Jim's column 1.2.2020

The games are coming thick and fast for the Sky Blues and February promises to be a crucial month with seven first-team games including today's match at Bristol Rovers. Home games against fellow promotion contenders Portsmouth and Rotherham are real six-pointers and City need to keep their momentum up with hopefully less draws and more victories.

What a great atmosphere at St Andrews last week for the cup-tie and it promises to be similar on Tuesday night under the lights in the replay. The attendance at last week's game was restricted due to safety and police guidance but numbered a healthy 21,193. There were 11,728 Coventry fans, the highest number to watch the team outside Coventry other than at Wembley since the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough in 1987 when 25,000 were present. The Blues contingent was impressive too – with 9,465 'away' fans the largest away following at a City game since Highfield Road was made all-seater in 1981. Earlier that year there were an estimated 10,000 West Ham fans for the first leg of the League Cup semi-final.

Coventry City will be playing their seventh game in this season's FA Cup on Tuesday night – the most they have played in the competition in a single season since the famous 1963 run when the club played nine games in reaching the Quarter Finals as a Third Division club. That season their games were as follows:-

Round 1 Bournemouth (h) 1-0

Round 2 Millwall (a) 0-0

replay Millwall (h) 2-1

Round 3 Lincoln City (a) 5-1

Round 4 Portsmouth (a) 1-1

replay Portsmouth (h) 2-2

2nd replay Portsmouth* 2-1

Round 5 Sunderland (h) 2-1

Round 6 Manchester United (h) 1-3

*second replay at White Hart Lane

The drawn game against Birmingham meant that the club have had three successive ties with replays something that has only happened once before, in 1974. That season City beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 in round three after a 0-0 draw at Hillsborough, beat Derby 1-0 after a 0-0 draw at Highfield Road but lost in round five, 3-2 at QPR, after a 0-0 draw at Coventry.

After the Blues cup game I had the pleasure of meeting former City player Jim Hagan who was over in the UK for a rare visit from his home in Southern Spain. Jim, now aged 63, made only nineteen appearances for the Sky Blues between 1978-82 before joining Birmingham and playing over 150 games for the Bluenoses. A central defender, most of Jim's games in Sky Blue came in 1978-79 when he stood in for Gary Gillespie and partnered Jim Holton at the back. The Northern Irishman went to Torquay on loan in 1979-80 and then had spells with Seiko in Hong Kong and Jimmy Hill's US teams, Detroit Express and Washington Diplomats. He returned to Highfield Road in 1981 and was a regular in the reserves but couldn't win a regular first team place because of the form of Gillespie and Paul Dyson. His final game for the club was an FA Cup sixth round defeat at West Brom in March 1982 and he moved to St Andrews that summer. I managed to introduce him to CCFPA president Kirk Stephens and they discovered they have homes a few miles apart on the Costa Del Sol. Another reunion occurred with Harry Roberts (another who played for both the Sky Blues and the Blues) and the two reminisced about lift sharing to Birmingham in the 1980s.

                           

                                                                 Jim Hagan receiving his CCFPA tie

Jim's column 18.1.2020

Coventry City overcame Bristol Rovers comfortably in their FA Cup Third round replay at St Andrew’s on Tuesday evening. Their 3-0 victory was the clubs biggest FA Cup replay win since 2003 when Cardiff City were despatched by the same score at Highfield Road.

The victory sets up an enthralling Fourth round tie with the club’s landlords Birmingham City with the Sky Blues the ‘home’ side at St Andrew’s. It will be the fourth FA Cup meeting between the clubs and Blues have the edge having won two to City’s one. The first meeting was in the Third round at St Andrew’s in 1935 when Blues were a First Division club and Coventry were in Division Three South. Blues’ pedigree prevailed with a 5-1 victory thanks to a Fred Harris hat-trick and City’s consolation coming via a Les Jones penalty. A crowd of over 40,000 watched the tie.

The next meeting was at Highfield Road in 1981 in front of 29,000, when both sides were in Division One. In a close game Gerry Daly and Andy Blair gave the home side a 2-0 half-time lead before Frank Worthington, with a penalty, and Alan Ainscow levelled things. Daly won the tie from the penalty spot to send the Sky Blues to a Fifth round tie at Tottenham.

The most recent meeting was in 2011 in the Fourth round at St Andrew’s. Blues were in the Premier League with City in the Championship but the game didn’t excite the fans and only 16,000 were present. The Sky Blues took a 2-0 lead through Richard Wood and Marlon King before David Bentley pulled one back with a screamer from 25 yards. After half-time the home side’s quality began to tell and they sealed the tie with goals from Stuart Parnaby and Kevin Phillips. The Blues went on to reach the quarterfinals before losing to Bolton.

Josh Pask made an impressive senior debut for the club on Tuesday night and capped it with a stunning goal. Fellow historian Paul O’Connor pointed out that Pask is the first player to score for the club on his debut in an FA Cup game since City joined the league in 1919. That’s not strictly true - Coventry-born winger Dennis Simpson scored in the home FA Cup game with Aston Villa in January 1946 which City won 2-1. Whilst it was Simpson’s first ‘official’ competitive game for the club, he had played numerous times for the club in wartime games. Dennis went to play 69 games for City before joining Reading where he played almost 200 games.

The Sky Blues’ home form continues to be good with only one defeat in 18 games in all competitions. MK Dons however did become the first side not to lose at St Andrew’s after going behind. Ironically it was Coventry’s fastest goal of the season that put the ahead with Sam McCallum’s strike timed at 50 seconds.

Jim's column 11.1.2020

The Sky Blues have their first FA Cup replay on Tuesday night when they entertain Bristol Rovers for a place in the Fourth round and a home tie with Birmingham City. The intriguing prospect of a game against our landlords makes the replay even more interesting. 

Last week's draw at Bristol stopped City winning their third successive away FA Cup tie of the season, something they have not done since 1987 when, of course, they went on to lift the trophy. In fact it would have been only the third time ever – the other occasion being in 1909-10 when City, as a non-league club, won away at Kettering, First Division Preston and Portsmouth, on their way to a quarter final tie with Everton.

I've been looking at City's record in home FA Cup replays and it is very interesting. Since World War Two City have had 14 home replays in the competition and have lost only three. Two of those defeats have been at the Ricoh (v Bristol City in 2007 and v Portsmouth in 2010), the other way back in 1955 against First Division Huddersfield and two of the three defeats came after extra time. Therefore in fourteen home replays the team has lost only once inside ninety minutes. Highfield Road was undoubtedly a fortress when it came to Cup replays but only two of the four staged at the Ricoh have been won. The full list is as follows:

1951-52 v Leicester City won 4-1

1954-55 v Huddersfield lost 2-3 (after extra time)

1962-63 v Millwall won 2-1

1962-63 v Portsmouth drew 2-2 (won 2nd replay)

1965-66 v Crewe won 4-1

1973-74 v Sheffield Wed. won 3-1

1980-81 v Leeds United won 1-0

1983-84 v Wolves won 3-0 (2nd replay)

2002-03 v Cardiff won 3-0

2006-07 v Bristol City lost 0-2

2008-09 v Blackburn won 1-0

2009-10 v Portsmouth lost 1-2 (after extra time)

2013-14 v Hartlepool won 2-1

2016-17 v Morecambe won 2-1

It's sad to report the death of former City youth player John Matthews at the age of 73. Coventry-born John was the son of ex-City player Horace Matthews and joined City after being spotted playing for GEC. John was a winger and played in the same youth team as Mick Coop and Pat Morrissey but his first team chances were non-existent due to the form of Ronnie Rees and John Mitten. In 1966 Jimmy Hill was approached by Mick Lynch, the manager of Waterford, seeking a young player on loan. JH agreed for young John, who would have probably been released that summer, to go over for six weeks to gain some experience and in his first seven games he helped them clinch their first ever League of Ireland championship. John signed permanently for the club soon afterwards and the club won five more titles over the next six seasons and played in the European Cup against such sides as Manchester United and Celtic. He also played for Cork United, Newcastlewest and Longford Town during a 22-year career. His 156 goals make him the ninth highest goal scorer in the history of the League of Ireland.

After retiring Johnny, as he became known in Ireland, managed Limerick & Waterford United as well as becoming a referee & TV pundit. Thanks to City fan Jim Douglas for the sad news. John can be found on the unique photograph taken of the whole club staff taken in 1966. He is on the far right in the group under number 11 with Dave Clements.

Another who passed away over the Christmas period was Gordon Dougall. Gordon was one of six sons of 1920’s Coventry City star Jimmy Dougall and played for several local clubs including Rugby Town and Lockheed Leamington in the fifties. One of his brothers was Tommy who played four games for City during the Second World War.

Jim's column 4.1.2020

Coventry City fans have been discussing their favourite game of the last decade on social media over the last week or so and the game most mentioned was the thrilling 4-1 win at Notts County to secure a playoff final place in 2018. Coincidentally the Sky Blues ended the decade with another 4-1 victory, at League One leaders Wycombe last Sunday. They then followed it up with another 4-1 win, at Tranmere on New Year’s Day, in the first game of the new decade. After failing to win an away league game since Sunderland in April they were two remarkable results. Several fans wanted to know when the team had last won successive away games by a three goal margin. The answer was, in 2018, the 6-1 win at Cheltenham followed by the famous victory at Meadow Lane.

The results were remarkable enough but not the most remarkable statistic from the games. That honour goes to the hat trick king Matty Godden who scored hat tricks in both games. He’s the first City player to score successive three-goal hauls since Darren Huckerby who achieved the feat in January 1999 against Nottingham Forest in the league and Macclesfield in the FA Cup. You have to go back to November 1952 to find that Don Dorman scored successive hat tricks in league games (Crystal Palace and Torquay). Dorman, a veteran of the Battle of Arnhem, was actually a midfield player only playing in attack because of injuries to other players. 

In 1963 the legendary George Hudson netted three in successive away games, at Trowbridge in the FA Cup and in a league game at QPR. Other players to score consecutive hat tricks are George Lowrie in 1948, Clarrie Bourton in 1932 and Billy Smith in 1908 but the most prolific short-term scorer was Arthur ‘Rasher’ Bacon who, at Christmas 1933, standing in for the injured Bourton, netted five in a 7-3 win at Gillingham and four in a 5-1 home victory over Crystal Palace seven days later.

I believe Godden is in exalted company with his ‘double’ hat trick, the last player to achieve that fact in English football was Tottenham’s Harry Kane in December 2017 who scored threes against Burnley & Southampton.

The Wycombe victory was notable for defeating the league leaders on their own patch and was also the eighth consecutive victory over the Chairboys in all competitions. They must be fed up with the Sky Blues! The Tranmere result was notable for breaking the hoodoo that Rovers have had over City who had only ever won once at Prenton Park, back in a Second Division game in April 1939. In seven subsequent visits City had lost six and drawn once. Two of those defeats came in Cup games when City were a top flight side. In 1968 Third Division Rovers pulled off a FA cup giant killing by drawing at Highfield Road and winning the replay 2-0, then, in 1999 City suffered an embarrassing 5-1 League Cup defeat at Prenton when Italian goalkeeper Rafaele Nuzzo made his one and only first team appearance. This time out City mastered the notorious ‘dodgy’ pitch and ran out deserved winners.

City enter the New Year with only three defeats in the league which is something they have only managed twice before on their history. In 1937-38 they were second in Division Two on New Years Day with only two defeats - they ended up finishing fourth and missing promotion by two points. Then in 1963-64 they were seven points clear at the top of Division Three on New Years Day with just three losses - they won promotion on goal average after a bad stutter in the spring when they failed to win in 11 games.

Jim's column 21.12.2019

Tuesday night's FA Cup second round replay saw Bristol Rovers emerge victorious against Plymouth Argyle and earn a third round home tie against the Sky Blues. Rovers are having an excellent season and look good outside bets for promotion and a return to the second tier of English football where they have not appeared since 1993. The shock departure of manager Graham Coughlin this week may have an effect on the 'Gas' but one of the most vociferous crowds in League One will give them the advantage on 5th January.

The clubs have met only once in the FA Cup previously – a second round tie at Highfield Road in 1963. City were strong favourites having scored 19 goals in four successive victories one of which was a 4-2 win over Rovers in a league game, two weeks previously. City were top of Division Three whilst Rovers were 13th. The form-book however went out of the window with Rovers winning 2-1.

The day's biggest FA Cup attendance, 26,248 saw Rovers score an early goal through former England international winger Geoff Bradford then defend in depth to thwart the goal-crazy Sky Blues. Harold Jarman scored a second goal just before half-time and although City had 22 shots at goal to Bristol's eight, the home side couldn't break through the strong Rovers' rearguard. Ken Hale scored a goal in the 87th minute and a minute later Ron Rees looked to have been fouled inside the penalty area but the referee waved play on. It would have been a travesty for Rovers who deserved their victory and went on to defeat Second Division Norwich in round three before losing 4-1 at Old Trafford in the fourth round.

Many City fans felt City didn't try in the Cup game and were saving their energies for the promotion push but manager Jimmy Hill denied these accusations saying that clubs of their size needed the income that FA Cup runs bring to help keep themselves solvent. Whatever the truth, the Sky Blues, despite a rocky springtime eventually won their promotion to the Second Division.

Coventry City have reached Christmas with only three league defeats, which, in terms of defeats, is the second best first half of the season in the 100 years of the club's Football  League history. It's only bettered by 1937-38 when on Christmas morning they had only suffered one defeat. A defeat at Bramall Lane in front of over 40,000 made it two and knocked City off the top of the table. Sadly, the second half of that season was somewhat of a disappointment and the team missed promotion to Division One by two points.

More news from Bob Dobbing in Australia and it's positive. His operation to remove his prostate was successful and he is keeping his fingers crossed that the cancer has been caught in time. He sent me a nice email after receiving his 1960s City shirt from the Former Players Association.

First of all Jim I would like to offer my sincere thanks for the manner in which you put all this together, I’m really very flattered and feel very privileged to be in such company with the players from Coventry City Football Club from that period.

I think this may have been initially driven by a Catherine Loftus my niece who is a “mad football/Sunderland fan” which is really nice for me as she is just so special, I had no idea she was doing this.

Yes it’s been a bit of a rough time the last few weeks but I’m pleased to say “so far so good” we’ll just see how things go.

Dobbing with his 1960s City shirt

My time at Coventry was an unreal experience for a 15/16 year old shy “Geordie boy” I just loved being there, a great club, a great bunch of guys from ground staff lads through to the first team players, incredible. The best education of my life, I was staying with friends of my Dad’s family in Grangemouth Road, Radford, living right opposite Dietmar Bruck. Dietmar was very good to me while on trial, taking me to the ground every day and getting me home when he could, something I was always very grateful for.

It was a very sad time for me to leave Coventry but I guess not making the first team it had to be. I spent a season in the Fourth Division at Hartlepool United, that was like going from a very progressive, professional club to the other end of the scale (chocolates to boiled lollies!) Playing in most first team games for the season missing only a handful through injury, I decided to investigate the offers I had from the USA, South Africa and Australia, so Australia it was. Another ex-City man Robin Hayward was in Melbourne and Don Peachey was in Sydney.

Life in Melbourne was really good, I was married to the lovely Pauline before we moved to Melbourne, Pauline was a “Sky Blue Girl” working in the pools office with Arthur Pepper in the 1960s, she actually featured in a Sky Blue Programme August 12^th 1969. We sadly lost Pauline to cancer in 2003 after 33 years married life – a very sad time for us all.

I had a contract with the Melbourne Soccer Club playing in the State League which was the major league in Melbourne Victoria (State) at the time. The standard was quite good , playing many club games, being selected for the State Team playing against other State Teams and visiting European clubs notably Moscow Dynamo and an English FA side described as an England “B” team in which Dennis Mortimer played. It was nice to catch up with Dennis after all that time. I managed to be selected in a Preliminary Australian Squad as a build up to the 1974 World Cup in Munich, But sadly missed out due to breaking my right “Tib and Fib” in a club game some three weeks after the squad was announced. I managed to get myself fit after 10 months hard work only to break the same leg again in a comeback game. Six months after the second break I had to have a bone graft which really put me back with my playing days by about two and a half years. It was very tough to take but after recovery I played back in the same league with a degree of success along with some coaching success too.

Melbourne has been a great place to live, I am walking distance to a lovely beach. I had a great interest in sailing both off the beach and ocean sailing too.

All being well I’m hoping to pay a visit next year to the UK and would just love to say hello Jim and personally thank you for your interest.

Merry Christmas to all my readers and let's hope 2020 will be a year of promotion for the Sky Blues.

Jim's column 14.12.2019

What a tremendous result for the Sky Blues at Ipswich on Tuesday night. Few City fans gave their team a chance in the Second Round replay at Portman Road but Mark Robins's side put on a super display to seal a place in the Third Round. City's record in away FA Cup replays has traditionally been awful and this was only the fifth time in the club's history in the competition that they have won an away replay and the first since 1997 when Gordon Strachan's side narrowly scraped home in a Third Round replay at non-league Woking.

Since that close shave in 1997 City have lost replays on three occasions after being held on their own ground, at Middlesbrough (0-1) in 2006, at Colchester (1-3) in 2004 and at Bramall Lane in 1998 when they lost on penalties after a late Blades' equaliser.

Over the years City have been notoriously vulnerable in FA Cup replays. In the 1990s they lost at Southampton (1991), Cambridge (1992), Norwich (1995), Manchester City (1996) as well as the Sheffield United game in 1998. In the 1970s there were defeats after home draws at Liverpool (1970), QPR (1974), Arsenal (1975), Newcastle (1976) and West Brom (1979). Perhaps the most embarrassing defeats were at non-league Scunthorpe (2-4) in the 1936 promotion season and at Tranmere (0-2) in 1968. In total City have been involved in 31 FA Cup away replays and won only five.

The only times that City have won replays on opponents grounds are:

1974 Derby County 1-0 after 0-0 draw

1991 Wigan Athletic 1-0 after 1-1 draw

1995 West Brom 2-1 after 1-1 draw

1997 Woking 2-1 after 1-1 draw

2019 Ipswich 2-1 after 1-1 draw.

Following my piece about former City full-back Bob Dobbing a few weeks ago I heard from Kevin Ring who remembered Bob from the 1960s:

You wrote about Bob Dobbing and how he is unwell. I remember him well. As a
teenager I would go to reserve games and stand behind the goal at the West
End, often with girlfriends (they had a thing for young footballers).
Bob was a regular in the reserves. I found a picture
of him in my old childhood scrapbooks (from The Pink), lining up with other young hopefuls.
My memory tells me (Left to Right) it's Martin Clamp, Malcolm Keley, Mick Coop, Tom
Sinclair (who I used to deliver morning papers to in Lodge Road),
Paul Bloodworth, Don Peachey, Bob Dobbing, Roy Linnie, Dave Matthews, Mick
Cartwright, Pat Morrissey, John Chambers, John Docker, Willie Carr.

Jim's column 7.12.2019

Footballers' biographies generally leave me cold generally being ghost-written, formulaic and revealing little about the subject. One biography that bucks that trend this year however is Six Foot Two, Eyes of Blue, the story of the late Jim Holton, the former Manchester United, Coventry City and Scotland defender. Sadly, Jim died of a heart attack in 1993 at the tragically early age of 42, but author Colin Leslie has researched Big Jim's life with the zeal of a forensic scientist to produce an excellent book.

Released as a teenager by West Brom, Jim joined Shrewsbury Town and within two years had earned a big money move to Manchester United, managed at the time by the legendary Tommy Docherty. Within months he was a fixture at centre-half in the Scottish team, starring in his country's 1974 World Cup final campaign and earning a reputation as one of the hardest defenders in the country.

Disaster however was looming for Jim and two broken legs ended his Old Trafford career. By 1977 he was at Highfield Road, via Sunderland, and Gordon Milne got a bargain when he paid £40,000 for the popular hard man. Many thought his best days were over but Jim became one of the key players of the 1977-78 team, arguably one of the best City sides of the last fifty years. He went on to play 100 games for the Sky Blues (more than any other club), assisting in the development of young defenders such as Gary Gillespie and Paul Dyson. After hanging up his boots he stayed in Coventry and went into the licensed trade, running the Town Wall Tavern and later the Rising Sun and the Stag.

Colin has tracked down many of Jim's former team-mates from all his clubs and his international days including Tommy Hutchison, Ian Wallace and Andy Blair, to produce an excellent story of Jim's life.

For younger readers the title of the book comes from a famous terrace chant of the 1970s originating from United's Stretford End and picked up by City's West End. Ironically his eyes were brown!

Six foot two, eyes of blue. Big Jim Holton's after you.

Congratulations this week to Sky Blues' fan Margaret Allen who celebrates her 90th birthday on Monday. She is still a regular at home games after over 50 years following the club from her Coventry home. As a young woman her passion was speedway and she was often found at Brandon watching the Bees but only came to football when Jimmy Hill was the manager and her young sons, David and Colin, like most Cov kids of that era, followed the bearded wonder like a modern day Pied Piper.

Margaret, who travels to home games at St Andrews, has had many favourite City players over the years including Ian Gibson, Danny Thomas, Richard Shaw, Big Mo and Greg Downs, whilst these days loves Callum O'Hare, Amadou Bakayoko and Jodi Jones. She meets up with David and his wife Ann at home games and provides much-welcomed hot coffee at half-time to the Woodfield family.

She was at Wembley in 1987 but her favourite games were the semi-final against Leeds at Hillsborough that year and ta famous 4-0 victory over Liverpool in 1983. She remembers queuing all night outside Highfield Road to buy tickets for the League Cup semi-final second leg against West Ham in 1981 and the despair when City's young stars' Wembley hopes were dashed by Paul Goddard's late, controversial goal at Upton Park.

Margaret was back at Wembley to see the Checkatrade Trophy lifted in 2017 and the following year for the Play-off final victory over Exeter City. She is still hoping to see her beloved Sky Blues back in the Premiership in her lifetime. Happy 90th Birthday Margaret.