It was another memorable Legend’s Day at the Ricoh Arena last Saturday with 48 former players and relatives of former players attending the Watford game. Many thanks to everyone who attended and made it a day to remember!
I would like to say a big thank you to everyone at CCFC, Compass, who put on a marvellous lunch, and the G Casino who hosted the evening activities. They were fantastic on our big day and we couldn’t have done it with out you all!
The Former Players Association committee, plus our hard-working fundraisers Gill Young, Dave, Leslie, and Grant, all worked hard to make it a special day.
Thanks to all our patrons and the club’s associate directors, with special mention to John Clarke and Joe Elliott, for their generous donations to the CCFPA, it is much appreciated!
Finally to the most important people, the fans and the former players of Coventry City, you were brilliant. Billy Bell asked me to say that he was honoured to introduce the former players parade at half time and the reception they received was truly awesome! He said: ‘When Ernie Machin was wheeled on to the pitch to that wonderful reception, I have to admit it brought a tear to my eye.’
Billy went on: ‘Credit also to the Watford fans who treated the boys with the respect they deserve and gave them warm applause throughout. The fun in the E-On lounge before the game and the craic in the Casino was brilliant. I knew I had to many when I woke up on Sunday morning to find my suit in bed and I was hung up in the wardrobe! The messages of thanks from the former players for a cracking day, for me, makes all the hard work involved worthwhile.’ Here’s to the next one!
It was the fifth Legends Day and the 2-0 victory over Watford means the Sky Blues have never lost on Legends Day!
Photographs of the day (kindly taken by our own photographer Tony Thomas) and a report can be found on the FPA’s website www.ccfpa.co.uk
This week City travel to play two old foes from the Second Division days of the 1960s. Today they are at Derby’s Pride Park and on Tuesday it’s Fratton Park. Older fans will remember Easter 1966 when City’s defeats at Derby and Portsmouth wrecked the promotion hopes. City were well placed for promotion before a 2-0 defeat at Fratton on Easter Saturday, then, on Easter Monday afternoon, a late Alan Durban goal gave the Rams the points on the day Bill Glazier made his return after a year out with a broken leg. City lost only one of their remaining six games but were pipped at the post by Southampton.
City have not got a great record at Pride Park in recent years and have won only once in seven games since they were relegated in 2001. That was a 3-1 win in October 2003 near the end of Gary McAllister’s reign as manager, when Stephen Warnock and Patrick Suffo (2) netted.
The visit to Fratton Park is the first in the league since Pompey were promoted to the Premiership in 2003. That season City got a creditable 1-1 draw thanks to a Calum Davenport goal after losing 1-0 to a Peter Crouch goal the previous campaign. During City’s 34-year unbroken period in the top flight they only encountered Portsmouth once, in 1987-88, and drew 0-0. So you have to go back to August 1966 for City’s last win at Fratton but they have only met there on four occasions since, including last season’s 1-1 FA Cup draw.
Showing posts with label Portsmouth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portsmouth. Show all posts
Monday, 11 April 2011
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Jim's column 7.8.10
The new football season opens today, far too early for my liking. Many football fans are still on holiday (myself included) and will be unable to make the opening game at the Ricoh against Portsmouth. Starting the season on the first Saturday in August is a relatively new phenomenon; a hundred years ago the League had an agreement with the Cricket authorities not to start the season until the first of September and for many decades the football campaign did not commence until the third Saturday in August. To start the season this early in the 1950s and 60s would have been crazy when the majority of Coventry’s factories closed down during the first two weeks of August and the city resembled a ghost town with the majority of families leaving town for the seaside or sunnier climes.
It has been another summer of change at Coventry City with new manager Aidy Boothroyd making adjustments to his squad. Gone are Marcus Hall (without a fan’s farewell), Clinton Morrison (not surprising but his going leaves a gap to be filled) and Stephen Wright (no tears spilled). A slew of new players have arrived including two players who return for a second spell with the club. Both Lee Carsley and Gary McSheffrey appeared for City in both the Premiership and the Championship before leaving to improve their career elsewhere. Carsley has had a long career in the Premiership and now aged 36 is presumably seen as the experienced defensive midfielder that helps get you out of this desperate division. In my opinion City have not had an effective ‘tackling’ defensive midfield player since Youssef Safri and in the interim period have had to see numerous ineffective players in this role. Sammy Clingan showed glimpses last season of filling the role but before him Stephen Hughes, Michael Doyle, Guillaume Beuzelin, Tim Sherwood and numerous others failed to understand the role that is crucial in English league football and , as we saw to England’s cost in South Africa, the World game. All of the best teams in the World Cup had at least one of these players, some , like Brazil, had two. The archetypal player in this role was Nobby Stiles, who could win the ball in the tackle (as well as man-marking the opposition’s top player) and feed it to the players who could make things happen. Similarly Coventry City’s Lloyd McGrath did the job to a tee, going about his job in a quiet and efficient way, rarely getting into the opposition’s penalty area, let alone scoring.
I’m hoping Carsley can play an important role in City’s team but note that he played only nine games for Birmingham City last term. His age however means that we will be relying more on his experienced football brain than his aging legs.
Several readers have asked me about other players like Carsley and McSheffrey, who returned to the club for second spells and there are several including Marcus Hall, Gary Bannister, Gary McAllister, Roland Nilsson and 20-odd years ago Mick Ferguson and Les Sealey returned for brief loan spells. Roy O’Donovan, of course, also rejoins for a second spell, having played for the youth team ten years ago without ever appearing for the first team and Colin Hawkins trod the same path a few years ago. In 1952 manager Harry Storer, seeking goals desperately to keep City in the Second Division, turned to former City legend George Lowrie for salvation. Lowrie had scored 50-odd goals in three seasons for City in the late 1940s before a big money move to Newcastle but his return to Coventry was not a success, he was over the hill and failed to save City from relegation.
It has been another summer of change at Coventry City with new manager Aidy Boothroyd making adjustments to his squad. Gone are Marcus Hall (without a fan’s farewell), Clinton Morrison (not surprising but his going leaves a gap to be filled) and Stephen Wright (no tears spilled). A slew of new players have arrived including two players who return for a second spell with the club. Both Lee Carsley and Gary McSheffrey appeared for City in both the Premiership and the Championship before leaving to improve their career elsewhere. Carsley has had a long career in the Premiership and now aged 36 is presumably seen as the experienced defensive midfielder that helps get you out of this desperate division. In my opinion City have not had an effective ‘tackling’ defensive midfield player since Youssef Safri and in the interim period have had to see numerous ineffective players in this role. Sammy Clingan showed glimpses last season of filling the role but before him Stephen Hughes, Michael Doyle, Guillaume Beuzelin, Tim Sherwood and numerous others failed to understand the role that is crucial in English league football and , as we saw to England’s cost in South Africa, the World game. All of the best teams in the World Cup had at least one of these players, some , like Brazil, had two. The archetypal player in this role was Nobby Stiles, who could win the ball in the tackle (as well as man-marking the opposition’s top player) and feed it to the players who could make things happen. Similarly Coventry City’s Lloyd McGrath did the job to a tee, going about his job in a quiet and efficient way, rarely getting into the opposition’s penalty area, let alone scoring.
I’m hoping Carsley can play an important role in City’s team but note that he played only nine games for Birmingham City last term. His age however means that we will be relying more on his experienced football brain than his aging legs.
Several readers have asked me about other players like Carsley and McSheffrey, who returned to the club for second spells and there are several including Marcus Hall, Gary Bannister, Gary McAllister, Roland Nilsson and 20-odd years ago Mick Ferguson and Les Sealey returned for brief loan spells. Roy O’Donovan, of course, also rejoins for a second spell, having played for the youth team ten years ago without ever appearing for the first team and Colin Hawkins trod the same path a few years ago. In 1952 manager Harry Storer, seeking goals desperately to keep City in the Second Division, turned to former City legend George Lowrie for salvation. Lowrie had scored 50-odd goals in three seasons for City in the late 1940s before a big money move to Newcastle but his return to Coventry was not a success, he was over the hill and failed to save City from relegation.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
JIM'S COLUMN 9.1.10
I am very surprised that no commentators have mentioned the coincidence in the fourth round FA Cup draw this week. A victory over Portsmouth in next week’s replay will mean an attractive game with Sunderland. The last time City beat Pompey in the competition (in 1963) they also earned a home tie with Sunderland. They went on to beat the Black Cats on one of the most emotional nights in the club’s history and reached the quarter- finals of the competition. They lost to the eventual winners, Manchester United but it was those memorable cup games that put Coventry City back on the football map after more than a decade in the doldrums.
Any City fans aged 55 or over will have the Sunderland game etched on their memories. If they were there they will remember the massive crushing crowd, officially counted at 40,487 but believed to be more like 50,000 after two gates were broken down. Then they will remember City trailing to a first half goal, before pummelling the Wearsiders, and finally breaking them with goals from Dietmar Bruck and George Curtis in the last ten minutes. Many of those older fans will argue that it was the finest City victory of the post-war era, better than Wolves in ’67 or Wembley in ’87, and they will wax lyrically about the stars of that team like Willie Humphries, Terry Bly, Ronnie Rees, etc.
The weather this week has reminded me of that dreadful winter of 1963 and Coventry City’s performances as the country came out of the freezer helped Sky Blue fans forget about the awful weather.
To earn the tie with Sunderland, City, a Third Division side, needed three games to dispose of Portsmouth, then a Second Division side. The first game ended 1-1 at Fratton Park on a wet Wednesday night. Ron Saunders, later famous for managing Aston Villa, scored an early goal for Pompey but a battling Sky Blues performance was rewarded with Ken Hale’s 85th minute equaliser. Three days later the sides fought out another draw at Highfield Road with the biggest crowd of the season, so far, 25,642 watched City squander a 2-0 half-time lead (two goals from Jimmy Whitehouse) with former City player Albie McCann and Saunders levelling the scores and extra-time throwing up no outright winners. In those days there were no penalty shoot-outs and replays continued until a winner emerged so a second replay was planned for the following Tuesday night at neutral White Hart Lane. This time the Jimmy Hill’s boys made no mistake, coming from a goal down (that man Saunders again) to win 2-1 through goals from Terry Bly and Whitehouse and the Sky Blue song echoed around Tottenham’s famous stadium.
The other omen in the FA Cup this year is that the Sky Blues and Pompey have only met in the FA Cup on two previous occasions and on both occasions City have progressed to the quarter-finals. Exactly 100 years ago the teams, both then playing in the Southern League, were drawn together in a second round tie (equivalent of today’s fourth round). City had pulled off the shock result of the first round by winning at First Division Preston. A goal from Freddie Chaplin was enough to sink Pompey at Fratton Park in front of 11,631. City went on to beat another First Division side Nottingham Forest in the third round before losing 0-2 to Everton in the quarter-finals. Wouldn’t it be nice for the Sky Blues to emulate that great team from 1910 which first put City’s name into the headlines of the national newspapers with their giant-killing exploits.
It is sad to report the death of former City player Ron Wykes who passed away on 27 December aged 90. Although he never appeared for the first team he was a very promising youngster when the war broke out in 1939 and one who we can honestly say ‘but for the war’. A wing-half, Ron returned to Highfield Road after the war and was a regular for the reserves for the 1946-47 season.
Any City fans aged 55 or over will have the Sunderland game etched on their memories. If they were there they will remember the massive crushing crowd, officially counted at 40,487 but believed to be more like 50,000 after two gates were broken down. Then they will remember City trailing to a first half goal, before pummelling the Wearsiders, and finally breaking them with goals from Dietmar Bruck and George Curtis in the last ten minutes. Many of those older fans will argue that it was the finest City victory of the post-war era, better than Wolves in ’67 or Wembley in ’87, and they will wax lyrically about the stars of that team like Willie Humphries, Terry Bly, Ronnie Rees, etc.
The weather this week has reminded me of that dreadful winter of 1963 and Coventry City’s performances as the country came out of the freezer helped Sky Blue fans forget about the awful weather.
To earn the tie with Sunderland, City, a Third Division side, needed three games to dispose of Portsmouth, then a Second Division side. The first game ended 1-1 at Fratton Park on a wet Wednesday night. Ron Saunders, later famous for managing Aston Villa, scored an early goal for Pompey but a battling Sky Blues performance was rewarded with Ken Hale’s 85th minute equaliser. Three days later the sides fought out another draw at Highfield Road with the biggest crowd of the season, so far, 25,642 watched City squander a 2-0 half-time lead (two goals from Jimmy Whitehouse) with former City player Albie McCann and Saunders levelling the scores and extra-time throwing up no outright winners. In those days there were no penalty shoot-outs and replays continued until a winner emerged so a second replay was planned for the following Tuesday night at neutral White Hart Lane. This time the Jimmy Hill’s boys made no mistake, coming from a goal down (that man Saunders again) to win 2-1 through goals from Terry Bly and Whitehouse and the Sky Blue song echoed around Tottenham’s famous stadium.
The other omen in the FA Cup this year is that the Sky Blues and Pompey have only met in the FA Cup on two previous occasions and on both occasions City have progressed to the quarter-finals. Exactly 100 years ago the teams, both then playing in the Southern League, were drawn together in a second round tie (equivalent of today’s fourth round). City had pulled off the shock result of the first round by winning at First Division Preston. A goal from Freddie Chaplin was enough to sink Pompey at Fratton Park in front of 11,631. City went on to beat another First Division side Nottingham Forest in the third round before losing 0-2 to Everton in the quarter-finals. Wouldn’t it be nice for the Sky Blues to emulate that great team from 1910 which first put City’s name into the headlines of the national newspapers with their giant-killing exploits.
It is sad to report the death of former City player Ron Wykes who passed away on 27 December aged 90. Although he never appeared for the first team he was a very promising youngster when the war broke out in 1939 and one who we can honestly say ‘but for the war’. A wing-half, Ron returned to Highfield Road after the war and was a regular for the reserves for the 1946-47 season.
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