THIS year's Orphanage Cup final will not be played on Ewood Park.

Despite the success of last year's competition, Blackburn Rovers have decided not to allow the final to take place this season.

Instead, the showcase of the charity competition will return to Darwen's Anchor Ground, with the final scheduled to take place on Friday, May 24.

Peter Bush, secretary of the Orphanage Cup committee, said: "Naturally, we are all very disappointed considering how much work went in to getting last year's final on Ewood Park after an absence of a number of years.

"I have contacted that club to ask the reason why but I am still awaiting a reply. But I understand that no local league finals will take place on Ewood Park this year.

"However, we are very grateful to Darwen FC for letting us hold the competition on the Anchor Ground."

The Orphanage Cup AGM meeting will take place at Furthergate WMC on Thursday, March 14 where the draw for this competition will be made.

This year's event has attracted 72 teams and Mr Bush admitted that only the time scale of the cup prevented more teams from taking part.

He said: "We have had a really good entry for this year's competition and to be honest we could have taken in a lot more teams. But the time scale means we simply couldn't accept any more teams."