Lancashire four universities: Lancaster University, the University of Central Lancashire, Edge Hill University and the Lancaster campus of the University of Cumbria. Seven colleges offer higher education courses. The Lancashire economy relies strongly on the M6 motorway which runs from north to south, past Lancaster and Preston. The M55 connects Preston to Blackpool and is 11.5 miles (18.3 km) long. The M65 motorway from Colne, connects Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn to Preston. The M61 from Preston via Chorley and the M66 starting inside the county boundary near Edenfield, provide links between Lancashire and Manchester] and the trans-Pennine M62. The M58 crosses the
History of Blackpool F.C. (1887–1962) join the new club, in turn making the former defunct. It was with these individuals that Blackpool F.C. played their first competitive game, at Dole Lane, the home of Chorley, in which they recorded a 2–1 victory. Hargreaves scored Blackpool's first-ever goal with "a ponderous kick half the length of the field". Corry added a second, before the hosts scored a late consolation. In the club's first season, 1887–88, they won the Fylde Cup and the Lancashire Junior Cup. In the second competition, Blackpool faced Preston St. Joseph's at Preston North End's Deepdale ground, a venue that the seaside club