Cod Almighty | Diary

Floodlit

10 February 2026

With a night game tomorrow, and Wolves our FA Cup opponents at the weekend, it is a good moment to reflect how transformational floodlights have been for football. Grimsby's set, of course, came from Molineux. Under those lights in 1954, Wolves played a series of floodlit friendlies which paved the way both for European club competitions and for regular night fixtures.

Until then, the Saturday kick-off had dominated, though the games did not always begin at 3pm. In December and January they were scheduled as late as possible, to allow people who worked in the mornings to attend; and as early as necessary to get them completed before darkness fell. That could mean a 2.15 or a 2.30 start. The ref sometimes persuaded teams to do without a half-time interval, the game resuming after a simple switch of ends, to make sure they could finish in daylight.

There'd be a smattering of midweek games early in the season, when the days were long enough to allow a teatime start, but otherwise weekdays were rarely used except for cup replays. It made them events.

As Pat Bell describes, when Grimsby and Wolves met for a fifth round replay in 1937, managers and directors came from all over to watch two of the cup favourites. And two years later, for another fifth round replay at home to Sheffield United, schools shut for the afternoon so that their pupils could attend. The next world war was coming close to a certainty by 1939. People must already have suspected it would be the last cup game at Blundell Park for a good many years.

Football on the Sabbath remained unthinkable for many more decades. But last Sunday, Grimsby Town Women took full advantage of it to maintain their 100 per cent league record, and next Sunday we host Wolves. Let's thank them for the floodlights, then give them one hell of a game.