The North Stand scoreboard arrived with the newly-constructed all-seater stand in the early 1970s.
Standing on the site of the old Scoreboard End terrace - so called for the ‘ABC’ board that displayed scores of other games with each letter denoting a list of games in the programme.
‘A’ might be 1-0 with the corresponding programme fixture being Arsenal v Wolves and so on.
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The slender, black 90-foot electronic scoreboard sat proudly at the back of the North Stand at a cost of £11,000 and was state-of-the-art at the time.
It would proudly display goal-scorers, the score and, of course, the ‘Golden Goal’ winning four-digit code. Happy days.
Sadly, the board deteriorated as time went on and often bulbs blew making it hard to read, but winning the hearts of the masses for its eccentricity.
Eventually, it was switched off for good towards the end of the 1980s but remained in situ for several more years.
Of course, that’s until it mysteriously switched itself on to wish the empty stadium ‘season’s greetings’... as our picture shows.
This iconic images was taken by Kevin Cummins, who recalls: “The Club called me in to take a photo of Maine Road under snow.
“It was shot in January or February, I think. We saved the ground shots for the following Christmas programme cover but while we were doing the photos, then Junior Blues secretary, Roger Reade, put some stuff on the scoreboard that he thought we could use too.
“I’ve got a print somewhere where it reads: ‘photos by kind courtesy Kevin Cummins’. My name on the scoreboard in lights. A dream come true.”
Or at least, so legend has it...
Do you have a Peter Barnes Trainer in your loft? Or a rare photograph in your garage? If you have any rare City treasures you’d like to share with the Club - we’d like to hear from you!
