FORTUNE was no kinder to Albion than their rivals had been. In 1889, the club applied to join the newly-minted Football League, but were turned down only for Sunderland AFC to be admitted the following year, and finish seventh. Undeterred, Albion joined the rival Football Alliance, but it proved to be the League’s poor relation, and in 1892 became the League’s Second Division. The two Sunderland clubs, though playing in different League divisions, contested two more friendlies that year, resulting in a humiliating 14-1 aggregate victory for Sunderland AFC.

The sight of John Campbell’s thirty-one goals then propelling Sunderland AFC to the 1891-1892 League title must have been even harder to bear, but worse was to come. Just before the start of the 1892-93 season, Albion’s major sponsors, Wear Glass Works, folded after an eighteen-month strike. Ruefully recognising Sunderland AFC’s runaway dominance, the Albion board saw no alternative but to wind up the club’s affairs.