Archive footage of Bradford City's first Football League match at Valley Parade will grace the big screen again - a century on from the day of the game.

The four short films, featuring City's glorious 3-1 home defeat to Gainsborough Trinity, have been dusted off and painstakingly restored in time for the club's centenary celebrations.

And they will be shown next Thursday, 8pm, at the city's National Museum of Photography, Film and Television - on the eve of the 100 year anniversary of the big game.

The films were among a stash of around 600 discovered in two large barrels in a Blackburn shop in the early 1990s.

They were produced by the Lancashire-based film company Mitchell and Kenyon which made films for travelling fairground operators, and would have been shown on the fairgrounds or at other venues.

Incredibly, the footage, regarded as one of the most important collections of its kind, included film recorded at City's first league game at Valley Parade.

All the reels are being systematically restored onto new copies as part of a four-year project by the British Film Institute and National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield.

The collection is expected hit the screen and be made available on DVD next year.

But the event at the Bradford museum will be the first public showing of all four films, taken on September 3, 1903, since their original screening.

Today Dave Pendleton, who has helped to organise Bradford City's centenary celebration, said it was a stunning way to mark the anniversary.

He said the footage had revealed a lot about the club's origins, including the fact the team wore hooped rather than striped shirts. And it also includes City's first ever goal at the Bradford End of the historic ground.

Dave, who has seen a glimpse of some of the footage, said: "I can't get across how good the quality of the film is. It is like some one has pulled back the curtain of history and we have had a look around it.

"The astonishing thing is this footage should have been found just in time for the club's centenary. It is fantastic."

Doctor Vanessa Toulmin, of the University of Sheffield, said she was delighted to be able to help mark the club's centenary. She said the collection also included footage taken from City's predecessors, Manningham Rugby Club, who also played at Valley Parade.

"Dave and the club have been brilliant in helping us trace the history of the films, which are so clear it is as if they were filmed yesterday," she said.

Bill Lawrence, head of film at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, who is pictured inspecting the rare footage, said the museum was delighted to be screening it.

"It was quite an extraordinary find to come across this amount of material so many years on," he said. "It is going to be a very exciting evening."

As well as the footage from 1903, the evening will also feature archive film from City in the 1940s and from the 1911 FA Cup final victory over Newcastle.

Supporter John Dewhirst will also give a talk on the history of the club featuring photographs from over the years.

Tickets for the event can be booked in person at the museum from Tuesday to Sunday between 10am and 8pm, or by calling 0870 7010200.