Colchester United
turned up at the Ricoh Arena on Tuesday evening sporting a fetching
fluorescent orange kit which certainly dazzled Tony Mowbray's team.
As usual when City's home performances struggle to get above the
mediocre the talk around me in the East Stand turns to the past. The
Woodfield brothers (both City supporters from the early 1960s)
discussed the colour of the visitor's shirts which reminded John
Woodfield of the shirts worn by Scottish club Morton in a friendly at
Highfield Road in 1967. He thought the Scots played in a similar
orange kit but brother Richard remembered it as a more redder hue but
still very fluorescent. It was not uncommon, in the early days of
floodlights for teams to wear a more silky version of their normal
kits as they glowed brightly under the lights. I remember reading
about Wolves' famous floodlit friendlies against top European sides
at Molineux in the 1950s when they wore a specially commissioned
silky shirt and shorts.
The discussion about
Morton reminded me that Steve Bell had asked me recently about the
friendly games against the Scottish club in the 1960s and I was able
to provide him with details. At the time Morton were a very go-ahead
and innovative club and were referred to as the Scottish Sky Blues.
The clubs agreed to play a friendly at Highfield Road in October 1964
and a crowd of 17,029 watched a 2-2 draw with City's goals scored by
John Mitten and George Hudson. The crowd was larger than expected due
to the first home appearance of new goalkeeper Bill Glazier, a record
£35,000 signing from Crystal Palace. Five months later the return
took place at Cappielow Park, Greenock and the Scots ran out 3-1
winners, Dave Clements netting City's goal.
Two years later, in
November 1966, Morton returned to Highfield Road (probably the
occasion of their fluorescent shirts) and City got a sort of revenge,
winning 3-2. With several injuries and a massive game at Wolves on
the following Saturday, City manager Jimmy Hill gave run outs to
several youngsters including goalkeeper Peter Thomas, defenders Mick
Coop and John Burckitt, and forwards Willie Carr and Trevor Shepherd.
Three days earlier rebel forward Ian Gibson had been recalled to the
side after a seven-week absence following a fall-out with JH and had
been man of the match with two goals in a 3-2 victory over Cardiff.
He starred again against Morton and inspired the victory with the
goals coming from Ronnie Rees, Bobby Gould and Shepherd. Carr came on
as a substitute at half-time, the first of many appearances in a Sky
Blue shirt, and impressed many of the 4,098 crowd.
Following the game at
Peterborough on Friday night fellow historian Paul O'Connor reminded
me that the loss was City's 100th away defeat in the
Football League. In the 90 seasons since the club joined the league
in 1919 their away record is:-
Played Won Drawn Lost Goals
-for Goals – against
1921 410 511 1000 2039 3406
Finally, I had an
interesting request from Margaret Crabtree this week. She was a
member of the Coventry Bantams Ladies XI in 1968 and asked if I could
help track down some of her former teammates.
She can name some of
her teammates on the photo and has attempted to trace some of the
other players at various times with limited success. These are the
sketchy details she has:-
Back
Row (Left to Right)
Susan
Dunning (now Smith) - lived at 38
Standard Avenue,
Janet Chadwick, Lesley ? – lived in Standard Avenue, Frances C.
O'Neill - (Married Don Peachey (CCFC youth team player) and emigrated
to Australia. Margaret Key (now Crabtree) – Lives in
Nuneaton.
Middle
Row (Left to Right)
Pauline
M. McNally – (Married Tom Sinclair (CCFC youth team player &
friend of Alan Dugdale), Anne ?, Janet ? (Drove a sky blue
dormobile to matches), Anne’s sister, Maureen ?
Front
Row (Left to Right)
Avril
(Parham?), Liz ?, Terri ?, Sandra ? – (Used to live in Sadler
Road)
If you are
in the photograph or know any of the ladies team please send Margaret
an email at
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment