Former Coventry City player Graham Walker asked me for help in tracking down his senior debut for the club. Graham, a centre-half, joined the club's groundstaff straight from school and progressed to the professional staff. He had been in the reserve team for some time before he got his chance in October 1958. In the early years of floodlit football English clubs weren't allowed to play competitive games under lights and whetted fans' appetites for the new innovation by arranging friendlies with higher status teams, foreign teams and Scottish clubs. Between 1953, when the first floodlights were installed, and 1959 City played 26 such friendlies. Almost 17,000 watched City play Queen of the South in the first floodlight game in October 1953 but the novelty slowly wore off and although a similar crowd watched the infamous game with Argentinian club San Lorenzo in 1956, crowds generally slipped under 10,000.
In October 1958 City invited Sunderland to Highfield Road for a floodlit friendly on a Monday evening. The Roker club, known as the Bank of England club just a few years previously because of the number of big money signings they had in their team, had lost their First Division status for the very first time the previous season. They had also been found guilty of illegal payments to players and suffered a heavy fine. In Division Two they were struggling having lost key players such as Don Revie and Billy Bingham and were bottom of the table with just three wins in 14 games. A 4-1 defeat at Bristol City on the previous Saturday had increased the gloom and their party had spent a miserable weekend at Leamington's Regent Hotel licking their wounds.
City, on the other hand were riding high in second place in Division Four after a 2-2 draw at Workington and looked a good bet for promotion from the division at the first attempt. Gates which had dropped to below 8,000 the previous campaign were above 20,000 with the team unbeaten in six games. They would be without their outstanding young centre-half George Curtis who had suffered concussion at Workington and had seen a specialist on the Monday morning. Graham tells the story: On the Monday morning I received a hand delivered postcard requesting me to report to Highfield Road for the evening game in which the “gaffer” Billy Frith was thinking of playing me in the second half. We often received postcards either sent or hand delivered informing us when to report for certain games'.
Frank Austin, normally a wing-half, deputised for Curtis but at half-time Graham was told to strip off and come on as substitute (in those days subs weren't permitted in competitive games). Austin moved to left half, replacing Mick Kearns and both he and Walker wore a number 5 shirt. It was 0-0 at half-time but Sunderland, even with several reserves, came to life after the break and England B international Stan Anderson put them ahead after 63 minutes. Nine minutes later Sunderland and former England winger Colin Grainger went down under a challenge from Walker and a penalty was awarded.
'It was never a penalty', says Walker, 'and after the final whistle Grainger winked at me and said “never mind kid. Win some lose some”.' Anderson scored from the penalty spot and Maltby added a third goal before Brian Hill headed a late consolation goal for City. Graham remembers the fog descending and that the the old fashioned floodlighting 'wasn't the best in those conditions'. The attendance of 4,979 convinced the club that the days of floodlight friendlies was over and it was the last one for over three years when Jimmy Hill reinstated them. I was able to send Graham a copy of the match report and after reading it he said that it wasn't a surprise that he had forgotten the game.
City's team that night was: Graham Spratt: Roy Kirk, Lol Harvey: Brian Nicholas, Frank Austin (sub Graham Walker), Mick Kearns (sub Frank Austin): Peter Hill, Ray Straw, Jimmy Rogers, Brian Hill, Ken Satchwell.
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