Jim's column 1.5.2021

 Coventry City sealed their place in the EFL Championship last weekend despite losing to their bogey team Preston North End. No one expected a smooth passage in the higher division and realistic fans were saying at the start of the season that 21st place would be acceptable. Now we can relax in the knowledge that a second season in tier 2 awaits us. The three-match winning run in six days the week before last was crucial and the true Coventry City relegation fighting spirit emerged with a home win over play-off chasing Barnsley sandwiched between away victories at Rotherham and Stoke. At the crucial time Mark Robins' team came up with not only their first back-to-back victories but made it three wins in a row at Stoke.

Following my piece about former City chairman Erle Shanks two weeks ago I received a nice email from his grandson Chris Pendle who wrote:

Thank you so much for the amazing article on Erle Shanks, my Grandfather, in the Coventry Telegraph last Saturday. Coventry City did recognise what my Grandfather had done for the club because, as from the early 1960s, he was given three seats in the Directors’ Box for life - which I benefited from because, from 1963 onwards, when I was was only 10 years old, he would take me to games on a regular basis. That continued until I was old enough to take him. Later on I still had the use of the tickets until my Grandfather’s death in 1999 since when I have been a season ticket holder.
Your article reminded me of stories from my grandfather particularly the saga of Jesse Carver who my Grandfather felt let him and the club down very badly. I think that the thing that gave him the most satisfaction was the part he played in the club purchasing the ground at Highfield Road.

City travelled to Huddersfield Town today for their penultimate league game and will play their first competitive game at the John Smith's Stadium. The two clubs have miraculously managed to avoid each other, league-wise, for 49 years – since they met in the old First Division in 1972. The Terriers were relegated that season and within three years they were in Division Four. They bounced back however and spent several seasons in tier 2 before being relegated again in 2000-01, the same season that the Sky Blues dropped out of the Premiership. In 2011-12 when Coventry dropped into League One Huddersfield were going in the opposite direction and they missed each other again. Since then Huddersfield have been in the Championship, apart from their two seasons in the top flight that ended the season before last. In 1972 the clubs met at the old ground, Leeds Road which was replaced in 1994 by the current ground previously known as the Galpharm and project managed by former City chief executive Paul Fletcher. City did play a League Cup tie at Leeds Road in 1977 and won 2-0 and have played a pre-season friendly at the new ground in 2009 (a 0-0 draw). That game in 1972 ended in a 1-0 win for the Sky Blues with Ernie Hunt grabbing a goal which guaranteed City's survival with four games of the season remaining.

That leaves Fulham as the club that City have avoided meeting for the longest period. Somehow the West London club and the Sky Blues have not been in the same division since 1968 (City's first season in the top flight) when the Cottagers were relegated. It looks increasingly likely that this will change next season as Fulham struggle to avoid relegation and many City away fans might get their first visit to Craven Cottage.

        City's Ernie Machin tussles with Fulham's Johnny Haynes in City's last league visit to Craven Cottage

The Preston defeat saw City concede their eleventh penalty of the season and Alan Browne duly converted it as have the previous ten penalty takers. Eleven is one short of the club record for a season – in 2013-14 they conceded 12. However in 2013-14 Joe Murphy managed to save five of them and therefore this season's eleven is a record for penalties 'scored' against us. In addition there were penalties conceded at MK Dons and Gillingham in the League Cup, the former which was saved by Marosi. Someone asked me to analyse who had conceded the 13 penalties. The offenders were:

Ben Wilson 3

Kyle McFadzean 3

Michael Rose 2

Declan Drysdale 1

Callum O'Hare 1

Ben Sheaf 1

Dom Hyam 1

Sam McCallum 1

Jim's column 17.4.2021

I am in regular contact with Marshall Stewart, author of Sky Blue Miracle, the first and one of the best books on the history of the football club, and he recently suggested that I write about Erle Shanks, an influential and sometimes controversial director of the club before and after World War Two. Born in 1901 he was the son of Ernest O Shanks, the owner of a Coventry-based timber company, and his wife Florinda.

                                                 W Erle Shanks

He first came to prominence at Highfield Road in May 1936 just weeks after City had clinched promotion to the old Second Division. A new stand was planned for Highfield Road, replacing the old John Bull Stand which had been in situ since the ground first opened in 1899. The old stand, on the south side of the ground (at the top of King Richard Street) only held a few hundred patrons and was in a poor state of repair.

The new stand was originally called the 'Promotion Stand' later became known as the Main Stand and was severely damaged by fire in 1968. The club did not have the money to both finance team strengthening for the higher division and carry out all the ground improvements and the Midland Daily Telegraph reported that 'an appeal fund to raise the £5,000 was to be supervised by William Erle Shanks, the owner of a timber merchant and joinery firm based in Foleshill'.

Shanks, a public spirited supporter who no doubt saw an opportunity of some substantial work for his company, would administer the ‘Stand Fund’ and organise a system of “district collecting agents”. A donation of 500 guineas by the football club inaugurated the appeal fund and Shanks’ open letter in the MDT urged all local businesses and individual supporters to make generous donations. In the same edition of the newspaper manager Harry Storer confirmed the club’s financial donation and revealed that Shanks had recently turned down an offer to join the board as the appeal would take up too much of his time. By August 1936 he had changed his mind and became a key member of the board, heading the Ground sub-committee and becoming involved with the negotiations over the Highfield Road ground lease.

The appeal failed to raise the full £5,000 required and Shanks was scathing of local businesses for not supporting the club. The new stand was completed for the new season however and Shanks persuaded Sir John Siddeley to lend the club the money to buy the freehold of Highfield Road from the Mercer's Company, a deal which strengthened the club's position as they entered Division Two.

By 1939 Shanks had emerged as the most dynamic of City's directors and soon after war was declared in September of that year he presented a plan for how the club could survive the hostilities which included the retention of manager Harry Storer (on a reduced salary) and the groundsman to ensure that the club was ready for resumption of activities as soon as possible.

After the war Shanks stood down from the board and was appointed vice-president of the club before becoming president in 1950 following the death of Alderman Fred Lee. In 1953. with City back in Division Three, however he resigned from that position in protest at the sacking of manager Harry Storer and led a shareholder's revolt that saw the majority of the board resign in April 1954 with Erle stepping in to be chairman. One of his first tasks was to bring onto the board businessman, Derrick Robins with whom he had close business ties. For the first time since the war the club had dynamic men who would make things happen but success was not quite around the corner.

           1954: Derrick Robins, Erle Shanks, new signings Colin Collindridge and Tommy Capel, manager Jack Fairbrother.

Storer's replacement Jack Fairbrother resigned in the autumn of 1954 allegedly over the sale of Eddie Brown to Birmingham and director's interference in the dressing room. Erle had ambitious plans however and in January 1955 announced a major coup by persuading top coach Jesse Carver to give up a job with AS Roma to become City's manager on a large salary the following season. For half a season Carver put City back on the football map with lots of continental ideas and some attractive football but by the start of 1956 he was on his way back to Italy. Shanks recruited Harry Warren to replace Carver but it was a poor decision and within 15 months Warren was sacked and Billy Frith came back for a second spell as manager.

In April 1958 Shanks resigned as chairman after a lot of pressure from shareholders and the club heading into the new Fourth Division. According to the Coventry Telegraph the resignation came after an incident following a home defeat to Swindon. Shanks had stormed into the home dressing room and in front of the manager and several other directors severely criticised the players’ performance. The late Lol Harvey, who played that night remembered it well: ‘Erle was known to have a short fuse but all the players liked him because he cared so much about the club. That night we had been dreadful but were shocked when he came into the dressing room – he never came in there – and started ripping into the players in general. He didn’t criticise me though, I remember he turned to me and said, ‘well played Lol’’.

Shanks resigned that night and a club statement said that the lack of success on the playing field had caused Mr Shanks ‘bitter disappointment and has been poor reward for his ceaseless and untiring efforts. Like directors before and after him Shanks’ hard work and financial backing was taken for granted by many fans. They didn’t appreciate what Shanks had done, especially in 1936 when his involvement in the ground improvements and their funding was crucial in the club’s development. His Herculean efforts to bring success to the club, displayed by his coup in bringing Carver to Coventry and his invaluable committee work, were matched by his impatience for success.

I had the pleasure of meeting Erle Shanks in the early 1990s by which time he was living in a Coventry residential home and he was a feisty character with strong views on football, lots of memories and still an avid City fan. He died in 1999, aged 98.

If you have a question about Coventry City's history please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @clarriebourton