Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa (1904)

Ewood Park, Blackburn
1904
Silent
1m

The entry of the teams and action from both halves of an Edwardian football game at Ewood Park.

This is the earliest of two games filmed by Mitchell and Kenyon at Blackburn's Ewood Park. The negative was badly damaged, giving the picture a snowed-out look, but the competitive zeal is clear enough. Unusually for M&K's football films, the camera captures a (rather scrappy) home team goal, to the visible frustration of Villa players, who mount a furious protest. Blackburn went on to win 4-0.

At first glance it's hard to distinguish the distinctive blue and white halved kit of Blackburn Rovers as the players march out onto the pitch. This is due to the particular sensitivities of the orthochromatic film stock in use at this time, which couldn't detect red colours and was oversensitive to blue. Look closer though, and it's possible to make out a difference in shade with the white pocket on the blue half. Special thanks to Dean Beresford, who identified this match as the First Division game played at Blackburn's Ewood Park on the 10th September 1904.

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.