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Trivia
- Match arranged for the switching on of the new floodlights at Celtic Park.
- The announcement that Celtic would install floodlights had been made the previous season. Work began as soon as season 1958/59 drew to a close and by June the pylons were starting to emerge.
- Supporters said to have stood in awe as Mrs Kelly, wife of chairman Robert Kelly, switches on the lights.
- New lights said to be the biggest and best in the UK and would last until 1994 when the ground was rennovated to make it all seater. Wolverhampton Wanderers are the English Champions for the second year in a row.
- A report the following day did complement Celtic on their new floodlights, commenting that “…such was the power of the lamps that there isn’t one inch of shadow on the park. About the only thing the spectators can’t see under the Celtic Park lights is the colour of the players’ eyes.”
Review
This was a match to mark the switching on of the Celtic Park floodlights for the first time. Wolves were captained by the legendary Billy Wright and were English champions for the second consecutive season.
Celtic were captained by Bertie Peacock and included John Fallon in goal, Pat Crerand at half-back, and a couple of youngsters named Stevie Chalmers and Bertie Auld.
As each bank of floodlights was switched on a tremendous roar went up from the crowd, each level of brilliance being matched by increasing volume. This was a new experience for Celtic fans and they had waited a long time for the club to finally install the lights. Unfortunately the lights were to be the only thing that could be called brilliant as far as Celtic were concerned because they were no match for Wolves.
The English champions dominated the match and Celtic were somewhat flattered by the score. One lingering memory is the numerous times Celtic players were caught offside by a very efficient Wolves trap. During one attack at least four Celtic players were caught offside.
Teams
Celtic:-
Fallon, MacKay, Mochan, Smith, Evans, Peacock, Chalmers, McVittie, Lochhead, Divers, Auld.
Wolves:-
Findlayson, Kelly, Harris, Clamp, Stuart, Kirkham, Mason, Durant, Murray, Broadbent, Horne
Goals:- Broadbent (19), Murray.
Ref:- T. Wharton
Att:- 45,000.
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
- Flightlights Switched on
Pictures
Articles
Evening Times 13th October 1959
Celtic were relatively late to have floodlights installed at Parkhead.
While most other senior clubs in Scotland and England were already capable of playing under lights it was not until October1959that theBhoys‘ switched on their floodlight system. However, theCeltic boardboasted that the Parkhead lights were the best in football and that the four pylons – at 208 feet high – were the tallest such structures in the world.
The system was installed at a cost of £40,000 by Edinburgh firm Miller and Stables Ltd and to mark the occasionthe Hoopsorganised a glamour friendly with English champions Wolverhampton Wanderers on October 12th1959. They had first tried to bring Real Madrid to Celtic Park for the game and though they offered the Spaniards a £5000 guarantee, Real required double this figure. The second choice was the French side and European Cup runners up Stade de Rheims, who also were unavailable. Wolverhampton Wanderers as English Champions were the third choice.
A mostly inexperienced Celtic team looked out of their depth against a Wolves side which was far from full strength and the midlanders ran out comfortable 2-0 winners before a crowd of 45,000. The visitor’s goals were scored by Broadbent and Murray. While the lights were a huge success there was little room for optimisim about the performance on the pitch and to rub salt into the wounds of the Celtic support there was a strong rumour that star men Bobby Collins and Willie Fernie had been sold to Everton and Middlesbrough the season before to help pay for the new lights.
KDS
Poem posted on KDS by tinsoldier
HaHaHa
‘Twas back in the days of fog and smoke
I walked along the London Road
The floodlights in the ground shining bright
We knew Celtic were playing that night
Heroes of the past underneath the glare
My Celtic scarf I had to wear
Proud of those heroes,proud of those lights
Tully,Johnstone,Auld & McKnight
Wolves came to play in the floodlit arena
The terraces were full of people
Proud of the team out on the park
From those floodlights did I see a spark?
The Celts did their best against the Wolves
Coming up with some brilliant proud moves
And in the end they lost two goals to nil
But we walked home happy as we could all see where we were going.
Funny if nothing else.
Let there be light as Paradise emerges from the dark ages
By Joe Sullivan
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2021/october/12/let-there-be-light-as-paradise-emerges-from-the-dark-ages/
It was on this day (or night to be precise), 62 years ago on October 12, 1959 that modern-day floodlights were used at Celtic Park for the first occasion just in time to hansel the club’s continental age of enlightenment the following decade.
It’s amazing now to think that such an iconic part of Celtic’s history and an endearing embodiment of classic European nights were actually only around for about 35 years before the old stadium was brought crashing to ground.
The old Celtic Park made way for the magnificent current edifice that rose like Fergus McCann’s phoenix from the ashes of the old board, and the current floodlight positions as part of the roofing structure have now been around for over a quarter-of-a-century and are fast catching up on their historic predecessors that lit the way for so many memorable European nights.
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Prior to that, the old floodlight pylons stood seemingly hanging from the sky like four giant translucent beacons seen from miles around on dark Glasgow nights.
Even during daylight they were a landmark and in the early 1970s when Bobby Charlton was due at Hampden for TV work on a Scotland v England match, on nearing the city he made a beeline for the only floodlights he could see and ended up at Celtic Park instead.
European nights at Celtic Park have always been special occasions. The roar of the devoted and fervent crowd, the appearance of glamorous or unknown opponents ready to take on the green and white hoops. The floodlights shining down on the hallowed turf.
And it was the prospect of European nights that established the need for floodlights at Celtic Park in the first place as, previously, midweek games, mainly postponed league matches or cup replays, would be played in the afternoon with many supporters unable to take time off work – and a proviso of the recently introduced European Cup was that all entrants had to have floodlights for the midweek matches.
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Those supporters of a certain age will be able to recall those nights when they made their way to Celtic Park, the sight of the pylons towering over the ground, shining down on the pitch, a sign that their destination was near at hand. Excitement would increase, as would nerves.
Since the redevelopment of the stadium, the lights which illuminate proceedings beam down from the structure itself, but with the same result – indeed the recent addition of the ‘Disco Lights’ have greatly added to the midweek experience for supporters.
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Night-time games are now something that fans take for granted, and only those of senior citizen vintage may recall the pre-1959 days before floodlights were first installed at Celtic Park.
The four pylons which were constructed at the ground, in each of the four corners, cost the club around £40,000 and were reputed to be among the highest such pylons in the world.
A friendly match against English champions for the second successive season, Wolverhampton Wanderers, was arranged to ‘celebrate’ the new lighting, and on Monday, October 12, 1959, a crowd of 45,000 came along to Celtic Park.
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Celtic were captained by Bertie Peacock and included John Fallon in goal and a couple of youngsters named Stevie Chalmers and Bertie Auld.
As each bank of floodlights was switched on a tremendous roar went up from the crowd, each level of brilliance being matched by increasing volume. This was a new experience for Celtic fans and they had waited a long time for the club to finally install the lights. Unfortunately the lights were to be the only thing that could be called brilliant as far as Celtic were concerned because they were no match for Wolves.
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The English champions dominated the match and Celtic were somewhat flattered by the score. It was noted that on numerous occasions Celtic were caught offside by a very efficient Wolves trap. During one attack at least four Celtic players were caught offside.
While the new floodlights may have impressed the supporters, the performance on the pitch almost certainly didn’t as an inexperienced Celtic side went down 2-0 to Wolves.
The English side, despite fielding five reserves, won through goals from Broadbent and Murray.
A report the following day did complement Celtic on their new floodlights, commenting that “…such was the power of the lamps that there isn’t one inch of shadow on the park. About the only thing the spectators can’t see under the Celtic Park lights is the colour of the players’ eyes.”
While the installation of the permanent pylons only came about in 1959, Celtic first experimented with artificial lighting as far back as 1893.
A friendly game against Clyde was organised for Christmas Day of that year, and a crowd of nearly 5,000 turned up that night for the game, which was played under lighting supplied by sixteen arc-lights suspended from a wire stretched across the field.
Inevitably, there were some stoppages in play due to the ball hitting the wires.
Celtic played under the lights against in January 1894, in a Scottish Cup tie against St Bernard’s. The Celts won 8-1 and a subsequent protest by St Bernard’s regarding the result because the ball had struck the lights a few times was thrown out by the SFA.
This early experiment in artificial lighting was abandoned until 1959.
CELTIC 0
WOLVES 2
(Broadbent, Murray)
Att: 45,000
Celtic: Fallon, MacKay, Mochan, Smith, Evans, Peacock, Chalmers, McVittie, Lochhead, Divers, Auld.
Wolves: Findlayson, Kelly, Harris, Clamp, Stuart, Kirkham, Mason, Durant, Murray, Broadbent, Horne.
Ref: T Wharton
