The old attendance record at Old Trafford was set on March 25, 1939. This was for a FA Cup semifinal tie between Wolves and Grimsby Town.
As a relative newcomer to the history of the sport, I was a bit confused by this. Wolverhampton and Grimsby Town seem quite a hike away from Manchester. I wasn’t entirely certain why in the world this match, of all possible matches, had such a large attendance.
Well, there a few things to keep in mind.
First, Wolves had done quite well in the league the season before. They finished second, only a point behind Arsenal, to close out the 1937-38 season:
Manchester United, by the way, managed to earn promotion from the second division that season by finishing second. How different things were!
Wolves were also doing quite well so far in the 1938-39 season: 3 points out of first place with 9 to play.
It seems that there was also a general feeling that Wolves played an exciting brand of football:
Now, the coolest part about these old newspapers is that you can find copies of the afternoon editions the day of the match, which usually had abbreviated descriptions of the first half. They also included a few details about the crowd, such as this one:
The match was somewhat close until George Moulson’s collision 20 minutes into the first half, as described above. There was no substitution rule in those days, and so left back John Hodgson had to do his best in goal. And, well, his best wasn’t good enough:
As much as things have changed over the last 86 years, things are still quite familiar.
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