The first time that Burnley and Sunderland met in a league fixture at Turf Moor was a highly entertaining game that ended 3-3

 

This was the third season of League football but only Sunderland's first as the Wearsiders had replaced Stoke in the summer. 

The match took place 10 years and 2 days since Sunderland had been formed on 25 September 1880 whilst Burnley were formed in 1881. 

27^th  September 1890                                                                        League Division One

 

                           BURNLEY   3                              SUNDERLAND   3 

                     (McLardie 1,55,Spiers)                      (Harvie 22,Scott,Auld)           

 

Referee Mr                                                                                                Attendance 7,000

 

Burnley:- Kay, Walker, Lang, McFettridge, Spiers, Keenan, Oswald, McLardie, Lambie, Stewart, Hill.

 

Sunderland:-- Doig, Porteous, Murray, Wilson, Auld, Spence, Harvie, Millar, Campbell, Hannah, Scott.

A crowd of 7,000 assembled at Turf Moor for this return game which the home side started in sensational fashion. A fine move between McLardie and Lambie enabled McLardie to put Burnley ahead within 30 seconds of the kick off. In the next few minutes both goals were visited with Doig and Kay making fine saves. Burnley got a couple of free kicks that came to nothing but after 22 minutes a good move saw Harvie equalise for Sunderland. Sunderland had the better of the exchanges after this.

Burnley were still aggressive and forced a couple of fruitless corners but Sunderland struck back and Scott scored to put the visitors ahead. Burnley responded immediately and after a free kick for a handball Spiers levelled the scores for the home side. Sunderland had a goal disallowed for offside but almost immediately afterwards Auld shot through to send Sunderland into the interval with a 3-2 lead. Ten minutes into the 2^nd half McLardie brought Burnley level again and then the play became very rough.

Burnley woke up and Stewart put in a sensational run which ended with two splendid saves from Doig. Lambie too got in a couple of fine runs as Burnley continued to press but to no avail. Both sides attacked in turn without success and a rough game ended in a 3-3 draw.                                                                                                    (Newcastle Journal)

Burnley at Turf Moor

On 17 February 1883 Burnley, just nine months old, played their first match opposite the Wellington Hotel, which is still standing today, at Turf Moor against Rawtenstall. As it sounds, it was a piece of turf surrounded by moors, and it didn’t take long for the club’s pioneers to make it splendid enough to accommodate a crowd of 12,000 for the match with local rivals Padiham in March 1884 – 800 being seated in a grandstand, with an uncovered stand along two sides of the field for 5,000 more and the rest being able to watch the football on natural earth banks.

The facilities were good enough for a prince, and in October 1886 Queen Victoria’s son Albert turned up with 9,000 others to take in the action in the local derby match with Bolton. This would appear to be the first time a football ground was visited by a member of the Royal Family. The patronage of Britain’s most important family was important to a game still cautiously making its way into the world. The Royal Family had long enjoyed horse-racing, and its members were known to enjoy playing golf and tennis, but football less so. Their ancestors had, of course, banned the unorganised games of centuries past, with more than twenty laws between 1314 and 1667 outlawing a game believed at times to be taking people’s attentions away from practising archery skills needed to deter potential invaders.

Times, though, were a-changing, as was demonstrated on 13 October 1888 when the Prince of Wales (the later Edward VII) attended the Kennington Oval to watch the London Swifts take on a Canadian touring side in a 2-2 draw. By 1914, the popularity of football was such that King George V was the first reigning monarch to attend the FA Cup final, where he saw Burnley beat Liverpool 1-0. And, of course, with the Royals attending football matches other notable members of society also attended so that once the FA Cup final was moved permanently to Wembley in 1923 it then became both a major sporting and social occasion.

Burnley continue to play their League games at Turf Moor, only Preston at Deepdale having been in longer continuous residence at their ground.

In 1888, the loom town of Burnley and nearby Nelson had a population of close to 100,000 people.