[4] The club started as a side "solely for the recreation to be obtained from its pursuit, and not with the exclusive determination to win at all hazards which actuates the management of the other organisation";[5] when trying to recruit players, the club relied on persuasion rather than "inducement", an attitude contrasting with a local unnamed club offering 5 shillings per win and half-a-crown per defeat.

[6] The quixotic nature of such an approach, and the change in the nature of the game, were shown up almost instantly; although the Association beat Cambridge University 2–1 at home at Christmas 1883 and Chorley by 10 goals to 1 a month before,[7] as well as only going down 3–1 at home to Preston North End,[8] it lost 3–2 at home to minnows Enfield in the first round of the Lancashire Cup,[9] 7–1 at Notts County,[10] 6–1 in the return at Preston North End,[11] 11–0 at Great Lever (despite playing with 13 men),[12] and 12–2 at Blackburn Olympic.

In the first entry, the club easily beat Bradshaw 5–1 in the first round,[16] and was considered to have done well to restrict Bolton Wanderers to three goals in the second round, especially as the forward Sowerbutts was "rendered almost useless by a violent charge early in the game".

[17] The following season the club got a walkover in the first round, scheduled opponents Astley Bridge withdrawing after the Lancashire FA fell out with the Football Association over professionalism,[18] but in the second round an "indifferent" team[19] lost 7–2 at Darwen Old Wanderers.

The club adopted colours which were "quite out of the common"; dark blue and canary yellow vertical striped shirts, rather than jerseys.