The search is on to find the ‘priceless’ missing lid from one of the oldest cups in UK football history.

The Saturday County Cup, which is more than 120 years old, will be installed at the National Football Museum in Manchester on Friday.

But one thing has been missing for at least the last 30 years - the lid.

The North Riding FA has donated the silverware to the museum and is trying to find its top before it goes on show.

Dave Roberts, communications officer at North Riding FA, said: “Our message to the public is that we need to find our hero. We are looking for a hero who has (the lid) kept in their garage or hiding in their loft.

Arthur Wharton

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The missing lid is thought to be somewhere in the Teesside area.

Dave added: “It’s priceless, in terms of the football history it contains. But we are not interested in how it went missing, there are no repercussions.”

The trophy started life as the Cleveland Cup in 1881, and is strongly linked with the first-ever black professional football player, Arthur Wharton, who won it playing for Darlington in 1887. Wharton played for several Greater Manchester clubs including Stalybridge, Stockport , and Newton Heath - now Manchester United .

Middlesborough FC in 1890

The Saturday County Cup will sit beside Arthur Wharton’s other trophy in the Manchester Museum, The Prince Hassan Cup, awarded for winning the first-ever official 100m sprint.

Shaun Campbell, founder of the Arthur Wharton Foundation, said: “The cup is very symbolic. We need to do this for football, we need to put it back together. It would be fantastic.”

Shaun originally believed that the lid went missing more than 50 years ago but thanks to help from Nunthorpe Athletic, it’s been confirmed that the two parts were together when they lifted the trophy back in 1982 and again when they were losing finalists in 1985.

Shaun saw the cup without its lid at Thirsk sports club, in Yorkshire, as they won the competition in 2015.

Every team that wins the cup, later renamed the Saturday County Cup, will come to Manchester to be presented with it, but they will take home a replica trophy and the original will stay at the museum.

If anyone knows anything about the missing lid, you can call North Riding FA on 01642 717770 or e-mail info@northridingfa.com