Jim's column 31.3.12

The sixth Annual Legends Day surpassed all expectations with a record 51 former players attending last Saturday’s home win over Portsmouth. Everything went smoothly and the atmosphere in the dining room, on the pitch at half-time and after the game in the G-Casino was electric. So much laughter and a few tears as old friendships were renewed with lots of ex-City players meeting up again after long absences.

The mystery guest and 200^th member of the Former Players Association was former Coventry City and Wales captain Terry Yorath. Terry had not been to the Ricoh Arena before and was mightily impressed with the stadium and facilities. He got giant hugs from his old team-mates such as Barry Powell, Andy Blair and Garry Thompson and got a tremendous ovation from the fans at half-time.

Terry bumped into Coventry property guru Harvey Williams who was responsible for finding Terry and his family a house in Coventry when he signed from Leeds in 1976. Harvey related the story of how his firm showed Terry 25 or more properties over a number of weeks but none of them impressed the Yoraths. Finally Terry took Harvey to Cannon Hill Road, pointed to a house and said ‘that’s where we want to live’. There was only one snag, the club chairman, Jimmy Hill owned the house and his wife, Heather and children lived there. Harvey relayed the news to JH whose reaction was: ‘who’s going to tell Heather she has to move?’ In the end Harvey and Jimmy broke the news to Heather and Harvey found her a new property in Fairlands Park nearby, and Terry and his family spent three happy years in the house. Harvey and Terry reminisced about old times as though they had never been apart.

Terry was one of a number of the guests who were making their first appearance at Legends Day and others included former Assistant Manager Ron Wylie, 80-year old Billy Gray who played in the early 1950s, Dennis Oakes and Peter Denton from the 1960s, 1987 Youth Cup winner Howard Clark and recently retired Marcus Hall who couldn’t believe so many former players could be brought together.

There are so many people to be thanked for Saturday but the committee are grateful to everybody who contributed, by making donations, by giving up their time and by supporting the committee. Everybody involved helped make it a very successful day. To top a great day the Sky Blues won a vital game, and are now unbeaten in six legends days. When Andy Thorn was told this his response was: ‘Can we have a Legends Day every week’.

Mr RA Berry of Holbrooks recently sent me a Coventry City team picture and asked if I could tell him the year it came from. The picture, reproduced here, is of the 1906-07 team and was taken before a match against Wolves Reserves at Highfield Road on 5 January 1907. The Birmingham & District League game was watched by a crowd of around 2,500 and ended 1-1 with Tooth netting for City. Managed by former player Joe Beaman, City were on the verge of making a name for themselves. The following season an excellent FA Cup run took them to the equivalent of the Third Round, and although they lost to Southern League Crystal Palace they came to the attention of many influential people in the football world and in 1908 were elected into the Southern League, then the foremost league outside the Football League.

On Thursday evening I will be at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum for the launch of the exhibition ‘From Highfield Road to Wembley Way’ commemorating the 25^th anniversary of the club’s Wembley victory. Tickets for the launch, which are free, are available on line at www.herbert.org

Jim's Column 24.3.12

                           Terry Yorath receiving his 200th member shirt from Jim Brown

Finally the Sky Blues ended their wretched run of away defeats stretching back to the end of October and narrowly avoiding the club’s all-time record, set in 1926 (ten in 1925-26 and one in 1926-27). The 0-0 draw at Watford’s Vicarage Road was the first away point since the  1-1 draw at Doncaster and the first clean sheet away from home of the season. The run of ten defeats did however equal the club’s worst run in a season set in 1925-26 and equalled in 1929-30.

Whilst most City fans would have taken a point at 3pm on Saturday, Cody McDonald’s late misses and Nathan Cameron’s disallowed effort meant that many went home feeling it was two points dropped. It somehow felt different on Wesdnesday night at Cardiff when Ollie Norwood’s late, late effort made it seem like a victory. It was the first time City have scored more than one goal in an away game and the first time they have come from behind twice to get a point since April 2005. Wolves were the visitors to Highfield Road and led twice before a late Stern John goal made it 2-2.

What a topsy-turvy division this is. On Tuesday night this point was illustrated by two results that were barely believable. Pompey’s 4-1 win over Blues was a big enough shock but Forest scoring seven at Elland Road was the shock score of the season. In 80 minutes at Leeds, Forest scored as many goals as the Sky Blues had managed in 18 games on their travels. If Neil Warnock hadn’t have been just appointed he would have been sacked on Wednesday morning!

7-3 sounds more like a Rugby score than a football result and I checked the record books for previous instances of that scoreline. Since the League started in 1888 only 14 teams have won away by that score, the last time being in 1993-94 when Colchester won at Darlington. City are one of the select 14. In December 1933 at Gillingham with Clarrie Bourton injured his replacement Arthur ‘Rasher’ Bacon netted five goals in City’s 7-3 victory. Bacon had only made his debut earlier that month and was playing only his sixth first team game. He had failed to score in his first two games then netted five in next three games before the trip to Gillingham. A week after his amazing feat he netted another four goals as Crystal Palace were defeated 5-1making it fourteen goals in five games! Once the great Clarrie was fit again Bacon went back to the reserves and played just two more league games over the next two seasons. Bacon and Bourton remain the only City players ever to score five goals in a League game (Cyrille Regis did it in a League Cup tie) but prior to joining City Arthur had scored six in a game for Reading, a club record that still stands today.

Today is the sixth annual Coventry City Legends Day at The Ricoh Arena and over 50 former players will be attending. Please give the club’s legends a great reception when they do their customary half-time parade.

We have managed to keep the mystery guest a secret and he will be unveiled during the half-time parade. He is the Association’s 200^th member and in his playing days was a very popular player in a relatively successful period.(it was Terry Yorath)

All supporters are invited to the G-Casino after the match where the Legends will be signing autographs and chatting with fans, with Billy Bell introducing them on stage in Lady Gs. It promises to be a memorable day.