This
week I thought I would answer some of the fascinating questions I
received over the summer months. First of all, Dave Bramwell
remembers seeing Coventry City play a friendly game at Bedworth in
1964 and wanted to know more details.
It
was the week following the famous Colchester game in April 1964 that
saw City clinch the Third Division championship on goal average on
the final day of the season. City played five 'friendly' games in
five days that week. Dublin on the Monday evening for a testimonial,
Tottenham were entertained at Highfield Road on the Tuesday (City
lost a thriller 5-6), a trip to Bedworth on the Wednesday night,
another home game on Thursday against Brazilian side FC America
following the open-top bus parade in the city centre and a trip to
Eastbourne on the Friday night where they beat the local team to lift
the Eastbourne Charity Cup. The following day the exhausted players
(and wives) flew off to Spain for a well-earned rest in the resort of
Gandia.
The
game at Bedworth Town (as the Greenbacks were known then) was won 4-0
with goals from Graham Newton, Dietmar Bruck, Bill Tedds and Ronnie
Rees. The line up with substitutes in brackets was:
Wesson(Meeson):
Tedds, Kearns (Barr), B.Hill (Kearns), Curtis (Dicks), Farmer
(Bruck), Humphries (Newton), Hudson (Hale), Kirby (B.Hill), Smith
(Rees), Rees (Mitten).
A
crowd estimated at 4,500 watched the game at The Oval.
City
fan Peter Shilton asked me a while ago to provide him with details of
the Texaco Cup game between City and Motherwell in the 1972-73
season. The competition, sponsored by the oil company, was an
Anglo-Scottish competition initially for top division teams from both
sides of the border who hadn't qualified for European competitions.
All ties were over two legs and in 1971-72 City eliminated Falkirk
(3-1 on aggregate) in the first round before losing to Newcastle (2-6
on aggregate).
In
1972-73 City, under the new management team of Joe Mercer and Gordon
Milne, were drawn against Motherwell. The
first leg, at home, was a 3-3 draw with Billy Rafferty (2) and Dennis
Mortimer on target and Martin and Lawson (2) for Motherwell in front
of a crowd of 7,370. Two weeks later City travelled to Firhill and
lost the second leg 0-1, McClymont scoring to eliminate the Sky Blues
in front of 9,812.
City's line up for the first leg
was: Glazier: Coop, Cattlin: Machin, Blockley, Barry: Mortimer,
Young, Rafferty, Carr, Smith (sub Alderson).
For the second leg Dugdale
replaced Cattlin, McGuire replaced Machin, Green replaced Young and
Alderson replaced Smith. Within a month of the first game Machin,
Blockley, Young and Rafferty had all left the club as the
Mercer/Milne revolution took place.
The following season City were
drawn against Motherwell again and lost 2-4 on aggregate. It was to
be the last time City took up the invitation to play in the
competition which lost its appeal somewhat with English top division
sides shunning the tournament. 1974-75 was the last year that Texaco
sponsored the cup and the competition became the Anglo-Scottish Cup
and ran until 1981.
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