Maine Road 100 – Day 47

For day 47 of my posts counting down to the centenary of Maine Road’s opening game I’ve posted this photo from 1954. Lots changed at the stadium but a few things to look out for…

• The original Main Stand roof has an advert where the architect Charles Swain had envisaged the club’s name (who says commercialisation of football is a new thing?).
• The original floodlights can be seen (or at least one in the Platt lane corner). These were switched on for the first time in 1953
• The Players’ tunnel is still its original size before the seating in the directors box was brought forward above the tunnel.

Here’s an aerial photo of Maine Road from 1971 to help with understanding of what’s what and to compare. So this was only taken 17 years after the main image but so much changed. The main image was taken from the old Scoreboard End (somewhere close to number 10 but obviously from the old terracing) looking towards the Platt Lane. The old floodlight was behind number 4 and you can see the second set of lights there in the image below. The Maine Stand roof had obviously changed between these images.

If you’d like to read more on the history of Maine Road, take a look at Farewell To Maine Road, which can be downloaded from this page: