50th Anniversary of the Donkey-kick goal

 Today marks the 50th anniversary of the most memorable goal in the history of Coventry City. Regular reader Ian Greaves was in touch last week and reminded me that it was 50 years ago exactly that Ernie Hunt scored the famous donkey kick goal at Highfield Road against league champions Everton. Every City fan must know what happened – City were awarded a free-kick just outside the Everton penalty area at the West End. Everton formed a wall of players, the red-headed Scot Willie Carr stood over the ball then flicked it up between his feet, and as the ball came down Ernie superbly timed his dipping volley to send the ball over the wall of defenders into the corner beyond the grasping dive of Andy Rankin in goal.

BBC Match of the Day cameras were at the game and recorded the events with the goal winning their Goal of the Month and Goal of the Season awards. The two footed flick was pettily outlawed by FIFA the following summer. On YouTube there are several video clips of the goal and one of them has almost 1 million views!

1970 was a memorable year for Coventry City. After two seasons of relegation battles and close shaves, the club had finished sixth in Division One and qualified for a European competition. The new season had not started that brightly with only one win in four home league games but the previous season's impressive away form had continued with wins at Ipswich and Derby, the latter a 4-3 thriller which saw City come back from 0-2. An impressive 6-1 aggregate win over Trakia Plovdiv of Bulgaria had kicked off the Fairs Cup and a plum tie with Bayern Munich loomed later in the month.

Crowd favourite Ian Gibson had left for Cardiff in the summer and two signings had been made, Geoff Strong, an experienced defender from Liverpool for £35,000, and Wilf Smith, the England under 23 full-back from Sheffield Wednesday. The fee for Smith, £100,000, was a British record for a full-back, and evidence that City were aiming for higher things. Dietmar Bruck was in the side for the injured Chris Cattlin and young Scottish winger Brian Alderson had forced his way into the team.

Everton had suffered a reaction to winning the title the previous season, failing to win any of their first six league games but had recovered to win six games on the bounce to get up to eighth in the table going into the game. Centre-half and captain Brian Labone was injured so Roger Kenyon played at centre-half otherwise it was the title-winning line up including the famous midfield of Kendall, Ball and Harvey.

Neil Martin put City ahead on 18 minutes but John Hurst headed an equaliser six minutes later. 1-1 at the break. Alderson was giving the Everton defence a roasting and after 58 minutes his run and shot rebounded to Ernie Hunt who scored from close range. With ten minutes remaining John Hurst was deemed to have climbed over John O'Rourke and the referee awarded the famous free-kick and Hunt and Carr went into conference. Goalkeeper Rankin was astounded and the Everton players were mesmerised by Ernie's cheek. Referee Tommy Dawes, momentarily unsure whether it contravened the laws in any way, decided not. Everton boss Harry Catterick was quoted afterwards as saying he had seen it only once before – in a circus – and the City fans decided the whole thing was out of this world!

                      Ernie tries it again v Tottenham

The 'donkey-kick' as the goal came to be called had been the idea of City coach Bill Asprey and was developed and practised on the Ryton training ground that summer. The trick had been tried in a pre-season friendly at Blackpool an attempt Ernie Hunt later described as pathetic, 'I almost hit the clock on the stand'.

A few weeks later I was present at a Youth Cup tie against Shrewsbury and Alan Green and Johnny Stevenson repeated the trick and scored in a 6-0 victory and later that season Willie and Ernie had other attempts, at Stoke and again in a home game with Tottenham. In the latter game Pat Jennings was left flat-footed by Ernie's volley but the ball hit the angle of bar and post and bounced to safety.

Poor Ernie sadly passed away in 2018 and Willie has thankfully recovered from his health issues and I hope he can raise a glass tonight to the most memorable Coventry City goal of all time.

Jim's Column 19.3.2016

Last week I wrote about Coventry City's poor form against Lancashire clubs and what happens - the Sky Blues end a 97-year hoodoo at Blackpool and record only their fifth win in the North West in 15 trips since they were relegated from the Championship in 2012. It may have been an ugly win over a poor side but that is just what is required to get the team into the play-offs.

City's record at Bloomfield Road has historically been atrocious with only one win and one draw in 13 visits in League & Cup games since they joined the league in 1919. The clubs didn't meet in league games between 1925 and 1970 and have only played them regularly since 2007. The solitary win came in March 1923, a month before the old Wembley stadium was opened. Jimmy Dougall netted the only goal in a dour game as City pulled off a shock result by beating the league leaders despite being in the relegation zone. Since then there have been some dreadful results including City's 1-0 loss at Bloomfield Road in 1970-71 when the Seasiders were rated as one of the worst sides to play in the top division since the war.

Talking of Blackpool, regular correspondent Keith Ballantyne reminded me of comments made by Ernie Hunt regarding the famous donkey-kick goal against Everton in 1970. Ernie has often mentioned that he and Willie Carr had tried the trick before in a game at Blackpool. Keith wondered if it was the league defeat there in December 1970 but in fact it was a pre-season friendly at Bloomfield Road in August 1970, two months before the famous goal against Everton. The free-kick, which Ernie has always said almost hit the clock, was so much a failure that the Coventry Telegraph's Derek Henderson didn't even mention it in his match report. I reminded Keith that Alan Green and Johnny Stevenson pulled off the donkey-kick trick in an FA Youth Cup tie against Shrewsbury soon after the Everton game. Henderson reported that this goal, the final one in a 6-0 home victory, was 'further out than Hunt's and left the Shrewsbury 'keeper helpless'.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about famous City slumps, one of which turned out to have silver lining (1964) and one which ended in disaster (2002). Dave Long reminded me about a slump in form in 1973 after City went out of the FA Cup in the sixth round. With new signings Tommy Hutchison and Colin Stein dazzling and homegrown youngsters Willie Carr, Dennis Mortimer and Brian Alderson impressing, Joe Mercer and Gordon Milne's team had an impressive winter which took them to a comfortable mid-table place in Division One and an FA Cup run that had fans talking about a first ever trip to Wembley. However after their FA Cup defeat at Molineux the side lost form completely and lost nine of their final ten games, the only result being a 3-1 victory over Ipswich at Highfield Road. In the modern era that sort of run would probably result in a sacking as it did for Chris Coleman in 2010 when his Sky Blues team fell from eighth place to 19^th in their final eleven games which failed to produce a win and gleaned only five points.

Susan Andrews from Hinckley was in touch recently regarding an old programme she wanted to donate to the club's archives. Sue and her friend Jean McCormick (who now lives in Canada) were both born in Coventry, and trained as Nursery Nurses. They both moved to the island of Bermuda and were working at a children's nursery in Paget in 1967 when they heard that the Sky Blues were visiting the island and planning a friendly game nearby.

Sue takes up the story:

'We made a banner out of babies muslin nappies (clean ones of course!!) and wrote upon it 'SKY BLUES' in the children's pale blue paint. I think that's what drew the players attention to us, as they were only known as Coventry City FC in the advertisement of the game there. Before the kick off several of the players came across for a chat and I recall that's when we were invited to the after game party !'

The Sky Blues were enjoying a promotion celebration holiday in the West Indies with a few friendly games thrown in and the game against a Police Recreation Select XI was the final game before they returned to the UK. City won the game, played at the Pembroke Hamilton Club Stadium, 8-0 with goals from Ronnie Rees (2), Brian Lewis (2), John Tudor, Ernie Machin, Dave Clements and Dietmar Bruck.