Looking through my myriad of notes on the history of Everton, I noticed something I wrote regarding the 1880-81 Lancashire Cup.

 

Everton were drawn away to Great Lever in the first round on 6 November 1880, and came away with a 1:1 draw.  The replay took place at Stanley Park on 27 November 1880, with Great Lever winning 8:1 (although I have seen a 7:1 scoreline reported in one of the local papers).

 

However, there have been suggestions that this match was refereed (or should that be umpired?) by a member of the Great Lever committee and Everton felt that Great Lever had many "dodgy" decisions go for them.  As a result, so the story goes, the Lancashire FA ruled that the match shoudl be replayed at Great Lever, with them winning 1:0.

 

The problem is that I can't find any record of this third match in any of the local newspapers.  Does anyone have any details (especially the date) of this supposed third match?  The suggested events, whereby, the Lancashire FA ruled that a replay should take place was, supposedly made on 13 November 1880, however, from what I can ascertain the first replay (the 8:1 match) didn't take place until 27 November 1880 so no ruling could have taken place then.  A ruling may have been made on 13 December instead which would mean that the earliest this possible third match could have taken place was 20 December 1880.

 

Does anyone know the true version of events.

 

Many thanks in advance

 

Steve Flanagan