In October 1936 Coventry City paid
Wolves a club record £3,000 for Jackie Brown. City, newly promoted
to Division Two, had lost their star right-winger George McNestry
with a bad ankle injury and manager Harry Storer persuaded the
directors to sign as his replacement the 21-year old Irish
international who was struggling to hold a regular place at Molineux.
Brown quickly became a massive favourite with the Highfield Road fans
and topped the goalscoring lists with 13 goals in both 1936-37 and
1937-38 as City almost reached the First Division for the first time.
However, in September 1938, he was abruptly sold to Birmingham for
£3,000 and at the time it was reported in the local press that he
had been involved in 'an unsavoury incident at a local ballroom'.
City historians, including myself, have always assumed a salacious
story, possibly involving a female, behind his sudden departure.
Brown played for Blues up until the outbreak of war the following
year and after the war he played for Barry Town and Ipswich before
retiring in 1951.
A new book published at the end of
last year throws more light on Jackie (or as his family called him,
Johnny) Brown. The author, Michael Walker, the great nephew of Brown,
has done extensive research into his relative and has discovered a
possible reason for his sudden move. Early in September 1938 the
Midland Daily Telegraph (the fore-runner of this newspaper) reported
on disturbances in Coventry city centre. There were headlines such
as: '300 Irishmen in Street Fight'; 'Fierce Clash of Coventry Gangs'.
It said trouble had occurred outside 'a dance hall' in Ford Street
and it was not the first of its kind. The author leaves the question
of Brown's departure open but it is a fascinating theory. Did the
club unload Brown because of his involvement in the trouble? Another
interesting coincidence is that in 1946 with football beginning to
re-organise itself following the hostilities, Birmingham, who had
retained Brown through the course of the war, made the winger
available for transfer and he signed for Southern League Barry Town.
The Blues manager responsible for the decision was – Harry Storer,
the man who had bought and sold him for City.
The book, entitled 'Green Shoots',
is the inside story of Irish football and blends original research,
travel writing and interviews with many of the significant characters
in Irish football, both north and south of the border. There are
wonderful vignettes on numerous famous and not so famous Irish
footballers. The piece on Peter Doherty, until George Best the best
Irish footballer of all time, who later managed Northern Ireland to
the quarter-finals of the 1958 World Cup, is delightful. The
lesser-known Alan McLoughlin's story is equally intriguing. Born in
Manchester to an Irish mother, McLoughlin received two letters in the
same post delivery, one from the FA telling him he had been selected
for England 'B' to play Ireland 'B', the other from the Irish FA
telling him he had been picked for Ireland 'B' to play England 'B'.
Alan had to choose which country's invitation to take up. There are
many other fascinating stories
I thoroughly recommend this
excellent book about Irish football which is thoroughly researched,
passionate and funny.
The Sky Blues had an excellent
holiday period with three wins out of four which lifted them into
third place in League Two following the New Years Day game. It may be
a surprise to discover that it is the highest league position that
the club has been on New Years Day since 1967 when, of course, the
team won promotion to Division One. It is one place higher than Tony
Mowbray's side were placed two years ago following a 5-0 win at
Crewe. Mowbray's team had been higher (up to first in November 2015)
but went downhill after the Crewe game.
Today the Sky Blues are in FA Cup
Third round action for the first time since 2014. They face higher
status opposition, in the form of Stoke City, for the first time
since they travelled to the Emirates Stadium and lost 4-0 to Arsenal
in 2014. Since they were relegated from the Premier League in 2001
they have faced higher status opposition on eleven occasions and
progressed just three times: Blackburn (twice, in 2008 & 2009)
and Barnsley (2014), although they did take Middlesbrough (2006) and
Portsmouth (2010) to replays. There are however three divisions
between City and Stoke and a Sky Blue victory today would qualify as
the club's biggest ever shock result – bigger than in 1910 when
City, then a Southern League club, knocked First Division Preston and
Nottingham Forest out of the competition on their way to the
quarter-final. There are 53 places between City and the Potters and
in those terms the biggest giant-killing act I can find was in 2008
when City won 4-1 at Premier League Blackburn when there were 28
places between the clubs. Blackburn's manager that Day was Mark
Hughes.
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we have been down there good luck fwaw
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