This week I received an email from Keith Reay, a City fan and programme collector from Alberta, Canada. He has a large collection of Coventry City programmes but wanted to know about the game at Ipswich in 1972 that was abandoned because of a floodlight failure.
The game was played on 25th November 1972 at Portman Road. City were unbeaten in seven since the arrival of Colin Stein and Tommy Hutchison and had lifted themselves from 21st in Division One to ninth. Stein had struck up an excellent partnership with Brian Alderson whilst Hutch had terrorised some top full-backs such as Paul Madeley, Pat Rice and West Ham's John McDowell, creating chances for his strikers and netting a memorable goal at Highbury.
Bobby Robson's Ipswich had had their best start to a campaign since winning promotion four years previously and were in fifth place. They boasted a number of players who would go on to be Ipswich legends including Mick Mills, Kevin Beattie, David Johnson and Trevor Whymark. City dominated the game and Stein netted with a diving header to give City a deserved twenty fourth minute lead. After a partial failure of the floodlights just before half-time the referee abandoned the game after all the lights went out and the electricians couldn't quickly repair things. Joe Mercer summed things up after the game: 'The way we were playing, it was only the floodlights that were going to beat us'. Many spectators believed the conspiracy theory – that Ipswich knew they were going to be beaten and sabotaged the electrics!
The game was replayed ten days later with the lights fixed but City lost Roy Barry with a hip injury after half an hour with the score at 0-0. City held out till just before half-time when David Johnson scored. Trevor Whymark scored a second after half-time and City's unbeaten run was ended. Ipswich went on to finish fourth in Division One but certainly got away with one that day. As for Hutch, Mick Mills was booked in both games for fouling him. A new updated programme was issued for the game.
It's sad to report the death of former City coach Tony Waiters, aged 83 this week. Tony had only a brief time at Highfield Road as Director of Coaching under Noel Cantwell in 1971-72 and left the club in March 1972 when Cantwell was sacked.
Waiters made his name as a goalkeeper at Blackpool in the 1960s, playing over 280 games for the Seasiders and winning five caps for England. The form of Gordon Banks probably robbed him of more caps. After retiring in 1967 he went into coaching and impressed as an FA regional coach and youth development coach at Liverpool. In 1970 he took over as first team coach at Burnley but injuries forced him out of retirement and back between the sticks. In December 1971 he joined City as Director of Coaching, replacing Bill Asprey, but his timing was wrong – within three months Cantwell was sacked and Tony resigned in protest.
He went on to manage Plymouth Argyle for five years, winning promotion from Division Three with the help of three former City players, Ernie Machin, Billy Rafferty and Colin Randell. In 1977 he moved to Canada to coach Vancouver Whitecaps to the 1979 NASL Championship and later coached Canada to fourth place in the 1984 Olympic Games and to the 1986 World Cup finals where his team held France to a goal-less draw.
I also have to mention one of the players at the club during Waiters' brief spell, Chris Chilton. Signed from Hull City for £91,000 in September 1971 after scoring over 200 goals in 11 seasons for the Tigers, Chris had a torrid time at Highfield Road, managing just five goals in 33 appearances. One of those goals was a late headed winner at West Brom in the FA Cup – City's first away win at a First Division side for 60 years. Chris later revealed that for some time he had been carrying the back injury which ultimately forced him to retire at the end of that season.
Chris was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 2012 and now, eight years later, he needs a level of care his family cannot afford. His former team-mate Ken Wagstaff has set up a GoFundMe page where people can make donations to help pay for a care-home. In seven days it has raised more than £34,000. You can read more about Chris's story here: www.theguardian.com/football/2020/nov/02/dementia-football-rife-game-not-doing-enough-to-help-chris-chilton-gary-chilton and where there are also links to the GoFundMe page.
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