Sunderland AFC v Ferryhill FC, 1880

Sunderland AFC 0–1 Ferryhill FC

Friendly Match

Blue House Field, Hendon — Saturday, 13 November 1880

This match stands as Sunderland AFC’s first recorded football fixture, and while much of 19th-century football history is fragmentary, this game survives with an unusual degree of structural detail. The result, venue, date, and — crucially — the team line-ups are known and are now formally recorded by StatCat, the authoritative statistical archive for Sunderland AFC.

The circumstances of the match were improvised. Ferryhill, a village side from South Durham, found themselves without a fixture for Saturday 13 November 1880 and hastily arranged a game against the newly formed Sunderland club. For Sunderland, this became their first ‘competitive’ encounter against another organised club, played on their home ground at Blue House Field, Hendon — an open piece of land close to the Blue House public house, from which the field took its name.

No image of the pub survives, and its precise appearance is unknown, though it is generally accepted that players changed there. The surrounding landscape bore no resemblance to the modern area; notably, no later developments — including the Raich Carter Centre — existed at the time. Spectators, likely numbering no more than a few dozen, stood informally around the pitch, with no barriers or stands.

Sunderland lost the toss and were forced to play into a strong wind. Very early in the match they appeared to score, but the effort was ruled out — recorded at the time as a disallowed “point”, reflecting the fluid terminology and evolving rules of the period. Play consisted of 40 minutes each way, and before half-time Ferryhill “cleverly kicked” a goal — the only score of the match.

The goalscorer was not recorded. It may have been J. McCutcheon, one of Ferryhill’s six forwards and a man who, two seasons later, would become a regular Sunderland player — but this remains conjecture rather than fact.

Sunderland pressed hard in the second half but could not force an equaliser. Their first match against another club ended in defeat, 0–1.

Ferryhill themselves were a short-lived side. Despite their success on this day, they would fold after only a season or two through lack of interest. On this afternoon, however, the village club proved more than a match for the Sunderland men.

A report in the Monday press — almost certainly written by a Sunderland official and handed to the Sunderland Echo — sought to explain the defeat by claiming that Sunderland were “unfortunately represented by a very poor side, no less than five of their best men being absent.”

The Teams

Sunderland’s line-up for this historic match was:

• Bob Singleton (captain & goalkeeper)

• T. Taylor, Shirlaw (backs)

• J. Gibbons, W. Andersen (half-backs)

• E. G. Watson, J. Barron, P. Dove, F. Woodward, Walter Chappell, Jimmy Allan (forwards)

Ferryhill were represented by:

• W. J. Kitching (goal)

• E. Letheron, J. Hodgson (captain; backs)

• J. Soulsby, J. Barry (half-backs)

• T. Field, J. Mann, F. Devine, J. Oliver, J. McCutcheon, M. Carney (forwards)

Some of Sunderland’s players remain shadowy figures. Shirlaw and Gibbons, for example, appear never to have played again, their names absent from later reports. Even their identities are uncertain: no initials were recorded for Shirlaw, and school records from the period list a teacher named Thurlow, not Shirlaw, raising the possibility of a reporting error.

Others are far better documented. Bob Singleton, Sunderland’s first captain, appears in an early photograph as a tall, imposing figure with thick side-burns, a moustache, and a receding hairline. A master at Gray School, he later became superintendent of a local charity, a councillor, and a member of both the School Board and the Board of Guardians. He played for Sunderland for two seasons — sometimes in goal, more often as a full-back — and later served on the club committee.

Singleton’s life ended tragically. In March 1895, during a drinking bout at his Peel Street home, he fell and struck his head against a bed. A coroner’s inquest concluded that alcoholic poisoning was the cause of death. Sunderland’s first captain was buried at Ryhope Road Cemetery with a police band, a large police presence, and the Mayor in attendance. He was just 37 years old.

Two more players from that day, Walter Chappell and Frank Woodward, would also die young. Both were colleagues of Jimmy Allan at Hendon Board/Boys School — a remarkable early breeding ground for Sunderland footballers. The school staff list included Chappell, Woodward, Allan, John Grayston, and pupil-teacher Charles Funnell, making it a significant source of talent in the club’s formative years.

Frank Woodward was particularly young. Just two months past his fifteenth birthday when he played against Ferryhill. Though little is known of his footballing ability, he was an accomplished and well-regarded teacher. He trained at Durham, took a degree at London University, and by the time of his death on 4 September 1897, aged just 32, he was responsible for the instruction of pupil teachers under the Sunderland School Board. Such was his esteem that his pupils subscribed over £40 — a substantial sum — to erect an 11-foot dark red Aberdeen granite monument, which still stands today in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery.

Context for the Image

This image should not be read as a precise reconstruction of a single recorded moment. Instead, it is an evocation grounded in known fact: named players on an open field, improvised kit, uneven ground, sparse spectators, and a game played without any awareness that it marked the beginning of Sunderland AFC’s documented history.

It reflects the nature of football in 1880 — a sport where team lists might survive, but kits, colours, crowds and incidents often did not — and where history was created quietly, locally, and without knowing it would one day matter.

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