Middlesbrough Football club is one of the north east’s oldest clubs. The idea for a Middlesbrough football club was hatched, following a tripe dinner at the Corporation hotel in 1876. In the year 1889, some of the clubs members broke away to form a professional football club known as Middlesbrough Ironopolis. They joined the football league in the year 1893, however theirs was a short lived existence and they dropped out after just one season. Middlesbrough briefly turned professional in the year 1889; however they reverted back to their amateur status and won the FA Amateur cup in 1895 and 1898. They turned professional once again in 1889 and joined the football league, gaining promotion to the first division in 1902. Boro moved to their new impressive stadium at Ayresome park in 1903, and the first match they played there was against their local rivals Sunderland. Ayresome Park hosted its first international encounter in 1905 and was later used during the 1966 world cup. Boro were determined to join the big time in 1905 and they set the record fee by purchasing Alf Common from Sunderland for £1000. Apart from a late spell in the late 1920’s the Boro were a top flight club until 1954. They had a fine reputation of fielding fantastic strikers, including Alf Common, George Camsell and Steve Bloomer. Camsell was an outstanding goal scorer, notching up a stunning 326 goals in his 14 seasons at the club. In the 1913-1914 season, Boro enjoyed their finest campaign as they finished it off in third place in the top flight.