Jim's Column 29.10.23

Sir Bobby Charlton, the finest English footballer of the post-war era, sadly passed away last weekend and his death was honoured at many football grounds this week. His glittering career with Manchester United saw him play 810 games for his only club and win 106 caps for England. He also left his mark on Coventry City appearing on a number of occasions against the Sky Blues and showing his shooting prowess to its full.

Manchester United manager Matt Busby gave Bobby his first team debut as an 18-year-old in October 1956 and the Ashington-born prodigy didn't let Matt down. He scored two goals in a 4-2 victory over Charlton and by the end of that season he'd scored 12 goals in 17 games, won a league championship medal, an FA Cup runners up medal and scored against Real Madrid in a European Cup semi-final. The Busby Babes were the outstanding post-war English club and would surely have won a third successive league title in 1957-58 but for the tragic air crash at Munich in February 1958 and may have given Real Madrid a closer run in the European Cup. At the time of the crash Charlton was in top form and scored nine goals in the previous five games including two in Belgrade the previous day.

Charlton, still strapped in his seat, was thrown clear of the burning wreckage of the plane and dragged to safety by goalkeeper Harry Gregg. Eight of his team-mates (five of whom were current internationals) and 13 other passengers didn't survive. Bobby lost his best friends and his mentors on that snowy day in Munich but was back in action within three weeks and helping a makeshift United team reach the FA Cup final, swept on by a national wave of emotion.

I have three distinctive memories of Bobby Charlton playing against Coventry City. The first was in 1963 and United's post-Munich rebuilding was well under way when they came to Highfield Road for an FA Cup sixth round tie. In his first full season Jimmy Hill had become Cup giant-killers and seen off two Second Division sides Portsmouth and Sunderland, the latter five days before the United tie in a feverish atmosphere that saw City score two late goals in front of over 40,000 at Highfield Road. City were in the last eight of the competition for the first time since 1910.

As a schoolboy Bobby Charlton was one of my heroes in those less partisan days when you could admire players from clubs you didn't necessarily support and I can remember the excited anticipation of seeing Charlton at Highfield Road almost as much as hoping City would win.

Three days of almost continuous rain had left the pitch a sticky mess and I stood with my dad on the Kop, soaked to the skin. The rain was forgotten as the Sky Blues started superbly with Terry Bly netted from a Willie Humphries cross after five minutes and for the next fifteen minutes dominated their higher status rivals. Then Bobby, transformed into a left winger but with a roving brief, took over and United found their stature. Albert Quixall crossed, Denis Law flicked it on and Bobby's first-time shot beat Bob Wesson for the equaliser. Maurice Setters, later to play for City, drove United on and but for him and Charlton the Reds would not have won the tie. Four minutes into the second half Charlton burst through the Coventry defence at such speed that his marker, John Sillett, and company just stood and gaped while he let loose a right-foot rocket from 18 yards. United scored a third goal when the muddy surface contrived to give Quixall an easy goal but Jimmy Hill's team were not disgraced by the 3-1 scoreline. 

The second memory was Coventry's next encounter with Bobby in 1967-68, their first season in the top flight. I bunked off school to get to Old Trafford for the night match to see a masterclass 4-0 victory for the Reds. John Aston and George Best scored first half goals and after the break United put the Sky Blues on the rack with continuous, smooth-moving pressure with some thunderbot shooting. Aston headed a third goal before Charlton scored the best of the night. Derek Henderson in the Coventry Telegraph described it thus: 'a Charlton special, City back-pedalling and realising the damger too late as the England man hit a 30-yard shell-like effort which kept the applause going for over two minutes.'

                            Bobby Charlton and Willie Carr tussle for the ball in 1969

Charlton inspired United to European Cup glory that season with two goals in the final against Benfica but a few weeks earlier the great man could do little to stop the Sky Blues beating United 2-0 at Highfield Road to help their relegation battle no end.

The third and final memory is from his penultimate season at United in 1971-72. On Easter Saturday United, league leaders up to Christmas but in a slump that saw them finish eighth, took City apart in the first 45 minutes at Highfield Road. Best and Ian Storey-Moore, with his dashing white boots, scored early goals but Bobby's left foot goal from a free-kick on the edge of the area took the biscuit. 

He did make one last apperance at Coventry, a 1-1 draw the following season in Tommy Docherty's brawling thugs team in which Charlton looked decidedly uncomfortable.

Football has changed so much since Bobby's heyday and it is difficult to know where he stands in the pantheon of the game's great players. Whilst I didn't appreciate his great performances against my team I did recognise his unique talent and I can say that in an England shirt he gave me some of the most pleasurable moments of my football watching life. Since his retirement no English player has yet matched his achievements on the pitch. 

It's also sad to report the death, at the age of 65, of former City player Dave Ellis. At the age of 16 Dave was signed from Bedworth United in 1975 and played for City in the FA Youth Cup in 1975-76 alongside Garry Thompson and Paul Dyson and made six appearances for the reserve teaam. After leaving the club in 1977 he spent two years in Melbourne, Australia and played for Mooroolbark United FC. After returning to the UK he had spells with Northampton and Bristol City without making senior appearances. His son Ryan sent me this lovely picture of Dave (right) signing for the Sky Blues with the club's assistant manager Bob Dennison and his parents.