The "Game of three halves" was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

match played between

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

and

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

on the opening day of the 1894–95 English football season. Derby had travelled to Sunderland on 1 September for their first round fixture in the new First Division season, but as the nominated

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

Tom Kirkham Thomas Kirkham was an English football referee. In 1894 he officiated (most of) the ' Game of three halves' between Sunderland and Derby County on the opening day of the Football League First Division season, instructing that the full match shou ...

, was running late, the game started with a replacement referee, John Conqueror, in charge. After 45 minutes play, with Sunderland leading 3–0, Kirkham arrived and, "to the surprise of everyone", ordered that the game be restarted from scratch. Two more halves followed, thus allowing three halves to be played, but the decision to start the match again did not help Derby. They conceded three further goals in the "second half" and five goals in the "third half" to officially lose the match 8–0.

Details

1st half

2nd half and 3rd half

References

External links

Full report of match
{{Derby County F.C. matches 1894–95 in English football Association football controversies Football League First Division matches Derby County F.C. matches Sunderland A.F.C. matches 1894 in football September 1894 Nicknamed sporting events