after just four league appearances. Fred was actually born in Mellor just outside Blackburn although that doesn’t quite work so well. However unlike his namesake he was a success as a left winger and stayed at Rovers for eight years, playing over 200 times in league and cup games as well being capped three times by England and scoring once. There was another player surnamed Blackburn who played once for England in 1924 but as he had nothing to do with Rovers, we don’t really care about him.

The constant shuffling of players in no way had any positive effect and actually probably contributed to the by now annual shabby end of season form for Rovers. One win in their last eleven games meant that Rovers finished 15th out of the 16 clubs. They ended up down there only after the last game, which they lost at Bury and which allowed them to leapfrog Rovers to safety. Stoke were relegated as the bottom placed team and Rovers had to determine their fate by playing test matches against Burnley and Newcastle United, both of whom were chasing hard for promotion from the Second Division. Elsewhere that year Sheffield United won their one and only league title, while Nottingham Forest won their first FA Cup, although unlike Sheff Utd they would repeat their success, albeit not for over sixty years.