A very rare and early programme for the match between the Everton 'A' Team & Blackpool South Shore Team on 8th February 1890, in the form of a 4-page

A very rare and early programme for the match between the Everton 'A' Team & Blackpool South Shore Team on 8th February 1890, in the form of a 4-page match card This programme must surely rank amongst the group of earliest surviving Everton programmes and dates to three seasons before Everton began playing at their newly built Goodison Park ground. It must also be one of the earliest surviving programmes involving Blackpool FC, whose history began in 1887. At this time there were two clubs Blackpool St. Johns and South Shore. At a meeting at the Stanley Arms Hotel on 26th July 1887a breakaway group then formed Blackpool FC. The two teams played against one another in the Lancashire Combination and although more successful than South Shore on the pitch they did not enjoy the same level of support. After a difficult period in League Two between 1896-97 and 1898-99, when they were not re-elected. In 1899 it was decided that the two teams should amalgamate. The name Blackpool FC was kept, but they moved into South Shore's ground, which was Bloomfield Road. The newly combined club re-entered the Football League in 1900-01. In their own right South Shore's greatest moment came in season 1885-86 when they pulled of the giant-killing feat of beating Football League founding member Notts County 2-1 in the 5th Round of the F.A. Cup. The cup run ended in the quarter-final with a 2-1 defeat to Swifts.