The John Smith’s Stadium will be brightly illuminated for Huddersfield Town’s latest match.

But the first time Wigan Athletic visited, the lights were going out - not on.

The Latics, then of the Northern Premier League, arrived at Leeds Road for an FA Cup first-round tie on Saturday, November 24, 1973.

The match, which Town, then of Division Three (now League One) won 2-0, kicked off at 2.15 because the use of floodlights had been banned throughout Britain after Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath declared a state of emergency.

Video Loading

Had a replay been needed, it would have taken place the following Wednesday afternoon.

The crisis started in October 1973 when Arab states launched a surprise attack on Israel.

The war in the Middle East quadrupled oil prices and Arab countries reduced supplies to the West.

With the price of coal also rising and stocks dwindling, Britain’s miners rejected a pay increase and voted to ballot for a national strike.

On November 12, both miners and electricity workers began an overtime ban.

“Britain could survive high oil prices for a while. The country could survive a coal strike for a while,“ wrote Andrew Marr in his book A History Of Modern Britain.

“But both together added up to what the chancellor Anthony Barber called the greatest economic crisis since the war.”

Huddersfield Town v Wigan Athletic in 1973

The use of electricity for floodlighting, advertising and for the heating of shops, offices and restaurants was banned.

By staying neutral in the dispute between Israel and the Arab countries, Britain avoided the oil embargo that was imposed on the USA and Holland.

But the situation was serious enough.

The Post Office began to issue petrol coupons to car owners.

And in early December the government announced a new set of emergency measures, including a 50mph speed limit on all roads, a heating limit of 63F (17C) in office and commercial premises and a reduction in street lighting.

Britons had spells of living by candlelight as power cuts became a feature of everyday life.

On December 13, two days before Town were beaten 3-2 by Chester in the second round of the FA Cup, Heath urged the public to cut down to the “absolute minimum” the use of electricity in the home and ordered a 10.30pm shutdown for television except over the festive period, when Slade topped the ahcrts with Merry Christmas Everyone.

In a bid to further conserve power stocks, he also announced the imposition of a ‘three-day week’ from January 1 for all industries.

The measure ran until early March, by which time Labour formed a minority government under Huddersfield-born Town supporter Harold Wilson following a snap general election.

Heath, having refused to compromise on a seven per cent pay rise for miners, had wrongly believed the country would be in sympathy with him. But the man who had taken Britain into the European Cummunity was mistaken

Labour and the miners soon reached a deal to end a national strike which had begun on February 9.