This season marks a decade since the last competitive match between Sheffield FC and Hallam FC, the oldest rivalry in world football.
The Sheffield clubs’ first meeting, on Boxing Day in 1860, marked the world’s first ever football match upon an agreed set of written rules, earning the nickname ‘The Rules Derby’.
Sheffield FC’s Club Historian, Andrew Dixon, said: “The Rules Derby lit the flame for a unified sport to be forged, before this ‘football’ covered a wide range of games often wildly different.
“In this sense Sheffield is the crucible of football, the point at which a variety of separate games became the global sport we know today.”
The fixture hasn’t taken place competitively since the sides faced off in the 2012/13 Hallamshire Cup, with Sheffield FC winning 3-2, but Mr Dixon insists the game is still hugely important today.
He said: “What these two little clubs did for football is still immensely important today, as in any walk of life it’s important to remember your history and where you come from.
“For football, it was in Sheffield with the formation of these two clubs, that the spark was lit for the explosion of the beautiful game to spread across the globe.”
The rivalry is often overshadowed by the Steel City derby between Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, however in some instances the ‘Rules Derby’ could be a bigger match.
Mr Dixon said: “The atmosphere when we play Hallam now is definitely a little less intense than you’d see at Hillsborough or Bramall Lane, but perhaps in terms of significance to the history of football it is a bigger game.
“Despite the friendly tag, I think I speak for both clubs when I say this is always a fixture we want to win.
“Although we still believe football is played for the love of the game, I don’t think you can have a Rules Derby which is not a competitive game.”
After being in different leagues for the past 16 years, Hallam FC now sit just a league below Sheffield FC.
Mr Dixon said: “It would be great if Hallam could gain promotion, but I don’t think the Rules Derby needs anything else to survive, its importance is timeless.”