93rd Anniversary of Station Road opening

02 March 2022

Today,  2^nd March, marks the exact 93^rd Anniversary of the opening of our iconic Station Road ground back in 1929. 

On that historic occasion, Swinton, who were then reigning All-5-Cups holders, would face Wigan before a huge crowd in excess of 20,000. The game took place on a hard and frosty Station Road pitch, whilst the ground itself far from finished. The Townsend Road stand, which had been moved plank by plank from the Chorley Road ground still had a big gap in it, whilst the terraces were still in the process of being banked up with ashes from the Pendlebury coal field. But nevertheless it was an exciting and historic day in the history of the club, and those attending were about to witness a game that was befitting of the occasion.

The honour of scoring the ground’s first-ever points went to Martin Hodgson, who landed a huge penalty from nearly the half-way line. Martin added a second penalty just before half-time to leave Swinton 4-0 up at the break. But late in the second half, it would be a Wigan player who scored the stadium’s first try – the honour going to Roy Kinnear, son of the famous actor with the same name. There were only 5 minutes to go at this stage, but Wigan’s famous international full-back Jim Sullivan missed the potential match winning conversion. It was a costly miss by Sullivan, because with a couple of minutes left on the clock, the Lions’ winger Frank Buckingham jinked inside for a sensational try which shook the new ground to its rafters. Martin Hodgson added the extras and the Lions had won by 9 points to 3.