Jim's column 23.11.2019

Ipswich Town's victory over Lincoln City in the FA Cup First Round replay means that the Tractor Boys will be at St Andrews to face the Sky Blues next Sunday in the Second Round. Whilst the clubs have met many times in the league and League Cup they have never met in the FA Cup before. It means that the clubs will meet twice in six days at St Andrews as the Suffolk club are due to face the Sky Blues in a league game on the following Saturday.

The obvious question arose, when did City last play the same club at home on successive weekends? The answer is January 1947 when City were drawn against Newport County in the Third round of the FA Cup, a week before the club's Second Division clash at Highfield Road. Newport were having a nightmare season and would eventually be relegated having conceded 133 goals and City were comprehensive winners of both games. A 5-2 victory in the Cup-tie saw George Lowrie score a hat-trick with other goals from Ted Roberts and George Ashall. Seven days later City went goal-mad winning 6-0 with Lowrie getting another hat-trick and Roberts (2) and Ashall also on the score-sheet again. City travelled to Division Two leaders Burnley in Round Four and lost 0-2 to a team that would reach the final at Wembley in May.

There is another occurrence of successive home games against the same club: on 26th October 1959 City played Southend in a Southern Floodlit Cup replay (a competition which pre-dated the League Cup), having drawn at Southend the previous week. City won 4-0 with goals from Ken Simcoe (2), Brian Nicholas and Alan Daley. Five days later Southend were back at Highfield Road for a league game and this time the Bantams won 2-0 with goals from Ray Straw and Ken Satchwell. This was the fifth year that the Southern Floodlit Cup was played for but only the second season that City had entered. It was somewhat of a 'Cinderella' competition but all the league sides in London and the South entered and put out strong teams. After defeating Southend, City beat First Division Fulham and Southampton to reach the final against West Ham who were defeated 2-1 at Highfield Road in front of almost 17,000.

There are some other examples of several games against the same club in a short space of time. In 1986 City played Liverpool three times in eight days with two League Cup games and a league game at Anfield in between. In 1932 City faced Reading four times in 17 days with an away league game and an FA Cup tie that went to three games including a second replay at Stamford

Talking of Ipswich Town, long distance City fan Colin Heys asked me about a Coventry City game against Ipswich in 1982. He has acquired a single-sheet programme for the game played at Highfield Road and wondered why a full programme wasn't issued.

The Sky Blues had been due to play Ipswich on 14th November but the game was postponed because of World Cup qualifying games. It was rearranged for a midweek game (26th February). On Friday 15th January, as snow and ice hit the country, City's scheduled game at Old Trafford was called off because of a frozen pitch. City chairman Jimmy Hill moved quickly and suggested to Ipswich manager Bobby Robson that City could play Ipswich on a frost-free Highfield Road the following day. Bobby agreed and the game went ahead at short notice. There was no time to print a full programme but enough time to get BBC Match of Day cameras there. Sadly City blew a good chance of beating the league leaders and threw away a 2-1 lead, conceding three goals in the last nine minutes. There were only another four games played in Division 1 that day plus 15 or so in other divisions. John Wark scored first for Ipswich but with nine minutes left City led through goals from Steve Hunt and Gerry Daly. As City wilted goals from Arnold Muhren, Paul Mariner and Alan Brazil sealed the win for the Tractor Boys.

City's line up was: Blyth: Thomas, Barnes, Francis (sub Hormantschuk), Dyson, Gillespie, Bodak, Daly, Hateley, Hendrie, Hunt. The attendance was 11,578.

Jim's column 16.11.2019

It is with great sadness that I report the death this week of former City player Peter Wyer at the age of 82. Born in Coventry in 1937, Pete attended Christ the King school in Coundon and shone with Coventry Schoolboys. He played part-time football with Coventry Amateurs and Atherstone and was doing an apprenticeship when he he impressed City's management in a private trial game in 1955. After some excellent performances for the 'A' team and reserves he was given his debut by manager Jesse Carver as a second half substitute in a friendly against Sheffield United at Highfield Road. He scored City's second goal in the 3-2 defeat and five days later he was given a starting position at Crystal Palace as City had injury problems. They lost 3-0 at Palace and he was back in the reserve team the following week.

                                                                 Peter is his playing days 

He was a skilful inside-forward who could also play wide, but failed to impress and was released in the summer of 1956 without playing another first team game. He joined Derby County where former City boss Harry Storer was manager and made two appearances for the Rams in two seasons, scoring one goal, before Billy Frith re-signed him for Coventry in 1958. Despite his enthusiasm Peter got few opportunities and played only four games in City’s Fourth Division promotion season. In 1959 he joined Nuneaton Borough and later played for Rugby Town. He was a regular visitor at the Ricoh until last year and was also an enthusiastic member of the Former Players Association from the start. His health had declined over the past couple of years, he suffered with dementia, and had to leave last year's Legends Day after being taken ill.

                                                              Peter at 2017 Legends Day

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about City's Winston Churchill Trophy game against Fulham in 1965, played on the same day as the great statesman's funeral. Roger Hillier has reminded me that the trophy was played for again the following season against Northampton Town in a game which doubled as a testimonial game for long serving City stalwarts George Curtis and Mick Kearns. The game took place on Tuesday 10th May 1966, the night after Southampton, by drawing 1-1 at Leyton Orient, clinched promotion and consigned the Sky Blues to third place in Division Two.

The Cobblers had just been relegated from the First Division after their one and only season in the top flight. A crowd of 13,576 raised almost £3,000 for the players' testimonial fund and the game ended 2-2. Peter Denton and Ray Pointer gave City a two-goal lead in the first half but Northampton came back in the second half with goals from Billy Best and Jim Hall. George Hudson, who had signed for Northampton two months previously, played but was hampered by an injury sustained in their final league game. A four-page programme was issued for the game.

City's line up was: Glazier: Kearns, Hill: Bruck, Curtis, Farmer: Denton, Machin, Gould, Pointer, Clements. Dudley Roberts substituted for the injured Denton at half-time.

Kyle Walker's appearance in the goalkeeper's jersey for Manchester City in their Champions League game against Atalanta last week prompted City fans to ask when City last had an outfield player go 'between the sticks'. It was more common in the days before multiple substitutes and there wasn't a goalkeeper on the bench to replace an injured custodian. The last time the Sky Blues had an outfield player in the 'keeper's jersey was in a home game against Stoke in 2005 when Stephen Hughes had to go in goal after Ian Bennett received a red card just after half-time. Manager Micky Adams had a habit of not including a goalie on the bench and it almost backfired on him that day. Hughes however made a number of excellent saves and City got a 0-0 draw.

You have to go back 30 years for the previous occurrence – at Millwall in 1989 – when Steve Ogrizovic was injured and had to go off at half-time with City losing 3-0. There were two subs allowed in those days and City's were outfield players Dougie McGuire and Kevin Macdonald. Macdonald came on and David Speedie went in goal. David Smith pulled a goal back and 'Speedo' kept Millwall at bay until the 89th minute when Ian Dawes beat him with a corker from 25 yards.

I believe there were seven other instances since the war of outfield players going in goal including Bobby McDonald, John Craven, Ronnie Rees, George Lowrie and Roy Kirk (who did it three times!). Older City fans will remember Rees's appearance in goal, at Maine Road in 1965 when Bill Glazier broke his leg. Rees took over with City losing 1-0 but he kept a clean sheet and Ken Hale popped up to score an equaliser.

Jim's column 9.11.2019

Max Biamou had an interesting week. Despite receiving a red card on Saturday for a bad challenge against Accrington on Saturday the club circumvented the rules to play him in the EFL trophy game against Southampton on Tuesday evening. The three-game suspension for the red card was temporarily forgotten as the French striker scored a hat trick to virtually guarantee the club’s place in the knockout stages of the competition. Let’s hope those stages generate bigger crowds for a competition that is really struggling to attract the fans. The crowd at St Andrews on a bitterly cold Tuesday was only 375, the smallest for a competitive home game since 1900, although I did find a crowd of 306 at Highfield Road in November 1940 for a War League game which was strictly speaking not a competitive game.

Max is the first Coventry City player to score a hat trick in a Cup competition since Gary McSheffrey netted three in a 8-0 home victory over Rushden and Diamonds in the League Cup in 2002-03. Since 2000 there have been only ten Sky Blue hat tricks, as follows:

2000-01. John Aloisi v Preston (h) League Cup

2001-02. Lee Hughes v Crewe (a)

2002-03. Gary McSheffrey v Rushden (h) League Cup

2009-10. Freddy Eastwood v Peterborough (h)

2015-16. Jacob Murphy v Gillingham (h)

2015-16. Adam Armstrong v Crewe (a)

2017-18. Jodi Jones v Notts County (h)

2017-18. Marc McNulty v Grimsby (h)

2017-18. Marc McNulty v Cheltenham (a)

2019-20. Max Biamou v Southampton (h) EFL Trophy

Older City fans may remember Robert (Bob) Dobbing, a full-back who was a regular in the reserve team between 1967-69 but never quite made the first team. Sunderland-born Dobbing joined City straight from school and played in the same youth team as Willie Carr, Jeff Blockley and Trevor Gould. After emigrating to Australia in the 70s he was chosen to represent Australia but broke his leg before the game. He lives in Melbourne but still has family in the North East and they have been in touch with the bad news that Robert has prostate cancer. He had an operation this week and everybody is hoping that he has a successful outcome. CCFPA have sourced a 1960s style City shirt for him and that is winging its way to him in Australia.

                                                         Bob Dobbing with son Steven and daughter Natasha

Jim's column 2.11.2019

What a blow for the Sky Blues to concede that added-time equaliser at Peterborough last weekend. Max Biamou's stunning 86th minute bicycle kick appeared to have clinched a deserved three points but Muhammed Eisa squeezed home a 95th minute leveller. City fan John Baker, who lives in the Peterborough area, pointed out that Posh have scored late goals on City's last three visits to London Road. Last season Louis Reed scored a consolation goal for Posh in the 97th minute and in December 2016 Michael Bostwick scored a Posh equaliser in the 93rd minute after City had led for over 70 minutes with a Jordan Willis goal. It was an excellent game and in the tradition of the games between the two clubs going back to 1961 when a rampant Posh, managed by former City boss Jack Fairbrother, won 3-1 at Highfield Road. Since then the Sky Blues have the edge over their rivals and haven't lost at home to Posh in 11 games since then.

Last week's home win over Fleetwood was the third time in five games that the team have come from behind to win at home, a remarkable achievement. Before the Blackpool game this season the team had failed to recover from a deficit in a home league game since April 2016 – a total of 74 games. City's record of coming back from a losing position isn't great and three is the most in a season since 2012-13 when coincidentally Mark Robins was also in charge – he took the Sky Blues to comebacks in three games (Walsall at home and Stevenage and MK Dons away) whilst Steven Pressley had taken over by the time the team made it four for the season. The best record in the modern era was in 1977-78 when Gordon Milne's team came from behind to win on six occasions on their way to finishing seventh in the old First Division.

Roger Hillier wrote to me asking about City's games in the Winston Churchill Remembrance Trophy. The friendly trophy was initiated in 1965 and a game between City and Fulham was played on the day of Churchill's funeral, 30th January. There was no game the following season but in March 1967 West Ham came to Highfield Road for a friendly game and the trophy was again on offer. West Ham won on penalties (City's very first penalty shoot-out) after a 3-3 draw. Roger believes that this was the first time a penalty competition settled a game in England.

Roger was interested in the Fulham game and I was able to give him some details of the game. Fulham, then a First Division side, brought a strong team and included internationals Johnny Haynes, George Cohen and Bobby Robson, and a young Rodney Marsh. George Hudson gave the Sky Blues a 34th minute lead which they held until 13 minutes from time when John Key, later to join City and be part of the 1967 promotion team, scored an equaliser. Five minutes from time Scottish international Graham Leggatt scored the winning goal and after the game City chairman Derrick Robins presented the trophy to former England captain Haynes. The attendance on a very cold day was 10,881.