Coventry City's
excellent start to the season came to an end at Walsall's Bescot
Stadium last weekend but the result was overshadowed by the loss
through injury of 18-year old starlet James Maddison. As I write, it
looks like he is going to be out until the New Year in what is a
serious blow to the club's promotion hopes. Nevertheless, the team's
start to the season must be celebrated; I remind you that the
club's best ever winning start to a season, five in a row in 1964-65,
was followed by five successive defeats.
City have won their
first two home league games, something they last did in 2010-11 when
they beat Portsmouth (2-0) and Derby (2-1). You have to go back to
1989 for the last season that City won their first three home games.
Under John Sillett the Sky Blues beat Everton (2-0), Manchester City
(2-1) and Luton (1-0). Many of the 1987 Cup-winning side were still
regulars, supplemented by players such as David Smith, Gary Bannister and David Speedie and the Man City win pushed City briefly to the
top of the old Division One.
Like most City fans I
was delighted to hear that Callum Wilson had scored a hat-trick for
Bournemouth in their excellent 4-3 win at West Ham's Upton Park last
Saturday. It is clear that Callum is going to the very top in the
game and an England call-up must be on the horizon now with a big
money transfer not out of the question. Several people speculated
that it was the first Premier League hat-trick by a Coventry-born
footballer and I am confident that it was. However, despite what Sky
& much of the media would have us believe, football history
didn't start when the Premiership was born in 1992. Cov-born Bobby
Gould scored a top flight hat-trick for the Sky Blues against Burnley
in December 1967. Gould had started the club's inaugural season in
Division 1 on the substitute's bench but in the second game, at
Forest's City Ground, he came on for the unlucky George Curtis who
had suffered a broken leg after just four minutes. Gould scored twice
as City held the previous season's runners-up to a thrilling 3-3
draw. He managed a further two goals in six games before suffering an
injury at Newcastle. The injury kept him out for 11 games, of which
City won only one and slid to the foot of the table. Gould returned
for the home game with Burnley and no one could have expected the
outcome. Ronnie Rees gave City an early lead and just before
half-time Bobby smashed a 25-yard shot past Harry Thomson in the
visitor's goal. Two early second half goals completed a 19-minute
hat-trick for the returning striker with late goals from Burnley's
Andy Lochhead & Ernie Machin completing the scoring. The rout was
watched by 28,559, the second lowest crowd of that memorable season.
Bobby Gould completes his hat-trick in 1967
Talking of hat-tricks,
Dave Long read my piece last week about debutants scoring more than
one goal & thought I had missed out Jim Melrose. He remembered
Melrose scoring a hat-trick against Everton in a 4-2 win in 1982 but
it wasn't his first game in a City shirt. The Scot, signed from
Leicester in a swap deal involving Tom English, made his bow the
previous Saturday at St Andrews, where he failed to find the net in a
0-1 defeat. Two other City players made their debut at Birmingham,
Keith Thompson, brother of Garry, and Derek Hall, a young midfielder
who never appeared in the first team again. Melrose had a stunning
impact on arriving at the club – he followed up his hat-trick with
a goal at Manchester City a week later, and both goals in a 2-2 draw
at Fulham in the League Cup, to make it six goals in four games.
Sadly his scoring fizzled out after that and he only managed a
further four goals in 25 appearances.
John Coleman wanted to
know more about a friendly the Sky Blues played at Luton in 1971. The
game was played on the day of the fourth round of the FA Cup, as both
teams had been knocked out in round three (City losing at Rochdale).
City's boss Noel Cantwell and Luton manager Alec Stock got together
and organised the friendly at Kenilworth Road. City won the game 2-1
with goals from Billy Rafferty & Jim Ryan (own goal) in front of
7,154. Cantwell picked a side comprising mainly of first team players
along with several youngsters on the verge of the first team
including goalkeeper Eric McManus, Mick McGuire & Rafferty.
The line-up was:
McManus: Smith, Clements, Mortimer, Blockley, Parker, McGuire, Carr,
Joicey, O'Rourke, Rafferty. Jim Holmes substituted for Clements and
Colin Randell came on for McGuire.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment