Jim's column 7.1.2023

Today the Sky Blues entertain National League side Wrexham in the FA Cup and it promises to be a great atmosphere. The North Wales side are in tremendous form and having a ding dong battle with Notts County at the top of the league as they attempt to regain their Football League place they lost fourteen years ago. Now owned and financed by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McIlhenney, the club have had five failed play-off campaigns in the fifth tier. The advent of the new owners has sparked a football revival in the Principality and are regularly attracting full houses of 10,000 at the Racecourse Ground and also have Kyle McFadzean's brother Callum in their squad. I'm sure they will have a large following next week.

The Sky Blues have had few meetings with Wrexham over the years but James Adams, author of the excellent book 'Attached to Coventry City' reminded me of a famous game against Wrexham on Christmas Day 1959.

James writes: It was the last Christmas Day that professional football was played in the UK (only City and Blackburn staged games). The only time it could be played of course, was in the morning as an appetizer for the forthcoming Christmas meal. But in the Main Stand where I was seated, many of us couldn’t wait, with the smell of whiskey-laced coffee and chicken sandwiches in tin-foil, being the distinctive mid-morning snack for many. Even today, whenever I make up a flask of coffee with a tot of whiskey or brandy, it’s Christmas Day 1959 all over again!

It was traditional wintry weather – no wind, but just above freezing with a light covering of snow on the pitch, and icy surrounds - it probably wouldn’t get played today. And an unfortunate Wrexham player, when taking a throw-in, slipped on some ice and fell backwards over the surrounding wall, and into the concrete terrace! But some sympathetic supporters, ‘the magic sponge’ and some sticking plaster saw him back on the pitch before too long.

It was a roller coaster match, with City, then Wrexham hitting the back of the net regularly with an unpredictable outcome for much of the game. However, City’s terrier-like (19-year-old) centre-forward, Ken Satchwell, chased everything down and kept his feet when others were losing theirs and hit four goals in City’s eventual 5-3 victory. Unbelievably, City went to Wrexham on Boxing Day, and completed the double, winning 3-1 – with Satchwell hitting two more!

        Satchwell (left) pictured with Brian Nicholas & Ray Straw (1960)

Wrexham have only visited Coventry three times since that Christmas Day game, the last a League Cup game in 1994 when a Dion Dublin brace and a Roy Wegerle goal gave City a 5-3 aggregate victory in the two-legged tie.

After home league games with Swansea and Cardiff over Christmas City will have entertained three Welsh clubs inside a month. Some readers asked if this had ever happened before - the answer is that City have never played three Welsh clubs in the same season let alone the same month!

Saturday's tie is the 24th occasion that Coventry have played a non-league side in the competition since they achieved league status in 1919. Of the previous 23 ties, seven have ended in defeat for City, three of them in the early 1920s. Since World War Two there have been three defeats at the hands of non-league clubs (Kings Lynn (1961), Sutton United (1989) and Worcester City (2014). The last ties with non-league teams were in 2017-18 when Maidenhead United (2-0) and Boreham Wood (3-0) were defeated in the first and second rounds respectively.

The world has been mourning the great Brazilian star, Pele, this week and many words have been written and spoken about arguably the greatest footballer of all time. I remember his outstanding performances in the 1970 Mexico World Cup in what was perhaps the finest international side ever but also recall the sad sight of him being carried off the Goodison Park pitch four years earlier after Portugal's defenders had constantly fouled him. I've always wondered if England would have won the competition if Pele had remained fit.

Pele did appear against the Sky Blues in 1972 during a post-season tour to the Far East. The tour ended in Bangkok where a friendly was organised with Pele's club side Santos. The game was played in heavy rain and ended in a 2-2 draw in front of 32,000. Alan Green and Quintin Young scored for City with Edu and a Pele penalty netting for Santos. Alan Dugdale, who had yet to make his senior competitive debut at the time, was voted man of the match and asked the great man for his shirt. It was kept at his parent's home in Kirkby on Merseyside for some years and, according to Alan's brother Dave, local fans flocked to the house to have a picture taken with it. At some point, Alan collected it and eventually took it to Hong Kong where it is believed he donated it to the Bulova club where he was playing at the time.