Firsts · 1878

Under the lights

Real football fact

The facts

On 14 October 1878, Bramall Lane in Sheffield held the first football match ever played under floodlights. About 20,000 people came to watch.
There was no power grid yet, so generators at the ground made the electricity for the lamps.
Lights took a long time to catch on: the first Football League match under floodlights was Portsmouth against Newcastle United, on 22 February 1956.

The match on 14 October 1878 was between two teams picked by the Sheffield Football Association. The crowd was about 20,000 and the score was 2⁠–⁠0.
There was no national power grid, so lights were run from dynamos (generators) and batteries, and early lights were often unreliable.
Electric lamps of that time were arc lamps: electricity jumps across a small gap between two carbon rods, and the tip of the rod glows white hot.
Other clubs tried lights in 1878 too. In Scotland, Third Lanark played a match lit by a Gramme machine, an early dynamo.
In the 1930s Arsenal’s manager Herbert Chapman put lights in at Highbury, but the Football League would not let clubs use them in league games until the 1950s.
The first Football League match played under floodlights was Portsmouth against Newcastle United at Fratton Park, on 22 February 1956.

Before a high ball comes, glance up and know where the lights or the sun are, so the glare never catches you out.