Jim's column 25.4.2020

I had lots of complimentary comments about my tributes to Ron Wylie and Peter Bonetti and then heard the sad news Norman Hunter, like Bonetti a member of the 1966 World Cup winning squad, had passed away, a victim of Covid-19. Leeds United legend Hunter played over 700 games for the Yorkshire club and was indisputably one of the finest defenders in the British post-war era. Along with Billy Bremner and Jack Charlton, Norman 'Bite Your Legs', formed the most famous half-back line in British football in the 1960s and 70s as Leeds, under manager Don Revie, rose from the backwaters of the Second Division to win two league titles and many other trophies in a glorious decade. Norman had an impressive record against the Sky Blues – he was only on the losing side to City on three occasions in 23 games between 1967 and 1977, the majority with Leeds but also a handful with Bristol City where he moved to in 1975. One of those defeats was a famous game at Highfield Road in 1971 when City recorded their first top flight victory over Leeds in nine meetings. City winger Quintin Young had the game of his life against the England full-back Terry Cooper and Willie Carr outshone his fellow Scot Bremner as goals from Chris Chilton, Ian St John and Ernie Hunt gave City a 3-1 win. Another famous game, against Bristol City in 1977, saw Norman come face to face with his old Elland Road mate, Terry Yorath, as the two sides battled it out to avoid a relegation spot. In front of almost 37,000 Hunter inspired Bristol to draw level from 2-0 down before the news of Sunderland's defeat at Goodison Park came through. With both sides realising that the draw was enough to keep both sides up, the experienced Hunter and Yorath instructed their players to stop playing and the Bristol back four passed the ball amongst themselves. Norman won 28 England caps and but for Bobby Moore would have won 100 plus caps. In October 1973 Norman was finally preferred to Moore for the vital World Cup qualifier against Poland at Wembley. For a man who rarely made a defensive mistake it was ironic that his error that led to Poland's goal that night and although the game ended 1-1 England were denied a place at the 1974 World Cup finals.

Steve Pittam has been a City fan for over 60 years and was one of the 'famous 50' fans who travelled to Plovdiv for the Sky Blues' European debut in 1970. He has lived in Dubai for many years but still gets to watch a handful of City games each season. In the light of the current situation Steve was thinking about 1939 when war broke out and disrupted the football season. He was interested to know the background to that season and what happened.

Talk of war had been on everyone's lips since the spring of 1939 as Hitler's power and ambitions grew. City had finished fourth in Division Two in 1938-39 missing out on promotion by just four points and they were one of the pre-season favourites to go up. George Lowrie, a young but promising centre-forward had been signed from Preston in the close season and manager Harry Storer expected him to make a big impact.

The season started on 12 August with the traditional public trial match and 4,058 watched the Stripes beat the Reds 6-5 with the 19-year old Lowrie scoring a hat-trick for the first team. This game saw the appearance for the first time at the ground of numbers on players’ shirts. A week later Lowrie scored the winning goal as City beat Birmingham 3-2 in the Football League Jubilee Fund friendly match in front of 7,979.

On 26 August, with Hitler’s Panzer divisions on the verge of invading Poland, City opened the league campaign with a 1-1 draw at Burnley. On Monday 28 August 1939 only 18,500 turned up for the first home game of the season, a derby against West Brom. Tommy Green scored twice in a thrilling game in which the Bantams threw away a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3. Many supporters already believed war was inevitable and that football, as a result, was insignificant, and stayed away. On Friday 1 September the evacuation of children from London commenced but it was announced that the fixtures for the following day would go ahead as planned and City defeated Barnsley 4-2 at home with Lowrie marking his league debut with a goal in front of only 11,611- people’s minds were elsewhere and gates all over the country were low. The next day war was declared on Hitler’s Germany and all competitive league football was immediately suspended. It would be six years before it would restart at Highfield Road.

The Coventry board did not waste time in reacting to the outbreak of hostilities. Two days after Neville Chamberlain’s fateful radio broadcast all playing contracts were cancelled and the players and the majority of the staff were paid a week’s money. Only three people were retained: manager Harry Storer, secretary Bernard Hitchiner and groundsman Austin – all three accepted a 50% cut in wages. Amongst the staff paid off were Chief Scout Dick Bayliss and trainers Dick Hill, Leslie Bruton and Arthur Fitton.

The outbreak of hostilities could have not come at a worse time for the club. Despite a healthy bank balance in the spring of 1939 summer wages of around £3000 had been paid out in addition to £1750 for the signing of Lowrie and £1300 on ground improvements. There was a tax bill of around £1000 due in early 1940 and normally the takings from three home games would cover that sum. The pitifully low crowds for the first two home games put a spoke in those wheels and the club were in dire trouble. They owed Sir John Siddeley almost £20,000, having bought the freehold of the ground from him two years earlier. He agreed to a two-year suspension of capital payments but with no income and some fixed costs the club were in serious financial difficulty and had to inform the Football League that it could not meet its commitments.

By mid-September the FA announced that regional friendly matches could be played but no player could be paid, as all contracts had been cancelled and any receipts from these games had to be donated to charity. City played six friendlies on successive Saturdays but attendances were restricted by the Home Office to just 8,000 and City's two home friendlies against Leicester and Wolves were watched by less than this. In October a regional competition was commenced with players being paid 30 shillings (£1.50) per game. Season ticket holders were given the choice of using their tickets for the wartime competition or returning them to the club with a guarantee that when normal football resumed they would get a free ticket.

City’s first game in the new competition on October 21 was a 1-1 draw at Northampton and in the first home game the following Saturday they trounced West Brom 6-3. Several of the players who had appeared in pre-war games had gone off to war but City were able to put out a strong side in the subsequent competition. The club normally issued team sheets for their home games with a typical print run of 1000.

Between October 1939 & the final game on June 8 1940 the Bantams played 28 league games, finishing third in their section, and five Cup games. The public’s reaction to these quasi-friendly games was fairly apathetic with City’s home gates ranging from 1,212 versus Leicester on a foggy Saturday before Christmas, to 8,713 who watched a 5-2 win over the mighty Wolves in May. The winter was a severe one which did nothing to encourage venturing out to watch the game. For six weeks there was little or no football in the whole country with January 27 seeing temperatures the coldest recorded since 1894. The highlight of that first wartime campaign however was a 10-2 win over Luton Town on Easter Monday. Tom Crawley scored eight goals, a club record, including three in three minutes just before half-time. The final four games were played in front of crowds of less than 1,500 and the low gates are not surprising considering that the British Army was in the process of being evacuated from Dunkirk as Hitler’s army forced them to retreat to the French coast.

Finally, Steve asked me to mention the passing of City fan John Howard. Two years ago John had to miss the away game at Cheltenham as he was in the George Eliott hospital having surgery for bowel cancer. This was the first City game home or away that he had missed in over 20 years, including all cup ties. Over the last 2 years he had still managed to get to all City games despite his cancer treatment, including the FA Cup replay at Ipswich, only missing the last 3-4 away games. Three weeks ago he sadly passed away at Myton Hospice. Although based in Coventry, he worked near Weston-super-Mare during the week, travelling to all midweek games from there; Steve remembers meeting him at Scunthorpe the night that Reda Johnson got sent off when we were winning 1-0 - a bit of a journey but such dedication. RIP John.