Jim's column 7.10.2017

Coventry City's 1-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra last weekend was the club's fourth consecutive league game without conceding a goal at the Ricoh, following clean sheets against Port Vale, Carlisle and Exeter. It ended an outstanding September for Mark Robins which may well see the City boss pick up the dreaded 'Manager of the Month' award. For the record the team won five, drew one and lost one in league games during the month, equalling the best September ever, set in 1929 and equalled in 1958 (the Division Four promotion season). As far as successive clean sheets at home, it is the best run since four in 2002 under Gary McAllister and two short of the club record set in that Fourth Division promotion season in 1958-59.

Attendances are picking up slowly as the Sky Blues' home form improves but the Port Vale home gate of 6,951 was the lowest home league crowd on a Saturday since April 1958 when 6,939 watched the Bantams play Gillingham. Midweek attendances are traditionally lower and three days later there were only 6,151 paying customers for the visit of Carlisle – the smallest home league crowd since April 1962 when there were only 5,965 to see Bristol City.

It was good to see the team notch a win at Swindon's County Ground at last. In recent seasons they have taken the lead on several occasions there but failed to come away with the points. This time they fell behind only to come back strongly and goals from Doyle and Nazon sealed the first league victory there since December 1960. That was a 2-1 win also with Ray Straw and Billy Myerscough on target.

I was contacted by Dutch journalist Joris Kaper last month. He is writing the biography of former City player Nii Lamptey who briefly played for the Sky Blues under Ron Atkinson in 1995-96. Joris wanted the details of Lamptey's appearances for City and I was able to furnish him with the following facts:

Coventry City 1995-96 20 Sep H Hull City (League Cup) W 2-0 1 goal 9 04 Oct A Hull City (League Cup) W 1-0 1 goal 9 14 Oct A Liverpool D 0-0 9 21 Oct H Sheffield Wed L 0-1 9* 25 Oct H Tottenham H (League Cup) W 3-2 9 28 Oct A Leeds Utd L 1-3 sub 12 04 Nov H Tottenham Hotspur L 2-3 8* 29 Nov A Wolves (League Cup) L 1-2 sub 12 01 Jan H Southampton D 1-1 sub 12 14 Feb A Manchester City (FA Cup) L 1-2 sub 12 24 Feb H Middlesbrough D 0-0 sub 12 - ​In addition he played 2 friendlies: 11/9/95 St Albans (a) 7-1 (he scored one) and 8/10/95 Hearts (a) 5-1 (he scored one).

Ghanaian Lamptey was something of teenage superstar helping his country to win the World under-17 championships in 1991 and being touted as the 'new Pele'. Atkinson signed him for Villa and then brought him to Coventry soon after he arrived at Highfield Road. It's fair to say he never looked like a world-class performer for City and his subsequent career, which has taken him to Italy, Argentina, Portugal, Germany, Dubai, China and finally back to Ghana, was an anti-climax after his exploits as a teenager.

Jack Lovering RIP

JACK LOVERING

10 December 1922 – 21 September 2017

It's sad to report the death of former Coventry City player John Lovering. Known in football circles as Jack, he was a half-back who played only six first team games for the club but was a regular in the London Combination reserve team and was under-study to the great George Mason in the years immediately after World War Two. At the time of his death, at 94, he was the second oldest living former player and he was the last surviving City player from the 1940s

Born in Nuneaton in 1922, one of seven children, Johnny, as he was known by his family, left school before the war and worked at the brickworks near his home in Bermuda before moving to work down the mine at the Griff Clara pit. He played a good standard of local football for Nuneaton Griff and Holbrook Old Boys FC before becoming a junior at Highfield Road. In 1945 manager Harry Storer moved to Birmingham and lured Jack to St Andrews. Things didn't work out however and he was soon back at Coventry. By the time league football re-commenced in 1946 Jack was a professional with the club and listed in the Coventry Telegraph as 5 foot 8 inches tall, weighing 9 stone 13 lbs. His elder brother Bill was also playing for the 'A' team at the time. In the second home game of the season manager Dick Bayliss gave him his debut in the Second Division. With George Mason injured Jack played at left-half in a 1-1 draw with Barnsley.

The Coventry Telegraph match report of the game by Nemo makes interesting reading:

'I must admit I went to the match fearing the possibilities of the worst for the defensive left flank – (Stan) Kelley and (Jack) Lovering – looked shaky on paper... Those fears were not founded. Lovering, by coming in for Crawley, who moved to take over from the injured George Mason, made the rocket ascent from the 'A' team through the reserves to the Second Division side and all in the space of a week. Considering he is not ready for league football just yet, Lovering did quite well, and behind him the little more experienced Kelley showed considerable improvement on last Monday's appearance.'

Jack didn't get another chance in the first team until January 1948 when, under new manager Billy Frith, he played in a 2-2 draw at Leicester and then played a further four games, three draws and a 1-0 home defeat to Southampton. His final appearance was in a 1-1 home draw with Nottingham Forest in March 1948. Then it was back to the reserve side until he was released by the club in May 1949.

He joined Bedworth Town that summer but was soon turning out for Atherstone in the Birmingham Combination. In 1951 he joined Nuneaton Borough and helped them to runners-up of the same league. In two seasons at Manor Park he made 45 league and 12 Cup appearances and played alongside many old faces from Coventry City such as George Mason, Don Dearson, Norman Smith and Eric Betts. He retired from the game in 1953 following another spell at Atherstone and some games for Bermuda.

After football he worked at Jaguar and was a test driver for them before retiring to Hinckley in the 1980s. He had a spell living in Majorca but returned to the UK. He was married to his wife Christine for 66 years before she passed away four years ago and his son Martin lives in Nuneaton. Jack suffered from Alazheimer's disease in his later years but was a member of the Former Players Association and attended an early Legends Day.

                      CCFPA Legends Day 2007 - Jack (left) with Jack Evans, Stan Smith & Trevor Lewis.

The funeral will take place on 16th October at 12 noon at Nuneaton Crematorium followed by a wake at Attleborough Sports Club. Flowers can be sent to Devall & Son, 2 Wembrook House, The Green, Attleborough, Nuneaton, CV11 4FJ, alternatively donations to Alzheimer's Society can be made through the funeral directors.

Jim's column 9.9.2017

Fellow historian and collector of Sky Blue photographs and videos Dean Nelson posted an interesting picture on Twitter last week. It featured the green shirts that City wore just twice at the start of the 1969-70 season. The club had ditched the all-red change kit that they had worn since 1962 and had chosen a snazzy green and black striped kit. Unfortunately the new strip wasn't ready by the time of the first colour clash at West Brom on 20th August and a novel solution was found. Instead of digging out the old red kit the kit suppliers came up with some green shirts and black shorts and City took the field at the Hawthorns looking very dapper. A Jeff Blockley goal secured the points for Noel Cantwell's team and three days later, at Ipswich, with City in the green shirts again, a Willie Carr effort made it two away wins on the bounce.

                              Neil Martin in the green & black kit at West Brom in 1969

The next colour clash didn't occur until 20th September at Manchester City and by then the new striped kit had arrived and City duly wore it, only to fall to a 3-1 defeat. The new kit got a second outing at Stamford Bridge in early November and its third appearance, at Hillsborough in January, saw City record their first victory in the kit. Its fourth and final appearance was at Goodison Park in March when City pulled off a brave and deserved 0-0 draw against the champions-elect.

Several City shirt collectors had no knowledge of the rare green shirts, which the Sky Blues were unbeaten in, and are desperate for any information on them. Does anyone know any more about these lucky shirts?

On Twitter, Heath Stansfield wanted to know when Cyrille Regis made his debut for City. Big Cyrille was signed from West Brom by Bobby Gould on 11th October 1984 for a fee of £300,000 and 48 hours later made his debut at home to Newcastle in a 1-1 draw. City were in the bottom three, despite a 1-0 win at Watford the previous week, and had been embarrassingly dumped out of the League Cup by Third Division Walsall in the midweek. Peter Beardsley gave the visitors the lead from the penalty spot after Kenny Hibbitt was adjudged to have handled the ball. Hibbitt went from villain to hero fifteen minutes from time when his swerving free-kick earned a point.

City's line up that day was: Ogrizovic: Stephens, Adams, Hibbitt, Butterworth, Peake, Bennett, Gynn, Regis, Gibson, Barnes. The attendance was 14,030 and the highlights of the game can be found on YouTube, courtesy of Dean Nelson.

Last week I listed the eighteen players who have had two spells at Coventry City and have to admit I omitted two. Thanks to Terje Johansen and Jamie Brown for pointing out that Les Sealey and Gary Gillespie both had second spells at the club. Les came through an apprenticeship at the club and signed as a full professional in 1976, going on to make 178 appearances before leaving to join Luton in 1983. He returned in 1992, on loan from Aston Villa, and made two further appearances under Don Howe.

Gillespie was signed from Falkirk by Gordon Milne in 1978 and played 200 games for the Sky Blues before joining Liverpool in 1983. He rejoined the club in 1994 and played a further four games before leaving the game.

A reminder that my latest book, Play Up Sky Blues, the story of the memorable 1966-67 season, is due to be published in October and is available for pre-order on Amazon.

If you have any questions regarding the club's history please contact me on clarriebourton@gmail.com and I will endeavour to answer them. Alternatively you can contact me on Twitter @clarriebourton

Jim's column 2.9.2017

Michael Doyle's return to Coventry City this summer reminded me of a question posed by Keith Ballantyne towards the end of last season which remains unanswered. Keith named three City players who had two separate spells at the club and asked if there were any others.

He correctly named three 'Gary's' – Messrs McAllister, McSheffrey and Bannister but there are others including:-

Tom Maskill (1923-26 and 1928-29)

Jimmy Baker (1929-32 and 1932-35)

George Lowrie (1939-48 and 1952-53)

Billy Frith (1932-45 and 1946-47)

Alf Wood (1935-52 and 1955-59)

Peter Wyer (1955-56 and 1958-59)

Mick Ferguson (1971-81 and 1983-84 (on loan))

Jim Hagan (1976-79 and 1981-82)

Keith Thompson (1982-85 and 1988-91)

Marcus Hall (1991-2002 and 2005-10)

Roland Nilsson (1997-99 and 2001-02)

Lee Carsley (2000-02 and 2010-11)

Ben Turner (2006-09 and 2015-16 (loan))

Gael Bigirimana (2011-12 and 2015-17)

As I write this there is a possibility that Carl Baker will join this list.

There have also been a handful of players who have had more than one loan spell at the club including Richard Duffy and Gary Madine.

My friend Rod Dean was in Peru on holiday earlier this year and discovered that City's only ever Peruvian, Ysrael Zuniga, is still playing top-class football in the country. Now aged 41, Zuniga, captained his club Melgar in their Copa Libertadores campaign where they played in the group stages against several strong teams including crack Argentinian side River Plate. Sadly they failed to qualify for the final stages but it seems Zuniga is still playing.

His career at Coventry was disappointing, the diminutive striker made 31 appearances, 18 of them as a substitute, between 2000 and 2002, scoring four goals. He made his City debut at Elland Road in March 2000, following his £750,000 move from Melgar, and in his third appearance, at home to Bradford City, he came off the bench to score in a 4-0 win. He scored another goal in the final home game that season, a 4-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday. His other two goals came the following season as City were relegated from the Premier League – at Preston in a 3-1 League Cup win and a consolation in the 2-1 home defeat to Manchester United. Following relegation he made just seven more appearances, six of them off the bench, without scoring. He left the club in the summer of 2002 and signed for Argentinian club Estudiantes.

A reminder that my latest book, Play Up Sky Blues, the story of the memorable 1966-67 season, is due to be published in October and is available for pre-order on Amazon.

If you have any questions regarding the club's history please contact me on clarriebourton@gmail.com and I will endeavour to answer them. Alternatively you can contact me on Twitter @clarriebourton

Jim's column 19.8.2017

Fifty years ago today the Sky Blues took the field at Turf Moor, Burnley for the club's first ever game in Division One. After forty seasons in the Football League Coventry City had reached the pinnacle of the English game by winning the Second Division. Two days earlier however manager Jimmy Hill had dropped a massive bombshell, resigning on the eve of the club's biggest season. He was staying on however until the club appointed a replacement (a task that took almost two months) and he was in charge at Turf Moor. Over 7,000 City fans made the trip north to see if the Sky Blues could extend that 25-match unbeaten run against Burnley, but there was disappointment as the highly experienced and savvy Lancashire team defeated City 2-1 with goals from Willie Irvine and Frank Casper. A late own goal by Dave Merrington got City on the score-sheet but the hordes set off back home to the Midlands with the unusual smell of defeat in their nostrils.

There was an interesting kit worn by City that day. The slight colour clash between City's sky blue jerseys and Burnley's claret shirts with sky blue sleeves could have persuaded them to wear their change kit but that was all red and definitely clashed with the home side. From somewhere an all-white kit – believed to be the outfit worn by Jimmy Hill's International XI (his charity team) – was produced. City had worn it only once before, to my knowledge, at Huddersfield in the final away game of 1965-66 season, but it never saw the light of day in a Coventry game again. For Coventry City shirt collectors – and there are a growing number – this one must be the 'Penny Black' of the hobby.

Talking of Burnley I had an interesting question from Jon Ryder about a friendly game at Turf Moor in 1990, prompted by City's use of trialists in pre-season friendlies this summer. Jon remembers a Hungarian playing for City that day and wondered if I could confirm the fact.

The player in question was Zoltan Csucsanszky, a Hungarian International winger who manager John Sillett had brought to the club on trial. On 7th August 1990 City met Burnley, then a Fourth Division club with the following starting line up, which included six of the victorious 1987 team, was: Ogrizovic: Borrows, Edwards, Gynn, Kilcline, Peake, Csucsanszky, McGrath, Regis, Speedie, Smith.

The 24-year old Hungarian, who had won five full caps for his country whilst playing for Videoton, pulled up after 17 minutes and was carried off the field in what was his first public appearance for the club. I don't know what the specific injury was but it was serious and ended his brief trial with the club. The records say he didn't play professional football until he re-appeared the following season for Hungarian club Vac before a short spell with German lower-league club Jahn Regensburg. I believe he retired in 1993, possibly because of his injury at Burnley in 1990 and went into coaching and is currently under 19 coach at his old club Videoton.

Following the injury, Kevin McDonald came on for Zoltan and Dougie McGuire, Howard Clark, Tony Dobson and Steve Livingstone also came on as substitutes as City eased to a 2-0 victory in front of a crowd of 3,747.

A reminder that my latest book, Play Up Sky Blues, the story of the memorable 1966-67 season, is due to be published in October and is available for pre-order on Amazon.

If you have any questions regarding the club's history please contact me on clarriebourton@gmail.com and I will endeavour to answer them.

Jim's column 12.8.2017

 55 years ago this month Coventry City kicked off the first full season under the management of Jimmy Hill. The former Fulham player had been appointed in succession to Billy Frith the previous November and after a busy summer in the transfer market his new team were unveiled at the opening game, like this season, in a home game with Notts County.

The new all Sky-Blue kit made its first appearance in a competitive game and a complete new forward line was on view. Outside-right Willie Humphries had played one game at the end of the 1961-62 season and was joined against Notts by Hubert Barr, Terry Bly, Jimmy Whitehouse and Bobby Laverick. In defence JH stuck with the players he had inherited with the exception of another new signing, John Sillett, at right-back. Like Humphries, 'Sill' had arrived as the previous season ended but had had little opportunity to show City fans his Division One pedigree. Arthur Lightening was in goal, Frank Austin at left-back and the renowned half-back line of Farmer-Curtis-Kearns made up the eleven.

Over 22,000 rolled up to Highfield Road, the biggest opening home crowd for seven years, and expectations were high on a hot sticky day. A nervous City managed 30 shots on target but couldn't make the breakthrough. Then with 14 minutes left debutant Barr smashed home a right-foot shot and seven minutes later the same player set up Bly's header for number two. A 2-0 home win was just reward for a solid performance.

Last Saturday the Sky Blues went one better, winning 3-0, again with two late goals. Let's hope that's a good omen as 1962-63 became the launchpad for the Sky Blue Revolution.

After failing to score more than two goals in any league game last season, few fans expected three on the opening day, let alone a hat-trick from Jodi Jones. Jones wasn't the most consistent of players last season and scored only one league goal but he certainly came out of the blocks well this term. Jodi is still only 19 and although he's a year older than the youngest City hat-trick scorer, Adam Armstrong (v Crewe in January 2016) he is the fifth youngest. Tommy English, Willie Carr and Ronnie Rees all scored before their 20th birthday and were younger than Jones.

Mark Robins' overhaul of City's squad this summer was reflected on Saturday with two stats. There were seven debutants in the starting line up and two more came off the bench during the game. The total of nine (ten if you include the returning Michael Doyle) is the most in the club's history, beating the eight used by Gary McAllister on the opening day in 2003 which was equalled in 2014 by Stephen Pressley at Bradford. Some people have pointed out that there were no Academy players in City's line-up on Saturday. This was the first time in over seven years that this has happened. The last time was in April 2010 in a 3-0 defeat at Reading. That day Marcus Hall, Shaun Jeffers and Jordan Clarke were all on the bench but none of them used. On Tuesday night the academy boys were out in force with six of them playing some part in the League Cup tie with Blackburn, including two more debutants, Warwick-born Kyle Finn and Cov kid Jordan Ponticelli.

A reminder that my latest book, Play Up Sky Blues, the story of the memorable 1966-67 season, is due to be published in October and is available for pre-order on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785313320/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502741687&sr=8-1&keywords=jim+brown+coventry

If you have any questions regarding the club's history please contact me on clarriebourton@gmail.com and I will endeavour to answer them.