Floodlights! Allows sports to be played at anytime of the night or day and any time of the year, even when it gets dark early. However it hasn't always been this way and despite having floodlights reportedly as far back as 1878 they were not used until the 1950's.
Cricket had their first game in 1952 which was also televised and Australia had their first Australian Rules Football game under floodlights that same year. However, for once and probably the last time, football was the first to introduce new technology to the game.
A friendly took place between two Bournmouth clubs on the 31st October 1950 and then almost a whole year on the reserve team v Spurs got in on the act.
But this is a Manchester City blog so where does this become relevent? Well on this day in 1953 Manchester City tried out the floodlighted games for themselves and on three successive Wednesdays they played friendlies against clubs in a floodlit Maine Road. The first was a 6-3 win for City against Scottish side Hearts, before beating Fenebache 5-1 the following week and finishing off with a 1-1 draw against Celtic in the last of the three games.
In 2005 Hearts presented City with a signed shirt to commemorate that landmark game in both clubs history. Incidently it was also City's 125th year since City's original inception as St Marks. Celtic also gave City a shirt, Fenerbache, we are not sure, maybe just a kebab or something.
Written by: PA Cityboy (www.facebook.com/pacityboy)
No comments:
Post a Comment