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Sport historians have estimated that some 20,000 spectators watched Everton football team beat Liverpool 3-1 at Goodison Park on Saturday 27th September 1902 - a result that may still cheer 'Toffees' fans today. The Liverpool team, in white shorts, are seen filing past the camera in a packed stadium, led by their captain, Alex Raisbeck. As is common in early sport filming, the hand-cranked camera has trouble keeping up with the action of the game - including the goals. The films shot by Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon and rediscovered in 1994 included a number covering local sporting events but, unsurprisingly given the technology of the time, no football game was shot in its entirety. What makes these films so valuable and compelling for historians, and for anyone interested in the early 20th century, is not so much what is revealed about the game of football but what they tell us about the crowds - the way they dress, the way they behave - and about the sorts of people who attended football matches at this time. Rebecca Vick
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Mitchell and Kenyon 106 (1:32)
