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DROYLSDEN F.C.

Let There Be Light

In September 1971, the Cheshire League appealed to it’s member clubs to consider the installation of floodlights to help reduce loss of revenue through the turnstiles due to the early Saturday afternoon kick-off’s. By mid November, Droylsden, along with Stalybridge and Mossley were looking into the cost of such a project, and were finding that it would cost approximately £5,000 for a completely new system. In view of this Droylsden started out on a variety of fund raising schemes, amongst which was a ‘lend a pound’ scheme amongst it’s supporters with a promise that their short term loans would be paid back when the lights were erected. Another fund raising scheme found to be successful was when Droylsden FC sold more than a thousand sticks of Blackpool rock with the club name running through the centre.

During the summer of 1972, Droylsden announced that Leeds manager Don Revie had agreed to switch on the lights, and the future England manager had also promised to bring a Leeds United team to the Butchers Arms to help raise funds towards the cost of the floodlights. By December 1972, the installation of Droylsden's new floodlights was complete. This website contains local newspaper reports of the other two fund raising matches, against Manchester City and Manchester United, as well as a few previously unpublished photographs of the match against Manchester City. Also on this site you can read the entire contents of the book 'Droylsden FC, 1892-1952' which records the first sixty years history of the club in detail. Click on the thumbnail of the book below to go to the Book index.

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