Back in 2007, Gordon Small put together a comprehensive history of the Lancashire Cup, which was published by Soccer Data on behalf of the Lancashire Football Association. The book lists, in great detail, the records of each competition from its inception in 1879 right up to 2007. The original St. Helens Town club was formed in 1901 and operated for 27 years before it folded and it entered the Lancashire Senior Cup, to give the competition its full title, on eight occasions between 1901/02 and 1913/14. Although the club never won the trophy, they progressed through the rounds on a number of occasions, full details of which appear below:

Season	Date	Round	Opponents	Venue	Result
1901/02	Sep-07	1st Qual.	EARLESTOWN	Home	Won 2-0
	Sep-14	2nd Qual.	WIGAN UNITED	Home	Drew 1-1
	Sep-21	Replay	Wigan United	Away	Drew 1-1
	Sep-28	2nd Rep.	WIGAN UNITED	Home	Won 3-2
	Sep-30	1st Rd.	Barrow	Away	Lost 1-6
1902/03	Sep-13	1st Qual.	Rochdale Town	Away	Drew 1-1
	Sep-18	Replay	ROCHDALE TOWN	Home	Drew 2-2
		2nd Rep.	Rochdale Town		Scratched
1903/04	Nov-28	1st Qual.	HEYWOOD TOWN	Home	Won 3-2
	Dec-12	2nd Qual.	BACUP	Home	Won 5-0
	Jan-09	1st Rd.	BOLTON WANDERERS	Home	Drew 1-1
	Jan-13	Replay	Bolton Wanderers	Away	Won 1-0
	Jan-23	2nd Rd.	SOUTHPORT CENTRAL	Home	Lost 0-1
1904/05	Sep-10	1st Qual.	COLNE	Home	Won 2-0
	Sep-24	2nd Qual.	Earlestown	Away	Lost 0-2
1909/10	Sep-27	1st Rd.	Southport Central	Away	Lost 1-4
1911/12	Sep-25	1st Rd.	CHORLEY	Home	Won 3-1
	Oct-09	2nd Rd.	Burnley	Away	Lost 0-7
1912/13	Sep-02	1st Rd.	Barrow	Away	Lost 1-5
1913/14	Sep-22	1st Rd.	HASLINGDEN	Home	Won 5-2
	Oct-06	2nd Rd.	EVERTON	Home	Won 1-0
	Oct-20	3rd Rd.	Blackpool	Away	Lost 0-6

The current club was re-formed in 1946 and began playing in the 1947/48 season. By that stage, the Senior Cup was restricted to Football League clubs only, with Town taking part in the Lancashire Junior Cup for a number of seasons. I will cover those games in a future article. Nevertheless, Town’s former players have played – and scored crucial goals in – Lancashire Senior Cup Finals on a number of occasions over the years, sometimes against glamorous opposition.

Bill Foulkes played on the winning side against Liverpool in the 1968/69 Final before 4,299 at Old Trafford and the following season, Geoff Nulty was a scorer in Burnley’s 3-2 win over Barrow in front of 3,251 at Turf Moor. Bryan Griffiths came on as substitute for Wigan Athletic, who lost 1-0 to Bury at Gigg Lane before a crowd of 2,682 in the 1986 competition (by which stage, it had become a pre-season tournament). Griffiths was on the winning side five years later in a 4-1 win over Preston at Springfield Park (crowd 3,315) and in the 1993 Final, he scored the only goal, from the penalty spot as his new club Blackpool beat a Manchester United side containing Dion Dublin, Lee Sharpe, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes (the last two who came on as substitutes) before 6,612 fans at Bloomfield Road.

Former Town striker Dave Bamber played in the same match for the Seasiders. Griffiths went on to score the only goal again the following year – Bamber came on as a substitute - to beat Bury before a rather smaller gate of 3,150. Griffiths made his last appearance in a final in 1998, alongside current Everton manager Roberto Martinez, in a 3-1 win for Wigan over Rochdale at Springfield Park, the crowd numbering just 2,191.