Defeat at Carrow Road last weekend meant an early exit from the FA Cup for the Sky Blues but there was no disgrace in losing to the Championship league leaders. Seven days previously the team notched their second away win of the season by winning at Millwall and the historical significance of a rare victory there cannot be overlooked. In 19 league and Cup visits to either the Den or the New Den (they moved in 1993), stretching back to 1955 it was only the second victory. Even in the title-winning seasons of 1963-64 and 1966-67 Jimmy Hill's team failed to win at the intimidating old stadium in New Cross. Tony Mowbray's exciting young team won there 4-0 in 2015 and the following season, City's last visit before this season, there was a 1-1 draw.
Every week we hear of famous footballers from my golden age of the game, the 60s and 70s, passing away and last week it was Colin Bell who died, aged 74. Colin, an attacking midfielder, rarely had a bad game against the Sky Blues and scored nine goals against City – the most ever by a midfield player. He first came on City's radar on a miserable Friday night in December 1964 when as an eighteen year-old for Bury he scored twice in a 5-0 drubbing at Gigg Lane. Just over a year later he was signed by Manchester City, helping them to pip the Sky Blues to promotion to Division One. After Coventry won promotion in 1967 Colin haunted us, scoring home and away as Joe Mercer's Blues won the First Division title, and either scoring or making goals over the next few seasons. England had so many good midfielders in that era and in other times he would surely have won a lot more than the 48 full England caps he gained. Nicknamed Nijinsky after the horse that won the 1970 Derby and was considered the fastest racehorse of the 20th century, Colin could run all day and would have fitted in perfectly with today's fitness dominated game. RIP Colin.
Coventry City London Supporters Club member Alastair Laurie who travels to most home games from his home in Sussex had a question for me. He was chatting to an old friend who lives in Alnwick and is a long standing Newcastle season ticket holder. He had a relative also from the North East who played for City pre war named Liddle. Alastair asked me if I had any information on Liddle.
Fred Liddle was born in Great Lumley, a village near Chester-le-Street, Durham in 1909. He was a left winger and spotted by QPR playing for Crawcrook Albion in 1928 and he spent a season there without making a first team appearance before joining Huddersfield, then one of the top teams in the land but after three months there (and without a first team game) he moved to Rotherham where he played 13 games in Division Three North in 1929-30. Released by the Millers in 1930 he was playing back with Crawcrook the following season before a season on Newcastle's books in 1931-32. In July 1932 he joined Gillingham and over the next two seasons made 80 odd appearances scoring 19 goals.
He came to Highfield Road in the summer of 1934 and was regular in 1934-35 (35 games 7 goals). In the 1935-36 promotion season he played 18 games, 5 goals and was a regular in the second half of the season as the Bantams clinched promotion. In Division Two in 1936-37 he was in and out, playing 17 games scoring 2 goals before joining Exeter in the summer of 1937. He played 48 games in the two seasons before war broke out in 1939 and scored 10 goals. His whereabouts post-war are unknown.
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