Jim's column 23.5.2020

Last week's article about Coventry City away kits generated a lot of interest and prompted a further question. Tom wanted to know about the all red change strip that was worn up to the summer of 1969 when the club introduced the popular green and black version.

Coventry City's 'change' kit, to be used on away grounds (only) if there was a colour clash with the home team, had traditionally been red. In the 1950s it was red with white sleeves, similar to the famous Arsenal kits, with white shorts but prior to Jimmy Hill arriving in 1961 it had been an all red shirt with white v-neck and white shorts. In 1962, at the same time as introducing the all-Sky Blue kit he introduced the all red 'change; kit. The shirt, which had a round neck and long sleeves, had no piping and was worn with identical coloured shorts and socks. Its first outing came in September at Colchester in a 0-0 draw and was worn on 14 occasions that season. It was a tremendous season that saw the Sky Blues reach the quarter finals of the FA Cup and only fail to gain promotion because of the heavy fixture congestion resulting from the Cup run and the worst winter of the twentieth century. Of those 14 away games the team lost only twice whilst wearing red, at Portsmouth in the League Cup and at Reading near the end of the season and was dubbed 'the lucky kit' by Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph.

                          The red away kit at Cardiff in 1967

The kit continued to be lucky for the team up until the 1967 promotion with more wins than losses notwithstanding some notable losses, at West Brom in the 1965 League Cup (6-1) and at Everton in the FA Cup that season (3-0). The luck ran out in the First Division when in the first two seasons there were only two away victories (at West Brom and QPR) out of thirteen outings for the red strip. The last time the red strip was worn was at Everton on 12th April 1969, a 3-0 defeat. After seven seasons the kit was consigned to the dustbin of history and I can never remember seeing a fan wear a replica version of the shirt.

                             'Gibbo' in red kit

Michael Harrington posed a good question recently. He asked about a game against Preston at Highfield Road in January 1950. City won 1-0 with a goal from Ted Roberts but Michael wanted to know if Bill Shankly, the future legendary manager of Liverpool played for Preston, and also if another future famous manager, Tommy Docherty, played for Preston, and if it could have been his league debut, replacing the great Tom Finney who was injured.

Preston had been relegated from the First Division the previous season and Shankly, who was 36 years old, retired from playing in March 1949 when he was given his first managerial appointment at Carlisle. The Preston Plumber, Tom Finney, was out injured at the time. Docherty played at right half but it wasn't his debut; he had been signed the previous year from Celtic (to replace Shankly) and was already a regular. Preston regained their top flight status the following season but Finney again missed the game at Highfield Road but did finally appear at the old stadium in early 1956 in a friendly. In what I think was Joe Elliott's first ever City game, Finney gave a stunning performance in a 4-1 victory, scoring two goals and mesmerising City's veteran left back Charlie Timmins so much that City's manager George Raynor switched the full-backs at half-time.

Tony Monaghan's memory isn't good. He remembers a day when City were away to Stoke in the late 60s or early 70s. He says: 'we travelled to Stoke on the day only to find the match was postponed on the morning due to snow. We spent a great day in the pub with Stoke supporters. Can you tell me when this was and what was the result when the match was eventually played?'

The postponed game was on 20th January 1973. I remember it well as I travelled up to Stoke with a friend and we heard the game was called off as we came off the M6 at the Stoke exit. We turned round and went home! At the time City were flying high and had beaten Orient 4-1 in the FA Cup the week before. The game was rescheduled for 26th March by which time City had lost to Wolves in the FA Cup Sixth round and were on a run of games that saw them lose 10 of their final eleven games. Colin Stein put City ahead after five minutes but John Ritchie (47) and Sean Haslegrave (64) gave Stoke a 2-1 win.

Thanks to Dean Nelson for picture