Jim's column 16.9.23

Ed Blackaby recently reminded me of an interesting game that took place at Highfield Road in 1956 – a Division Three South v Division Three North match. This was an annual representative match in the 1950s and Coventry City were chosen to host the occasion that season. Ed also sent me an excellent magazine cutting with photos of the two teams.

Club managers were appointed to select a team from the 24 teams in each section of Division Three and in 1956 Coventry's new boss Harry Warren was managing the South side whilst former Coventry manager Harry Storer, then the Derby County boss, took charge of the North team.

A crowd of 14,156, only 2,000 less than the previous City home game, watched under the Highfield Road floodlights on Monday 8^th October 1956. The crowd saw an entertaining game won 2-1 by the South with goals from Stan Newsham (Bournemouth) and Roy Hollis (Southend). The North's consolation came from Ken Johnson (Hartlepools United). Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph was impressed with the standard of play: 'Highfield Road supporters will not see much better football than that provided by the Third Division South... and North in last night's game which deservedly gave the South a 2-1 win'.

Manager Warren selected Coventry's golden boy Reg Matthews who two days earlier had won his fifth and final England cap in a 1-1 draw in Belfast against Northern Ireland. A month later Reg would be on his way to Chelsea with a world record fee for a goalkeeper of £22,000 hanging around his neck.

For the game Coventry produced a special souvenir programme, priced 6 pence (equivalent of 2.5p). The referee was the famous international official Arthur Ellis whose precious appearance at the ground had been in the friendly with San Lorenzo of Argentina which had ended with Ellis abandoning the game after Sanfilippo of the visitors refused to leave the field after being given his marching orders by Ellis.

The full sides were: 

The South: Matthews (Coventry): Jardine (Millwall), Langley (Brighton): Belcher (Crystal Palace), Parker (Southampton), Elsworthy (Ipswich): Gavin (Norwich) Newsham (Bournemouth), Hollis (Southend), Mills (Torquay) Flint (Aldershot). Cook (Watford) replaced Newsham after 82 minutes.

The North: Newlands (Workington): Currie (Bradford City), Brownsword (Scunthorpe): Mays (Derby), Moore (Hartlepools), Sneddon (Accrington): Burrell (Chesterfield), Hewitt (Wrexham), Johnson (Hartlepools) Smith (Chesterfield) Simm (Bradford City).

In addition to Matthews, Brighton's Jim Langley went on to play for England following a move to Fulham, and Wrexham's Ron Hewitt joined Coventry in 1960 after representing Wales at the 1958 World Cup.

Other Coventry players who appeared for the Division Three South side in this fixture were Martin McDonnell who was right back in the game at Reading in March 1955, and Reg Matthews, forward Peter Hill and right half Noel Simpson, all of whom appeared in the match at Accrington in October 1955.

Coventry's last home game against Watford saw the Sky Blues come from behind three times to win a point. I've been scouring the records and can only find three previous instances since World War Two involving City. The last was a 4-4 draw with Preston at Sixfields in that crazy season at Northampton. Preston led 1-0 and 2-1 before Callum Wilson scored two goals to put City in front. In the last five minutes Preston scored twice to go 4-3 ahead before Matthieu Manset levelled the scores in the fifth minute of added time. Leon Clarke scored City's first equaliser

Prior to that there was a Division 1 game with Birmingham City in 1986 which also ended 4-4. Birmingham led 2-0 at the break before Dave Bennett and Brian Kilcline (penalty) levelled the scores. Martin Kuhl put Blues 3-2 ahead, Bennett equalised again before Andy Kennedy, with his second of the game made it 4-3. With two minutes remaining Killer scored his second penalty to square things up.

The third instance was a Texaco Cup game at home to Motherwell in 1972. After a goal-less first half the visitors took the lead three times through Lawson (2) and Martin but each time the Sky Blues responded through Billy Rafferty (2) and Denis Mortimer to tie the game at 3-3. Sadly Motherwell won the second leg in Scotland 1-0 to win the tie on aggregate

Jim's column 2.9.23

Coventry City have had many fine youth teams over the years and have a great reputation for developing young players. The club's under 18 team has a great record in the FA Youth Cup (the under 18s equivalent of the FA Cup) with five appearances in the final and lifting the trophy in 1987.

             John Sillett with the 1986 youth team between Hathaway (left) and Sedgley (right)

The 1986 team was pretty good too and reached the semi finals before losing to Manchester United. That team included the nucleus of the side that would win the competition twelve months later including Tony Dobson, Steve Livingstone and Howard Clark as well as the older David Smith and the prodigious Steve Sedgley, who although eligible in 1987 was part of the first team squad and spared youth games in 1987. All five went on to play for the first team and three of them won caps for England at under 21 level.

In 1986, under the coaching and motivational skills of John Sillett, the team beat Wolves, Newcastle, Watford and Tottenham to reach the last four before losing the two legged semi final to the Reds.

One member of the Sky Blues babes who didn't make it to the first team was striker John Hathaway despite scoring five goals in the run to the final. I had a sad email recently from John's daughter in law Rebecca Hathaway in which she told me that John died after a cardiac arrest in 2009 at the age of 40. His eight-year-old grandson, Freddie John, is loving football and wanted to know more about his grandad.

Swindon-born John was on a Youth Training Scheme (YTS) with Wolves in 1985 when their new manager, the legendary Tommy Docherty, decided to 'clear the decks' and released numerous young players. Also released by Wolves was coach Frank Upton who joined City as assistant manager to Don Mackay. Upton raided Wolves to sign centre-half Graham Rodger and youth players Martyn Bayley and John Hathaway, the latter on YTS terms. Rodger went on to make 43 appearances for the Sky Blues including being a substitute at Wembley in 1987 and England under 21 caps before enjoying a good career at Luton and Grimsby Town.

There's a lovely photo of Graham and John arriving at Highfield Road pictured alongside first team players Terry Gibson and Brian Kilcline. John, who has a physical similarity to Gibson, is described as being 5 foot 1 inch tall. His size didn't stop his goalscoring exploits and in the team's first tie in the Youth Cup he netted twice in a 7-1 victory over his former club Wolves, the other goals coming from Livingstone (3), Sedgley (a penalty) and Paul Dandridge. The next round saw an impressive 4-1 win at Newcastle (the holders of the trophy) with Livingstone (2), Sedgley and Mike Cook on target before a Hathaway goal put Watford to the sword.

In the quarter finals City and Tottenham fought out a 0-0 draw at Highfield Road and in the replay at White Hart Lane John equalised a Paul Moran goal to take the game to extra-time before Sedgley netted the winner in the 93^rd minute. Manchester United proved too strong for Sillett's babes in the semi final, winning the first leg 2-0 at Highfield Road before a drawn second leg. United lost the final to their noisy neighbours who had a star-studded team including David White, Paul Lake and Andy Hinchcliffe.

Hathaway and Sillett's careers went in opposite directions that summer. Sillett was promoted to first team coach and led the Sky Blues to their first Wembley final nine months later whilst John Hathaway was released. He went to play for Fairford Town in Gloucestershire and owned his own roofing business in the town before his sad, premature death in 2009.