Groundtastic GT23 | Page 29

Rochdale Floodlights Five years on and more calamity for the main stand which suffered a fire and thus more patching up work. The same season saw floodlights installed at Spotland for the first time. The early sixties saw the Sandy Lane end covered as the result of the supporters raising the necessary £6,000. As a reward, the team became the first, and thus far only, bottom division club to reach a major domestic final when they took on Norwich City for the 1962 League Cup. Spotland hosted the first leg of the final in those pre-Wembley days and the Dale eventually went down 4-0 on aggregate. The third serious incident for the main stand came in 1966 when heavy snow caused the roof to collapse. Problems were never far away and, after again patching up the ailing stand, the club were forced to replace the floodlighting s