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Smug in Boots said:
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Sunderland against Aston Villa can rightly be described as football’s first great rivalry, with the Wearsiders capturing the First Division Championship in 1891/92, 1892/93 and 1894/95, and with Villa taking the title in 1893/94, 1895-96, 1896-97 and 1898-99.

In 1912/13 Sunderland again won Division One, but were beaten by the Villans in the FA Cup Final at the Crystal Palace before a then World Record crowd of in excess of 120,000.

The rivalry was marked by the painting that resides in the entrance to the Stadium of Light, the one in the lead photo of this very article.

This is of the game at Newcastle Road on 2nd January 1895 - a match which ended 4-4, with two goals from Gillespie and one each from Hannah and Millar for the home side and two from Smith, a penalty from Reynolds and one from Devey doing the damage for the away team. The attendance was 12,000.

The painting is recognised as the oldest of an Association Football match anywhere in the world, and thus marking it out as something special.
Click to expand...
Could be bollocks, but I was told many years ago that the bloke on the far side touchline holding the flag, was Sunderland chairman, who wanted to be in the painting.
 
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