Jim's column 10.12.11

                  City team at Coventry station leaving for Denmark 1946. Alf Setchell is kneeling on the right.

Coventry City’s poor run of form continued at Fratton Park on Saturday with the division’s financial basket-case gaining a much needed three points with a 2-1 victory. If, as many believe, Pompey are docked ten points because their parent company have gone into administration (and Southampton set the precedent for this three years ago), then they will become basement bedfellows with the Sky Blues. Unfortunately the way things are going we will need two more clubs to go into administration in order to avoid the drop.

The defeat sent City to the foot of the table, somewhere they haven’t been since 1996. On 7 December 1996 City lost 1-2 at home to Tottenham and propped up the whole Premier League. Ten days later Darren Huckerby inspired a famous win over Newcastle and a further three successive wins lifted City into mid-table. A spring slump however saw the Sky Blues sucked back into the relegation dog-fight and it needed wins at Anfield and at Tottenham (famously on the last day) to avoid the drop.

This season the statistics are not good for the Sky Blues. In the last eleven seasons only four clubs in this division have had 13 points or less from the first twenty games, and all have been relegated. The unfortunate four were:

Stockport            2001-02        12 points

Brighton            2002-03        12 points

Rotherham            2004-05        8 points

Southend            2006-07        12 points

In an effort to be positive I should point out that City’s worst 20-game start to a season during the same period (before this season) was in 2005-06 when, despite the move to the Ricoh Arena, only 18 points were in the bag at this stage. Then Micky Adams’ inspired signings of Don Hutchison and Dennis Wise lifted the season from the disastrous to the ecstatic with a final placing of eighth. Me thinks Andy Thorn needs to find a new Dennis Wise!

2011 has been a miserable year to be a City fan with before today only six league wins recorded. This is heading to be a new all-time low unless two wins are gained before the New Year. The current record low is eight in 2003 when City managed just one win in 24 games between January 1 and September 13. Gary McAllister’s team managed to win a further seven games out of the remaining 22 that year to reach the heady total of eight victories. That 2002-03 side was undoubtedly the worst City team I had ever seen and would have been relegated if the season had gone on two more games. Anyone who thinks the current team is the worst ever couldn’t have been around in 2003!

My brief obituary of Alf Setchell last week prompted his sons John and Alan to contact me to correct some of my facts and add some more of their own. Alf, who sadly passed away two weeks ago, was born on 29 October 1924, therefore was 87. He had made his debut as an eighteen year old in 1942 in a 1-0 home win over Walsall but his wartime service in the Royal Navy robbed him of what might have been a very successful football career. In addition to his 18 war-time appearances for City he also appeared as a guest in the war for Southport and Morton and possibly Rangers whilst on active service in the Navy.

After the war he was on City’s books until 1947 and a regular for the reserves in 1946-47 before joining Kidderminster Harriers, then a Southern League club. According to John, Kidderminster offered him more money than Coventry! 

I was incorrect in saying that he played for Lockheed Leamington but he did appear briefly for Hereford United, another Southern League side, before becoming part of a strong Bedworth Town team that won the Birmingham Combination in 1948-49 and 1949-50. The Bedworth team included several former City players including Stan Kelley (player-manager), Jack Evans and Norman Smith, with ex-City man Bob Ward as trainer. One of Alf’s playing colleagues at Bedworth in 1953-54 was Jim Brockbank (from Earlsdon) who also contacted me this week to express his condolences and remind me that ‘Shad’ Richards, the goalkeeper in that team, also passed away recently.

Outside of football, Alf worked at Dunlop Aviation Division for a number of years before being elected to the position of Secretary of the Unicorn Social Club, Holbrook Lane, in 1972. He held this position until his retirement in 1993. He was therefore well known not only in the Holbrooks area but also in the wider Warwickshire branch of the Club and Institute Union organisation.

Jim's column 3.12.11

                         CCFC photographed in Denmark on tour in 1946. Setchell is far right in the front row.

City’s trip to the South Coast and the first visit to the new Amex Stadium ended in defeat and disappointment for the 1900 City fans (the biggest away league following for almost two years) who made the long trip. One bright spot was the debut of Gary Gardner who scored after just eight minutes of his debut in a City shirt. According to my records he is only the fourth loanee to score on his first outing for the club. The three others are Lee Mills (2001-02 v Crystal Palace – almost ten years ago to the day), Johnnie Jackson (2002-03 v West Brom) and Micky Quinn (1992-93 v Manchester City). Quinn scored twice on his debut in a 2-3 loss and like Mills had his loan turned into a permanent transfer within weeks. Gardner’s goal however will go down as the fastest by a City loanee. Gary was also the first City debutant scorer for over four years – the last being Julian Gray on the opening day at Barnsley in 2007.

Cov kids Billy Gray and Alf Setchell were both on Coventry City’s books in the period immediately after the Second World War. This week I had news of both of them but very sad news in the case of Alf. Two weeks ago he was badly burned in a fire at his home in Holbrooks Lane and has subsequently died of his injuries.

Recent knowledge of Alf is vague but I do know that he was secretary for a local football team and must have been in his mid-80s – having appeared for City during the World War Two.

He was one of numerous good local players who filled in during the war for City when many of the first team squad were on active service in the hostilities. He made 12 appearances on the left wing in the 1942-43 season playing alongside several City legends including George Mason, Alf Wood, Billy Frith and George Lowrie. City had a strong team - only three of his twelve games were lost - and Setchell managed one goal in a 2-0 win at Filbert Street. Another three appearances were made in 1943-44, with one goal in a 4-1 win at Notts County. He then disappeared off the scene for almost two years before popping up in April 1946 and making three further appearances near the end of the transitional regional league season.

In May 1946 City travelled to Denmark for some friendly matches and Alf was in the 17-man squad who travelled across a war-ravaged Europe and scored a goal against crack Danish side Aarhus. (see picture).  He must have been confident of being in the first team squad when the first post-war season kicked off in August 1946 but he never played for the first team again. I believe he may have played for Lockheed Leamington at some stage after the war but I do know he lived in Coventry for the rest of his life.

Alan Clowes gave me the latest news on Billy Gray. Billy, who celebrates his 80^th birthday today, moved to Northumberland with his wife, Dot, a few years ago, to be closer to his family, but misses Coventry. He was a couple of years younger than Setchell and was one of an amazing crop of talented youngsters who played for Modern Machines FC which was in effect City’s youth team in the late 1940s. The team were virtually unbeatable in the Coventry leagues and saved the club thousands of pounds in the transfer market and Billy was a contemporary of players like Lol Harvey, Reg Matthews, Peter Hill, Frank Austin and Gordon Nutt. Billy played at wing-half where there was stiff competition for a first team place with Don Dorman, Harry Barratt, Harvey and others vying for a place. Billy got his chance in October 1951 playing at right half in a 1-1 home draw with Birmingham City. City’s form that autumn was not dissimilar to this season and the result, City’s fourth home game without a win, left them 21^st in the Second Division table. At the end of the season City were relegated.

Billy did enough to keep his place for a visit to Leicester the following week but the 1-3 defeat at Filbert Street marked the end of Gray’s first team career. He appeared many times for the reserves in a six-year career at the club but in 1954 he transferred to Kettering Town before reverting to local football with Morris Motors a year later.

Hopefully I can persuade Billy to sign up to the Former Players Association and get him to the Ricoh for a game soon.

Former City player Paul Furlong was spotted playing for St Albans City at Leamington’s New Windmill last weekend. The Londoner who played for City under Terry Butcher and Don Howe in the 1991-92 season, is now 43-years old.