When Olympic first clashed with the Rovers on February 15th 1879 at Alexandra Meadows (modern day home of the East Lancs.Cricket Club) which was then also home to Rovers between 1877 and 1879) the upstarts caused an upset with a 3-1 victory over their more established rivals. Although Rovers were slightly under-strength the result was still a shock, with local press praising the Olympic side for their “cohesion” and declared them “one of the best, if not the best, club in town.” After battling away with Darwen, Rovers were suddenly faced with serious competition on their very doorstep. To prove this was no fluke, Olympic held Rovers to a 0-0 draw in the return fixture at Hole I’th Wall that March. In fact Rovers didn’t win until the third meeting between the teams, which was a 4-1 thrashing. If Olympic thought it couldn’t get any worse that that, they were wrong. The next game saw Rovers win 8-2. From then on Rovers were to win the majority of the games between the sides. Yet…when it came to the greatest prize of all, the FA Cup, Olympic were to get there first.

The first attempt on the FA Cup by Blackburn Olympic in 1880/1881 was over almost as soon it began following a 5-4 loss to Sheffield in the first round. However better times were to come, not only for Olympic but for northern football and the working class teams in general. Darwen reached the semi-finals and were the first non-southern or ex-public schoolboy side to challenge the elite of the game. The next season Olympic faced this highflying Darwen side in the first round of the FA cup. It wasn’t to be a giant killing; Darwen won 3-1. Rovers reached the final but lost to the Old Etonians. Blackburn would have to wait until next year for a winning team. The surprise was that it wasn’t the most famous and popular team of the town that would win it but little, unthought-of working-class Olympic, a team that hadn’t even yet won a single game in the competition.

In winning the cup in the 1882/83 season, Olympic didn’t just upset the status quo; they also invented a new part of football- training. Olympic were the first team to specifically train for their cup ties. They also went away to the first known football training camp, to the beach at Blackpool in preparation for the final. During the five day-long special training schedule which was organised as the result of a collection in Blackburn mills and workshops, the players went to Blackpool where they trained on the sands. Olympic also introduced a tactical formation to the game. They played in a 2-3-5 system and if they were not the first to do so then they were certainly first to do it so successfully. Before that the very, very attack-minded 2-2-6 had been used. They were also the first finalists to have a manager and coach in W Bramham and even checked into a hotel in Richmond in Surrey two days before the final to avoid the long rail journey on the day and while there they made use of the hotel grounds to maintain a strict training schedule. They to all intents and purposes had created the modern approach to football- in 1883!