Bradford City v Newcastle United

This footage covers the exciting FA Cup final replay match between Bradford City and Newcastle United at a roofless Old Trafford packed with 58,000 fans (with many still outside), on 26th April 1911. The cameraman manages to capture Jimmy Speirs’s headed winning goal for Bradford in the 15th minute. Filmed from the sidelines the film shows just how fast and frantic football was played at the time, with the crowd behind the Stratford End wildly swaying after a near miss.

This film is part of the Fisher Collection. It isn’t known who did the filming, but film of the first game at Crystal Palace (watched by 69,000) was made by the Warwick Trading Company, and so it may have been them again. This final had a new cup – coincidentally manufactured in Bradford by Messrs Fattorini & Sons. Newcastle were favourites, this being their fifth final in seven years – of which they only managed to win one – and league champions three times. For Bradford City, formed only eight years earlier in 1903, it is their one and only appearance in the final. Eight of the eleven players in Bradford’s team were from Scotland (and one Irish), and two lost their lives in the First World War, including Jimmy Speirs.