Two historic events on one night – in one town
EVENTS occurred on the same night in Wolverhampton sixty years ago that were historic for football at national and local levels
In a pioneering venture at Molineux, Wolves, on October 4, 1958, staged the first top flight Saturday night game in English football.
Wolves were 4-0 winners over Manchester United but apart form its significance the venture was a disappointment for the Master of Molineux, Stan Cullis.
Televised
The legendary manager and his chairman James Baker, unlike English football’s legislators, saw television as a friend of the game rather than a foe. The club planned the evening kick-off in the hope it could be broadcast. Both BBC and ITV – there were only two channels in those days – were interested but the Football League would not allow the game to be televised.
Cullis felt football should embrace TV. He saw no reason why one game each weekend should not be brought forward to a Friday night and be televised.
Rather than affecting gates, Cullis and the Wolves board believed televised football would foster interest in the game. The FA and Football League thought otherwise. How, times have changed!
On the very same evening of the Wolves-united game a starkly contrasting event – a chat between two football-loving pals – would prove of lasting benefit to local players in the Wolverhampton area.
The talk between Derek Payton and Arthur Walker at the Wolverhampton Co-op’s social club in Stafford Street, was of the difficulty their club was having in fielding a team on Saturdays because of increasing work demands. The venue for the meeting, just five minutes’ walk from Molineux, later became the Spider’s Web cafe.
What Derek and Arthur saw as an answer to the Co-op club’s problems was Sunday football, another thing frowned upon by the Football Association. However, the pair were not to be put off and their efforts led to the foundation of the Wolverhampton and District Sunday League.
Messrs Payton and Walker arranged a friendly game against George Street Villa from the Birmingham Festival League, one of two leagues who had defied the FA’S outlawing of Sunday football. Players were obtained from clubs in the Wolverhampton area to form a representative side to face the visitors. Wisely, the organisers declared it a charity game with players paying a shilling (5p) each and a collection raising over £5. It was all donated to the Mayor of Wolverhampton’s charity appeal.
Further status to the game, played on the Coop’s pitch in Compton Road, Wolverhampton, was added by the choice of referee – Jimmy Mullen, the England winger who was in his final season with Wolves. Over the years Mullen, through his sports outfitting business in the town and his own personal support, would prove a great friend to the Sunday League.
The match ended in a draw and that might have been the end of the story, but many others soon expressed an interest in Sunday football as an alternative to Saturdays. In the 1958-9 season the league’s foundations were laid with a series of friendly matches between ten or so teams.
Enthusiastic
In an article in the local weekly newspaper in March, 1959, Derek asked anyone interested in forming clubs to contact him. He received ten enthusiastic replies within a week. In June 1959, the Wolverhampton and District Sunday League held their first AGM and found they had 16 teams. The league was up and running!
First winners of the Wolverhampton Sunday League were Scotthorn Rovers, comprising of players from the Oxley and Goodyear clubs.
When the FA decided in 1960 to outlaw Sunday football no longer, the league really took off and grew year by year. At its height it boasted ten divisions. In 1997 there was a source of great pride for the league when Marston’s won the FA Sunday Cup, a competition for clubs throughout the country.
Thirty teams have won the top division, Marston’s heading the way with nine titles followed by Three Tuns and Eastfield Old Boys on four. Marston’s are the only club with a hat-trick of titles, achieved in the mid 1990s.
Foundation
The story of the league’s foundation is superbly told by Sunday League stalwart John Hughes in a book to mark the 60th anniversary. It is called ‘There’s Always Next Sunday’.
In addition to the story of the league, Hughes lists league tables for every season, the winners of the various cup competitions, the name of every club to have played and referees who have officiated in it over the years.
As well as a host of hard-working officials, the league has been helped by the support of people like Mullen and Jack Taylor, The latter, Wolverhampton’s most famous referee, who took charge of the 1974 World Cup final, was president of the Sunday League from 1968 to 1980.
As it enters its 61st year, the league may not boast the number of clubs it did at its peak but it still has seven divisions and will next season have veterans and women’s divisions. It is clearly in good health.
Proceeds from the sale of There’s Always Next Sunday, which costs £10, will go to the Beacon Centre for the Blind via the JW Hunt Cup charity competition. John is a member of the Cup’s committee.
Copies of the book can be obtained by contacting John on 07585 774131 or via johnc10utd@google