Jim's column 15.1.22

The Sky Blues successfully cleared the FA Cup third round hurdle last weekend with a 1-0 victory over Derby County. The draw for the fourth round paired City with their old rivals Southampton (they have played Saints more than any other club in Football League games) and offers a chance to reverse Coventry's poor Cup record against the South Coast team. City did win at the Dell in 1912 when both clubs were in the old Southern League but since then the Saints have progressed on all three occasions that the club have been drawn together in the competition despite Coventry being drawn first out of the hat each time. More about those meetings nearer the time.

I've still got a few questions left over from last year to answer so here goes. Gary Watson wanted me to identify his first game at Highfield Road in the early 1970s - he remembers it was a night game against Wolves and City lost to a Jim McCalliog goal. McCalliog, in fact, never scored at Highfield Road despite playing there for Sheffield Wednesday and many times for Wolves. He did score for the Owls against the Sky Blues at Hillsborough in October 1967 in a 4-0 victory. I believe Gary's first game was a midweek game in August 1970 when a Hugh Curran goal gave Wolves a 1-0 victory in front of 31,000. McCalliog did play in a strong Wolves team that included Bobby Gould and Dave Wagstaffe. Jim, a Scottish international, had a 15-year career and made over 500 appearances including FA Cup finals with Sheffield Wednesday (1966) and Southampton (1976), the former as a loser, the latter as a winner. I remember attending the semi-final at Villa Park in 1966 when McCalliog, sold cheaply by Chelsea six months earlier, scored one of the goals that beat his former club and took the Owls to Wembley where they threw away a two goal lead to lose to Everton.

In October 1953 Coventry City unveiled their first floodlight system. It was a bit Heath Robinson, comprising of a number of wooden poles each with a pair of large light bulbs on them and pairs of similar bulbs attached to the roof of the two stands down each side of the pitch. In total there approximately 48 lights illuminating the pitch. The lights were officially opened with a game against Scottish side Queen of the South and further games against Wolves and East Fife followed that autumn. In January 1954 the club entertained top Yugoslav side Hajduk Split, who were making a tour of England in their mid-season break. I received a question from Sima, a Hajduk historian, asking for details of the match at Highfield Road.

Hajduk had some top Yugoslav players including striker Bernard Vukas, later voted Croatia's top athlete of the 20th century, Frane Matosic, the club's all-time top scorer and Vladimir Beara, one of Europe's top 'keepers of the era and three of the players had won silver medals at the 1952 Olympic Games. On an icy pitch City lost their unbeaten record against the 1952 Yugoslav champions who won 3-2 with goals from Sencar, Lovric and Vidosevic. City's goals came from Bill Bradbury and Eddy Brown. The cold weather kept the crowd down to 4,214, a large drop from the Queen of the South game which attracted almost 17,000.