Jim's Column 13.3.2021

 Another member of the Sky Blue Family passed away this week. Leamington-born Gordon Simms died aged 84 after a short illness. Gordon was a great supporter of the Former Players Association and a regular at home games for many years. Cranston & Plummers

Gordon grew up in Leamington attending Clapham Terrace primary school and Campion High School. He spent four years at Highfield Road in the 1950s but was unable to command a regular first team place. He was spotted playing for Leamington works team Flavels in 1955 by City coach Ted Roberts. In a game against Aston Villa’s 'A' team he gave the veteran Amos Moss such a roasting that Villa wanted him to go for a trial but when no one met him at the pre-arranged time outside Leamington Town Hall, Roberts stepped in and fixed a trial with City. In the trial, at Leek Wootton, Gordon scored the only goal and was signed on amateur forms. He was an apprentice plumber, one of three on City’s books at the time, and later taught plumbing at Mid Warwickshire College for over twenty years. A winger who could play on the right or left, Gordon scored lots of goals for the 'A' team and made a number of reserve team appearance before his sole first team game against Colchester in October 1957 (City won 1-0).

                                Gordon in his playing days

In 1958 he went into the army for his mandatory two years National Service and played regularly for a strong Army representative side which included Everton and England star Derek Temple. He was a Physical Education instructor in the Army and played some football for Notts County without appearing for the first team. After leaving City he played briefly for Nuneaton Borough and Lockheed Leamington before a knee injury caused him to hang his boots up. However it was only temporary – he visited the now celebrated Coventry-born acupuncturist, J R Worsley, and recovered so much that he managed a long career at Warwick Town in the Warwickshire Combination. For the last 25 years he had lived in Cubbington and a few years ago successfully fought off leukaemia.

Gordon was a regular in the Legends Lounge at the Ricoh and will be missed by his old playing colleagues such as Brian Nicholas, Bill Tedds, Ian Goodwin, Graham Walker, Ronnie Farmer and Ken Brown.

                    Gordon in 2015 with James Maddison & Ryan Haynes

He leaves a widow Enid, two children, son Chris (another Ricoh regular) and daughter Karen as well as five grandchildren and a great grandchild born in November who sadly he never saw.

RIP Gordon

After City's game at Blackburn two weeks ago, a game that saw Leo Ostigard sent off for two yellow cards, several people asked me what City's record was like when finishing matches with ten men. I did some research and discovered that unsurprisingly the Sky Blues rarely win when reduced to ten men with a red card.

City have had 149 players sent off in competitive games since the war and there have been five instances of two men sent off in the same game. Out of those 144 games the team has won 28 but all but five saw City leading at the time of the dismissal. Of those five, three wins came with 10 men overturning a losing position to win, all three in the 1990s:

1994-95 West Brom (a) FA Cup 2-1 (10 men City score two late goals to beat 10-man West Brom. (Paul Cook and Albion's Raven dismissed)

1995-96 Plymouth Argyle (a) FA Cup 3-1 (10 men City win after Dave Busst sees red at 0-0 and Argyle take lead)

1998-99 Charlton Athletic (h) League 2-1 (Charlton leading 1-0 when John Aloisi sent off but City score two late goals)

Two victories with 10-men came after the scores were level at the time of the red card:

2003-04 Cardiff (a) League 1-0 (Peter Clarke is sent off after 24 seconds. McSheffrey scores late winner)

2020-21 MK Dons (a) League Cup 1-0 (Declan Drysdale dismissed after 30 minutes, Walker scores 82nd minute winner)

There has been only two occasions when City have drawn a game from a losing position after players were sent off and both games saw City finish with nine men. In 1995-96 City were losing 3-2 at home to Wimbledon when Richard Shaw became the second City player to be shown a red card (Paul Williams got one in the first half) in the 81st minute. Two minutes later David Rennie equalised to make it 3-3 and earn a draw. Then last season at Portsmouth City were trailing 3-1 when Fankaty Dabo saw red. With fifteen minutes remaining Matt Godden scored a penalty but three minutes later substitute Gervaine Kastaneer was also sent off. In a hectic finale Michael Rose levelled the scores four minutes from time and the team held out for a 3-3 draw.

If you have a question about Coventry City's history please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @clarriebourton

Thanks to Mike Young for photographs