Sunderland v Middlesbrough (1904)

Sunderland
1904-01-09
Silent
1m

A hard-fought North East derby in the Edwardian First Division.

Shot on 9 January 1904 at Roker Park - Sunderland's home ground from 1897 until a century - this film captures a typically competitive Tees-Wear derby, watched by 14,000 spectators. Sunderland, kitted then as now in red and white striped shirts and black shorts, emerged 3-1 winners. By the early 1900s football had grown in popularity thanks to reduced working hours, making Saturday 'match day'.

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.