Sunderland v Leicester Fosse (1907)

Sunderland
1907-01-12
Silent
2m

A resounding win for Sunderland in the FA Cup, urged on by an enthusiastic band.

By 1907 Sunderland were four-time Football League winners and three-time runners up, so it's no surprise that the team in stripes are seen to dominate their Second Division opposition (later Leicester City) in this FA Cup first round game. The band recreated their half-time music when the film screened two days later - by which time the musician on the right had hopefully cleared his spit valve!

Edwardian Football

The beautiful game, Edwardian style, in some of the earliest ever film of League, international and amateur football

For Blackburn-based filmmakers Mitchell & Kenyon, the attraction of football was at least as much the swelling crowds - who they hoped to lure to paid screenings - as the game itself. With only a few hundred feet of film on hand and far less mobile cameras than today's, their cameramen could only hope to sample the action on the pitch; catching a goal was a rare bonus.

The crowds' passion and energy are almost spectacle enough, but these films also survive as priceless football history - preserving, among other trophies, the earliest known footage of Manchester Utd and probably the first 'international' games captured on film.