Perfect weather, 8,000 spectators what could go wrong? The referee hadn't turned up. Tom Kirkham missed his rail connection and sent a telegram to warn the clubs that the 3.30 ko would not be possible. Both clubs couldn't expect the crowd to wait until 5.30pm when Kirkham was due to arrive, so local ref, John Conqueror filled in.
John Campbell (below) scored for Sunderland early on and by half time the home team was 3-0 up with further goals from Hannah and Hyslop.
Official ref, Kirkham, then turned up, declaring the first half null and void! He restarted a "new" first half under his control. With the original score likely to have been telegraphed to newspaper office all over the country, Sunderland didn't mess around wasting "print" and were soon 3-0 up again, in the new first half. Hannah scored another two with Campbell the other.
In the second new half..... "third half", John Campbell scored again, Hyslop got 2, Miller and Gillespie tidied up as Sunderland blitzed the new second half 5-0, making the official score 8-0.
Derby goalkeeper John Robinson didn't blame anyone for the heavy defeat but managed to mention that he couldn't find any rice pudding to eat as his pre-match filler! His motto was "No pudding, No points". He usually ate a bowl before every game.
Sunderland went on to win the league and Derby, with the famous Steve Bloomer (below-1892) in its team, finished second to bottom, avoiding relegation by beating Notts County in what was called a "Test Match". In those days-a play off decided who went down to Division Two.
So on April 27th 1895:
Bury the top of Div 2 beat the 1st Div bottom club Liverpool 1-0 at Ewood Park, at a neutral venue.
Derby second bottom Div 1 beat Notts County 2nd Div 2 2-1 at Filbert Street -neutral.
Stoke 3rd to bottom Div 1 beat Newton Heath 3rd in Div 2 3-0 at Burslem.
Campbell scored 22 goals of the club's season's total of 80. A Scot from Renton, he was only 36 when he died in 1906. He scored 136 goals for Sunderland in 186 games and then went to Newcastle Utd and made his debut on September 4th in 1897 against Woolwich Arsenal, scoring in a 4-1 win. He led Newcastle to their first promotion in 1898 but only played 29 games, scoring 12 goals, retiring to become....you guessed it.....a licensee.
Campbell's brother Robert became the first manager of Bradford City in 1896 and founder board member of the West Yorkshire League
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