Everton v Liverpool (1902)

Liverpool
1902-09-27
Silent
1m

The earliest surviving Merseyside derby on film catches two of Everton's goals in a 3-1 home win.

When the filmmakers only have three or four minutes of film stock on hand to capture 90 minutes of football and the ceremonies that surround it, it helps to have a game like this one, in which Everton powered in three goals against their local rivals in the first 25 minutes. Although Liverpool got a goal back, the later screenings must have made uncomfortable viewing for one half of the city.

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.