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1 Feb 2010

Scunthorpe United – Opening of Glanford Park

Author: Karl (footysphere) | Filed under: Stadiums


This is local news footage from back in August 1988 when Glanford Park, the new home of Scunthorpe United opened it’s doors to the public. According to the official Iron website the new ground brought “gasps of disbelief” from supporters. Costing £2.5m it was the first new football ground built in England since Southend United had moved to Roots Hall in 1955.

Glanford Park 1988

The inaugural match saw Scunthorpe, wearing a specially commisioned strip, take on a Football League XI. Kevin Keegan, who had started his career with Scunthorpe, guested for the Iron and his appearance prompted a boycott of the event by local Labour councillors protesting his coaching involvement in the then apartheid state of South Africa. The Football League XI included Peter Shilton, Peter Reid, Mike Phelan, Danny Wilson, Trevor Francis, Alan McInally and Mick Harford amongst others and ran out easy 5-1 winners.

Scunthorpe’s old stadium, the Old Showground had been the first in England to have a cantilever stand. Opened in 1958 it was demolished along with the rest of the ground when the club moved to Glanford Park. A supermarket was built on the site and a plaque was placed in front of the delicatessen counter to mark where the centre spot had been. Here’s an image of that stand, it doesn’t look like much but it’s a piece of English football history lost forever.

Old Show Ground - Scunthorpe

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About Karl (footysphere)

Author of Footysphere and supporter of Sheffield United. I do that twitter thing too.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Stadiums. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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