The "Game of Three Halves" was the name given to a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

match played between

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

and

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

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 titl ...

, T. Kirkham, 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 made the incredible decision to ask Derby if they wanted to start the game from scratch. Derby accepted, meaning the 45 minutes that had already been played were null and void annulled. 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.Ward, Andrew. ''Football's Strangest Matches: Extraordinary But True Stories from Over a Century of Football'', Robson Publishing (2007), pp. 10–11.

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 sports September 1894 events Nicknamed sporting events