Location
The Anchor Ground, Anchor Road, Darwen, BB3 0BB
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Watch live non-league football at the Anchor Ground, home of one of the pioneering clubs that helped shape the modern game.
A Darwen FC match offers everything people love about non-league football: local pride, passionate supporters and a friendly atmosphere where you are never far from the pitch.
The Anchor Ground hosts the club’s men’s and women’s teams, with a clubhouse, covered stand and café facilities available around matchdays. Admission for the 2026/27 season is currently listed at £7 for adults, £4 for concessions and £2 for children, making it an affordable afternoon out for families and football supporters.
Darwen’s football story stretches back to 1870. The club became one of the earliest successful working-class teams from the North and reached the FA Cup quarter-finals in 1879 after taking on the established amateur sides of the South.
Darwen recruited Scottish players Fergus Suter and Jimmy Love, widely recognised among football’s earliest paid players. Their arrival challenged the rules and traditions of the time, helping begin the move towards professional football. The story later inspired the Netflix drama The English Game.
The original club was wound up in 2009 but was immediately revived by local supporters as AFC Darwen. It has since returned to the Darwen FC name and continues playing at the Anchor Ground, its home since 1899.
Darwen FC team, 1879. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
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