The Charity Shield began life in 1898 as The Sheriff of London (Dewar) Shield. It was originally set up to be a challenge between the best professional and the best amateur side. Various sides represented the professional side such as Aston Villa or Sunderland depending on their performance in that year, however for almost ten straight years the Corinthians were chosen as the team to represent the amateur game, on the only occasion Queens Park met Aston Villa. The professional side usually came out on top although Corinthians did beat new FA Cup winners Bury 10-3 in one game. This annual fixture ended in 1908 with a falling out between the amateur clubs and the professionals. Attempts to revive the competition have been unsuccessful.

Instead the FA took on the idea and created The Charity Shield. They also sometimes experimented with Amateurs v Professionals and also cup winners v league winners and sometimes representative sides. Gradually it became more popular to see the two winning sides of the past season and since 1975 it has always been a meeting of the FA Cup winning side with the winners of the league. The club with most wins in the Charity Shield is Manchester United, although it is now known as the FA Community Shield as presumably not enough of the money was being given to charity.

Blackburn Rovers have played in four Charity Shields. In 1912 as league champions they played the best amateur team in the land that year, Southern League winners Queens Park Rangers. Although the match was traditionally played in the autumn of the year, it had been moved forward to April to act as a fundraiser for victims of the recent Titanic disaster (yes, it was that long ago!). Over 7,000 at White Hart Lane saw Rovers come from behind to win 2-1, thanks to a double from Wattie Aitkenhead. There was to be no Charity Shield in 1914 when Rovers next won the title, presumably because of the gathering talk of war. Although the 1914/15 season went ahead, it was extremely unpopular with many of the public who felt it distasteful to be playing sport when the country was at war.

In 1928 Rovers, as cup winners, met the league champions of Everton in October 1928 at Old Trafford. The crowd was pitiful, under 5,000. The small crowd certainly didn’t seem to inspire Rovers who lost 2-1, with George Thornewell getting their only goal. It was to be their last appearance for almost seven decades.

The next time they qualified it was an altogether glamorous occasion. As double winners Manchester United took up both available spots and so the runners up of the previous league season we invited, our heroes in the blue and white, for the 1994 Charity Shield. This time the crowd was over 60,000 yet it was still as loss for Rovers as United won 2-0, which included an overhead kick from Paul Ince.

The next year saw Rovers return but this time as league champions. There opponents were Everton but the result was still a loss for Rovers. A Vinny Samways goal won it for Everton in front of a disappointing crowd which barely topped forty thousand. It seems unlikely that Rovers will be able to appear in another Charity Shield

[edit] ROVERS IN THE CHARITY SHIELD

• 1912 - BLACKBURN ROVERS 2 Queens Park Rangers 1
• 1928 - BLACKBURN ROVERS 1 Everton 2
• 1994 - BLACKBURN ROVERS 0 Manchester United 2
• 1995 - BLACKBURN ROVERS 0 Everton 1