Everton v Newcastle United (1902)

Liverpool
1902-09-13
Silent
2m

The camera is a welcome distraction to the spectators of a home defeat at Goodison Park.

This early First Division match sees the second- and third-placed teams of the 1901/02 season at the start of what would be a more disappointing year for both. Newcastle, though, at least had a bright start with this 1-0 away win. Part of the match is viewed from the position of what would today be the managerial dugout, offering a fantastic perspective of the game's pace and physicality.

As the Everton players enter the pitch, two players appear to be in much lighter colours than the rest. This is almost certainly due to the film stock used at the time, which was extremely sensitive to blue and green colours, but could not pick up reds. The slightly different shade of these shirts would have been much less obvious to the naked eye. Mitchell and Kenyon went back to Goodison Park to capture the same fixture in the following season, when Everton were able to exact their revenge.

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.