Jim's column 24.10.2020

 Jordan Shipley's superb finish for City's goal against Swansea on Tuesday night ensured he joined an elite group of players to have scored in three different divisions for the club. The Leamington lad 's instinctive shot went in off the post to give the Sky Blues an early lead which was later pegged back by Andre Ayew, reputedly one of the highest paid players in the Championship.

Jordan, by my reckoning, became the twelfth City player to achieve the feat including some who scored goals in the old regional Third Divisions which preceded Divisions Three and Four before 1958. The first to achieve it was Fred 'Cute' Herbert who netted in Division Two in 1924-25, in Division Three North in 1925-26 and in Three South in 1926-27 when the club was switched that season. Coventrian Herbert was a one-club man who scored 86 goals in 199 league and cup games between 1922-29.

Ray Straw, was another prolific centre-forward who netted 74 goals in Division Three South, Four and Three between 1957-1961. Ronnie Farmer scored goals in Divisions Four, Three and Two between 1958-1967. Brian Hill only managed seven league goals in 284 games but managed to score in Division Three South in 1957-58 as well as Divisions Three and One, the latter a stunning goal at Fulham in 1968.

Hill was one of several players who achieved the feat during City's rise through the divisions under Jimmy Hill including George Curtis, Mick Kearns, Dietmar Bruck, Ernie Machin and Ronnie Rees.

More recently Michael Doyle added to the 22 goals he scored in the Championship between 2003-11 with two goals in League Two and a single goal in League One.

The top honour however goes to Peter Hill, another one-club man who later became trainer under Jimmy Hill. Peter, a winger or inside-forward, made his debut as a 17-year-old in Division Two in 1948 and scored two goals in 14 games at that level. A further 46 goals came between 1952-58 in Division Three South. In 1958-59 he six goals in Division Four and 20 goals in three seasons in Division Three before hanging up his boots. Thus he scored for the club in four different divisions for the club. The full list is as follows:

	Div 1	Div 2 (C)	Div 3 (L1)	Div 4 (L2)	Div 3S	Div 3N	Total
Fred Herbert	-	19	-	-	41	22	72
Peter Hill	-	2	20	6	46	-	74
Ray Straw	-	-	37	27	14	-	78
Brian Hill	1	-	5	-	1	-	7
George Curtis	2	8	1	-	-	-	11
Ron Farmer	-	14	22	1	-	-	37
Mick Kearns	-	3	9	2	-	-	14
Dietmar Bruck	1	5	1	-	-	-	7
Ronnie Rees	8	17	17	-	-	-	42
Ernie Machin	11	19	3	-	-	-	33
Michael Doyle	-	20	1	3	-	-	24
Jordan Shipley	-	1	8	4	-	-	13

The 1964 team picture has seven of the twelve players in it.

Only two current City players can emulate the twelve; Max Biamou and Jodi Jones have both scored at League Two and One levels.

City failed to improve on their poor record at Brentford last week. Making their first visit to the Bees' new stadium they lost 2-0, and have now won only two of their last ten trips to Brentford. Ivan Toney has had an excellent start to the season for them and could be on his way to being Brentford's latest multi million pound sale. He didn't have a particularly good record against the Sky Blues (one goal in four previous games) but scored both goals – the first player to score a brace against City for over a year when Rotherham's Matt Crooks and Michael Smith scored two each in the 4-0 hammering last October.

Jim's Column 17.10.2020

 Coventry City travel to West London today to play Brentford at their new stadium and renew old rivalries with the Bees. Although the clubs met regularly in the late 1950s and early 1960s and briefly in 2012-14 today's meeting is the first in tier 2 of the Football pyramid since 1952. Brentford were a First Division side in the late 1930s but were relegated from the top flight in the first post-war season and played City for five seasons in Division Two. The last meetings at that level were in 1951-52 and the home side prevailed in both games. The Bees, who fielded future City manager Jimmy Hill and future England boss Ron Greenwood, won 1-0 at Griffin Park thanks to an early Fred Monk goal. In the return near the end of March City lifted themselves out of the relegation places by winning 2-1, George Lowrie and Eddie Brown netting and Billy Dare scoring a consolation goal for Brentford in front of 27,577. It was a false dawn for the Bantams as City slipped back into the bottom two and were relegated with Brentford finishing ninth.

Bob Weeks asked for some help identifying some players in pre-war City autograph albums he had acquired. The players, none of whom had appeared for the first team were: A Halliwell, C McDonagh, J Haver, J Kyle and E Lammas. Fellow City historian Mike Young was able to help Bob with all of the players identified as follows:

Andrew Denis Halliwell (goalkeeper) was born in Warwick 11.7.1912.He signed for City as amateur in 1932 having previously played for Kenilworth St. Johns. He turned professional in September 1933 and was a regular reserve team player for the next two years. He made one senior appearance in the home friendly v FC Austria in December 1935. Later that month he was transferred to Leicester City and was at Filbert Street for at least two years without playing for the first team. He died 1981.

Charles (Charlie) McDonagh (half-back) was born in Mansfield 11.11.1913. He signed for City in 1931 as an amateur after playing for a local church team in Mansfield. He failed to make the first team and moved first to Southampton in 1933 and later to Bournemouth 1933 withput playing first team football. After a short spell at Kidderminster Harriers he was back at Coventry in April 1934 and was briefly a regular for reserves. In 1935 he moved to Cardiff City for whom he made two appearances. According to the 1939 census he was back in Mansfield working as a colliery fitter.

James (Jim) Haver (centre-half) was born 25.1.1920. When he signed for City in December 1937 it was reported that he 'hailed' from Barnby Dun, near Doncaster, but originally came from Lentz Colliery village, Durham. Between 1937 and 1939 he played for City's 'A' team. He was released by City in 1939 and described as 'unemployed professional footballer' in 1939 census. He died in 2002.

Joseph 'Joe' Kyle (inside-forward) was born in Scotland c.1919. He was signed from Scottish junior club Blantyre Victoria in the summer of 1937 and played for the club's 'A' team in 1937-38.

Eric Lammas (outside-right) was born in Bromsgrove in 1920. He was awarded a professional contract by City in December 1937 and played for City's 'A' team 1937-39.

Haver and Lammas are in the Coventry City squad picture taken before the kick-off of the 1938-39 season.

 There were 33 professionals in the club at the time and there were high hopes of winning promotion that season after the club had missed out by one point the previous season. After a slow start the team hit form over the winter months and were well placed in third place at the end of January but only two wins from the final five games saw them finish fourth for the second successive season and it would be another 28 years before City finally reached the top flight for the first time.

Jim's Column 10.10.2020

 Coventry City's remarkable 15-game unbeaten home record came to a shuddering halt at St Andrews last Friday night as newly-relegated Bournemouth took home the points with a 3-1 win. The Cherries became the first team to lower City's flag since Tranmere flukily took the points with a late goal almost a year ago. The expensive Bournemouth side did look a notch above City but the Sky Blues didn't help themselves with several players below par and Gus Hamer's red card ending any hope of a comeback.

The 15-game run was in all games and included the FA Cup replay with Birmingham which statisticians usually count as a draw, and was the club's best run since the late seventies. Then, arguably City's best ever team went 16 games unbeaten from March 1978 (a 2-3 home defeat to Villa) until Tottenham won 3-1 at Highfield Road the following February. The club record stands at 19, set in the Division Three North season in 1925-26 and equalled in 1962-63.

Last week I discovered that former Coventry City player Tony Pounder died in 2019. Tony, a right winger, only made six first team appearances for the club, in 1957, after signing from Luton Town, and by December the same year he was transferred to Crewe Alexandra.

Born in Sheffield in 1935 Tony was playing for Sheffield side Atlas FC and attracting the interest of both Sheffield clubs but it was Luton, then a First Division side, who nipped in to sign him in December 1955. He made 19 appearances for the Hatters reserve team that season and scored five goals. He made his First Division debut in an end of season win over Portsmouth. In 1956-57 he again was a regular for the reserves, playing 27 games and scoring eight goals and got two more first team games near the end of the season.

When he was surprisingly given a free transfer in the close season of 1957 City boss Harry Warren signed him for City. At the time he was described as 'lacking a little in experience but a fast go-ahead winger, who likes the ball in front of him'.

He made his bow at Highfield Road in the club's public trial annually held on the Saturday before the league season started. He played for the Reds (the reserves) and was described as 'the best forward on the pitch', scoring the Reds goal in the 40th minute. Nemo wrote, 'his speed, ball control and pin point crossing of a ball looked good, and there were times when he had the first team defenders in a sorry tangle'.

A week later and with regular right-winger Peter Hill injured Tony got his chance in the first team against Reading at home. City won 1-0 but Nemo reported that Pounder missed an easy chance and 'is not quite ready for Third Division football'. Five days later at Newport Tony scored 'with a cool finish' in a 2-2 draw and halfway through the second half scored what looked to be the winning goal with a 'glorious shot' but City centre-forward Ken McPherson was adjudged to have been offside. Unfortunately this was to prove the high point of Tony's career at the club.

                           Pounder in his Luton Days

The following Saturday Tony was in the City team beaten 4-0 at Northampton and lost his place. He was recalled a week later for a 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth and a 2-0 defeat at Crystal Palace which left City bottom but one in the table. Before September was over manager Warren was sacked and Billy Frith stepped up from youth coach to take over as the boss, for the second time having previously managed between 1947-49. Frith only selected Tony once for the first team – in a 0-0 home draw with Southampton in early October and before Christmas he was transferred to Crewe for a 'small fee'.

He went straight into Crewe's Division Three North team and over the next eighteen months made 31 appearances scoring five goals but couldn't stop Crewe finishing rock bottom of the Northern Section in 1958. 1958-59 was the season when the two sections of Division Three merged with the top 12 teams in each section going into the new Division Three and the bottom 12 forming Division Four. Billy Frith couldn't save Coventry from the ignominy of being in the new Division Four and in October 1958 City travelled to Crewe's Gresty Road and faced Pounder and another ex-City man Martin McDonnell and future City man Alan 'Digger' Daly, a 1-1 draw ensuing. Tony's stay in Cheshire was also brief and in 1959 he moved to non-league Yeovil and played there until 1966, helping them win the Southern League title in 1964 and appearing in several FA Cup giant-killing games in that period. His son, Tony Junior, played over 150 games for Bristol Rovers and Hereford United between 1990-96.

50th Anniversary of the Donkey-kick goal

 Today marks the 50th anniversary of the most memorable goal in the history of Coventry City. Regular reader Ian Greaves was in touch last week and reminded me that it was 50 years ago exactly that Ernie Hunt scored the famous donkey kick goal at Highfield Road against league champions Everton. Every City fan must know what happened – City were awarded a free-kick just outside the Everton penalty area at the West End. Everton formed a wall of players, the red-headed Scot Willie Carr stood over the ball then flicked it up between his feet, and as the ball came down Ernie superbly timed his dipping volley to send the ball over the wall of defenders into the corner beyond the grasping dive of Andy Rankin in goal.

BBC Match of the Day cameras were at the game and recorded the events with the goal winning their Goal of the Month and Goal of the Season awards. The two footed flick was pettily outlawed by FIFA the following summer. On YouTube there are several video clips of the goal and one of them has almost 1 million views!

1970 was a memorable year for Coventry City. After two seasons of relegation battles and close shaves, the club had finished sixth in Division One and qualified for a European competition. The new season had not started that brightly with only one win in four home league games but the previous season's impressive away form had continued with wins at Ipswich and Derby, the latter a 4-3 thriller which saw City come back from 0-2. An impressive 6-1 aggregate win over Trakia Plovdiv of Bulgaria had kicked off the Fairs Cup and a plum tie with Bayern Munich loomed later in the month.

Crowd favourite Ian Gibson had left for Cardiff in the summer and two signings had been made, Geoff Strong, an experienced defender from Liverpool for £35,000, and Wilf Smith, the England under 23 full-back from Sheffield Wednesday. The fee for Smith, £100,000, was a British record for a full-back, and evidence that City were aiming for higher things. Dietmar Bruck was in the side for the injured Chris Cattlin and young Scottish winger Brian Alderson had forced his way into the team.

Everton had suffered a reaction to winning the title the previous season, failing to win any of their first six league games but had recovered to win six games on the bounce to get up to eighth in the table going into the game. Centre-half and captain Brian Labone was injured so Roger Kenyon played at centre-half otherwise it was the title-winning line up including the famous midfield of Kendall, Ball and Harvey.

Neil Martin put City ahead on 18 minutes but John Hurst headed an equaliser six minutes later. 1-1 at the break. Alderson was giving the Everton defence a roasting and after 58 minutes his run and shot rebounded to Ernie Hunt who scored from close range. With ten minutes remaining John Hurst was deemed to have climbed over John O'Rourke and the referee awarded the famous free-kick and Hunt and Carr went into conference. Goalkeeper Rankin was astounded and the Everton players were mesmerised by Ernie's cheek. Referee Tommy Dawes, momentarily unsure whether it contravened the laws in any way, decided not. Everton boss Harry Catterick was quoted afterwards as saying he had seen it only once before – in a circus – and the City fans decided the whole thing was out of this world!

                      Ernie tries it again v Tottenham

The 'donkey-kick' as the goal came to be called had been the idea of City coach Bill Asprey and was developed and practised on the Ryton training ground that summer. The trick had been tried in a pre-season friendly at Blackpool an attempt Ernie Hunt later described as pathetic, 'I almost hit the clock on the stand'.

A few weeks later I was present at a Youth Cup tie against Shrewsbury and Alan Green and Johnny Stevenson repeated the trick and scored in a 6-0 victory and later that season Willie and Ernie had other attempts, at Stoke and again in a home game with Tottenham. In the latter game Pat Jennings was left flat-footed by Ernie's volley but the ball hit the angle of bar and post and bounced to safety.

Poor Ernie sadly passed away in 2018 and Willie has thankfully recovered from his health issues and I hope he can raise a glass tonight to the most memorable Coventry City goal of all time.