's vice-captain James Allan held a meeting at The Empress Hotel in Union Street to form a new club, Sunderland Albion, to play on purely amateur lines.

[7] The club denied this, stating its role was to fill a geographical gap, being primarily a representative of Bishopwearmouth rather than Monkwearmouth.

[8] However the club soon gained sponsorshp from wealthy individuals, most noticeably from Allan's neighbour James Hartley, who owned the Wear Glass Works at Monkwearmouth, and breweries found sinecure jobs for players - Jimmy Hannah became landlord of the Free Gardeners Arms in Williamson Terrace, with the tenure taken over by John Rae[9] - which enabled the players to claim still to be amateurs.

Albion's first line-up for the game at the Ashville Ground was as follows: Stewart, Oliver, Gilmartin, Richardson, Moore, Baxter, Scott, Kilpatrick, Melville, Monaghan and Nugent.

withdrew, on the pretext of the "demoralizing effects of Cup competition", but suspected on the grounds of Albion protesting the professionalism of the A.F.C.

's players; in lieu of the disappointed Cup ties, the clubs arranged two matches, one for profit and one for charity, at the A.F.C.

[11] The second - for which a councillor donated a trophy - took place the next month, on the scheduled date of the Durham Cup tie, but bad weather kept the attendance below 10,000.

With the score at 2–2 in the 88th minute, a three-player collision saw the ball bounce from goalkeeper Angus off forward Breckenridge and high towards the goal; the Albion players claimed it had gone over the bar, but the referee awarded the goal, resulting in the players walking off the pitch in protest, in defiance of Allen's instructions.

[13] Albion also went out of the FA Cup at the first round proper, losing 3–1 at Grimsby Town, handicapped by the non-availability of some of its players.

[23] With the extra travelling expenses, the club raised £3,000 in share capital in March 1890 by becoming a limited liability company.

[24] It finished the season on a high, beating Preston North End 3–1, with West Bromwich goalkeeper Bob Roberts (lured by the attraction of running a pub with a £200 p/a salary)[25] making his debut for the club,[26] but what turned out to be the death knell for the club followed; both Albion and A.F.C.

The club looked as if it had lost its first round tie at home to Birmingham St George's, but due to a hard frost the referee had ordered the teams to play an exhibition match as he ruled the ground unfit for a Cup tie.