OLD TRAFFORD

On Saturday 19th February 1910 at Old Trafford*, the new ground staged its first match, a league game, when Manchester United met Liverpool in the First Division. Not that the ground was called Old Trafford in those days but the ‘United Football Ground’, which just hasn’t quite got the same ring about it, has it! 

Originally planned as a 100,000 capacity stadium, by the time it was built the capacity of the vast terraces had been reduced to 80,000, with about 45,000 present at that match against Liverpool. United’s Sandy Turnbull scored the first goal at the new ground but visitors Liverpool spoiled the party, winning 4-3.

The first match between the two clubs, on 28th April 1894, at Liverpool's "borrowed ground", Ewood Park, was a TEST MATCH, with the home team winning 2-1 against United, although the club was named Newton Heath at the time. 3,000 watched this. Test Matches were designed to decide which clubs would qualify for a league or division place, from 1892-3 when the Second Division was formed. By 1898, promotion and relegation came into being.

On 12th October 1895, at Anfield, Liverpool played Newton Heath, meeting in an official League Division 2 game, with 10,000 witnessing a 1-7 win for the visitors. 

On November 2nd 1895, the return league match was at Newton Heath's ground at Bank Street, Clayton, in Division 2, the home team winning 5-2; 10,000 attended, enjoying a hat trick from James Peters, seal the victory. 

The two clubs next met on February 12th 1898 in the FA Cup, Round 2, at Newton Heath drawing 0-0. Liverpool won the replay 2-1, 4 days later. Liverpool's next cup tie that season, was a defeat away at Derby County, who went on to lose to Nottingham Forest in the Final 3-1.

On the head to head: United has won 89, drawn 68 and lost 79.

* Before 1902, Manchester United was known as Newton Heath, during which time they first played their football matches at North Road and then Bank Street. However, both grounds were blighted by wretched conditions, the pitches ranging from gravel to marsh, while Bank Street suffered from clouds of fumes from its neighbouring factories. Therefore, following the club's rescue from near-bankruptcy and renaming, the new chairman, John Davies, decided in 1909, that the Bank Street ground was not fit for a team that had recently won the First Division and the FA Cup, so he donated funds for the construction of a new stadium. 

Old Trafford, was designed by the renowned Scottish architect, Archibald Leitch (below), who designed several other stadia. The ground was originally designed with a capacity of 100,000 spectators, but with costs rising, the capacity was reduced to approximately 80,000. Nevertheless, at a time when transfer fees were still around the £1,000 mark, the cost of construction only served to reinforce the club's "Moneybags United" epithet, with which they had been tarred since. Leitch designed over 20 stadia in Britain and had other projects abroad.

His stadium hosted its inaugural game on 19 February 1910, with United playing host to Liverpool. However, the home side were unable to provide their fans with a win to mark the occasion, as Liverpool won 4–3. A journalist at the game reported the stadium as "the most handsomest [sic], the most spacious and the most remarkable arena, I have ever seen. As a football ground it is unrivalled in the world, it is an honour to Manchester and the home of a team who can do wonders when they are so disposed".