BOROUGH PARK MEMORIES: Floodlights installed
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Borough Park was twenty years old when the club became the latest to invest in stadium floodlighting.
The project was carried out in 1957 with the North Western Electricity Board completing the installation at a reported cost of £12,000.
A series of high-profile friendly matches were arranged to mark the major step forward in the club’s history and Reds were unbeaten in the quartet of exhibition games, played in November and December 1957.
The inaugural match played under floodlights was against Hamilton Academical, a mid-table Scottish League Division Two outfit at the time, on 20th November sixty-eight years ago
Reds emerged emphatic 6-1 winners with two Scots, an Englishman and a South African sharing the goals. Jim Currie, Jack Bertolini, Clive Colbridge and Ted Purdon had the satisfaction of scoring the historic goals with the latter becoming the first to net a hat-trick under the lights.
A crowd of 5,614 turned out for the big switch-on, a ceremony performed by Reds’, chairman, ED Smith.
The following Monday, First Division Blackpool were the guests at Borough Park and their full-strength line-up included the likes of George Farm, Jimmy Armfield, Jackie Mudie, Bill Perry and the legendary Stanley Matthews.
It was reported that Matthews was carrying an injury and he failed to appear for the second half. Nevertheless, the presence of the great man drew a 16,000 plus attendance to the match, won 4-1 by Workington, which, even for the friendly status of the game, wasn’t bad against a team who would finish seventh in that season’s top flight.
Local hero Billy Robson scored two on the night with Ken Chisholm and Purdon also scoring against Scottish international goalkeeper, George Farm.
The first Football League fixture played under this new-found artificial light was against Tranmere Rovers and, although Chisholm had the satisfaction of bagging Reds’ first competitive goal, the Birkenhead side finished 2-1 winners.
Port Vale and Ayr United, also of Scottish League Division Two, completed the series of exhibition games with Reds beating Vale, thanks to a George Aitken spot-kick (the first Workington penalty under lights), and the Ayr game resulting in a draw.
Bradford Park Avenue replicated Tranmere’s 2-1 Third Division North win which paved the way for our first Football League scalp under the new-fangled illumination. And that just happened to be versus Carlisle United in the Boxing Day derby!
The four iconic pylons proudly stood 130 feet high in their prime before being truncated to 70 feet in 1987.
