Jim's column 11.11.2017

Older City fans will know that Coventry City had a player called Jimmy Hill in the 1950s – not the JH who became the club's most successful manager in 1961. I had an email recently from Stuart Fraser. His wife's grandfather was Jimmy Hill and they knew little about Jimmy's playing career and asked for my help.

Jimmy was born in Wishaw in Scotland in 1931 and was signed by City's nursery club, Modern Machines as a teenager where he played alongside many future City players including Reg Matthews who went on to play in goal for England. In August 1948 he was offered professional terms by City and he made his first-team debut for City on the left wing at Hull in November 1949, deputising for the injured Norman Lockhart. City lost 1-2 to a very good Hull side which had the legendary England international Raich Carter as player manager, and Carter scored both the Tigers goals that day in front of a crowd of 40,170. Jim didn't play for the first team again that season but played four times the following season and scored the only goal of the game on his home debut against West Ham in March 1951.

He didn't appear in the first team the following season but became fairly regular towards the end of 1952/53 season. His best season was 1953/54 when he played 31 games scoring three goals. He played regularly when Jesse Carver was manager in the first half of 1955/56 but when Carver walked out to join Lazio at Christmas Jim's career at City was virtually over.

He left City in July 1956 to join Millwall but played only one first team game before joining Shrewsbury Town the following summer where he played eight games. He did return to live in the City at some stage and in 1958-59 he was playing for Lockheed Leamington in the Birmingham League. He died in 1993.

City fan Roy Evans sent me a great City team picture this week and one I had never seen before. It was taken before the opening game of the 1940-41 season against Leicester City at Highfield Road. With the war underway the Football League was suspended and regional leagues were introduced to reduce travelling. City would only play 10 games before the blitz in November resulted in Highfield Road being bombed and rendered unplayable. Ten of the team had played for the Bantams before the outbreak of war in September 1939, although George Lowrie, City's last signing before the war, had only made his debut on the day before Neville Chamberlain's fateful radio broadcast to announce that war had been declared, scoring in a 4-2 home win over Barnsley. The odd man out is Dave Murray, the centre-forward. Mike Young has provided me with some details of this player who never played for the club in peace-time. Apparently he was a local mechanic who owned a garage in Whitefriars Lane who played in local amateur football. He was one of the first local amateurs to be invited to play for the club as the regular professionals joined the services and were unable to turn out regularly for the club.

Murray had played four games at the end of the 1939-40 season, scoring five goals including a hat-trick in a 4-0 home win over West Brom. The Leicester game would be his only appearance before City withdrew from football in November but he did reappear in 1942 when football re-commenced at Highfield Road, making five appearances and scoring one goal. For the record City drew 1-1 with Leicester with George Lowrie netting in front of a crowd of 2,165.

I am signing copies of my new book 'Play Up Sky Blues: Coventry City champions 1967' in the casino before and after today's game with Mansfield. Legends from the 1967 team, Mick Kearns, Dietmar Bruck and Ronnie Farmer will be with me at 1.30 and after the game until 6pm. The book, which costs £16.99, tells the story of the greatest season in the club's history when First Division football was achieved for the first time.

Jim's column 15.9.2012

                                   Horace Pearson pictured at Highfield Road

I am always happy to assist relatives and friends of former Coventry City players and this summer I had an interesting email from Les Turner, a friend of the daughter of City’s 1930s goalkeeper Horace Pearson. Les was trying to piece together the playing history of Horace and sent me some old photos of Pearson’s playing career.

Horace was born in Tamworth on 6.4.1907. His football career started with Nuneaton Town where he was spotted by Luton Town in 1928. He never appeared in the Hatters’ first team and the following summer joined Blackpool. The timing of his arrival at Bloomfield Road was perfect and he helped the Seasiders to gain promotion to Division One for the first time in his debut season. Life in Division One was tough for the Tangerines and although they avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth they conceded a record 125 goals (Horace played in 40 of the 42 games).

The following season Horace, who was only 5 ft 9 ins tall, lost his place in the first team and in November 1931 he joined Oldham, playing 38 games in eighteen months before a move to Highfield Road in May 1933. Between then and March 1936 he was a virtual ever-present in goal for the Bantams playing 114 games in a golden period of Coventry City’s history. The Bantams finished 2^nd in 1933-34, 3^rd in 1934-35, before winning the Third Division title in 1935-36. In early 1935 Horace was suspended for two games for a 'breach of club discipline' - the details of which I haven't got. Sadly Horace lost his place 12 games from the end of the promotion season, being replaced by Bill Morgan, and although he received a medal he never appeared in the first team again.

In May 1937 he joined Newport County where he played one season, moving briefly to non-league Barry Town and then for the last season of pre-war football to Bristol City. It is believed he was released by Bristol just before the outbreak of war and settled in Bristol. Horace's uncle Hubert and cousin Harold both played in goal for WBA.

Last week I mentioned the ‘other’ Jimmy Hill who played for Coventry City between 1949-1956. The piece sparked some interest with Ron Dickinson having good memories of Jimmy:

I got to know him from youth football so it is a long time ago. I believe that he did live in Binley and played for Binley Youth club along with Billy Gray, another former City player who you wrote about a few months ago. As I recall Jimmy worked in a gent's outfitter shop so had difficulty in getting off for games on Saturday. I met him later in the early 1980s when he was manager of a cleaning company operating in Birmingham. He was a nice guy. I am sure that there was an article in the Telegraph maybe 5 to 10 years ago about his grandson who was setting out on a football career.

Lockheed Leamington historian Paul Vanes was also in contact and confirmed that after leaving Shrewsbury in 1958 Jimmy joined Lockheed, then in the Birmingham League. At the Windmill Ground he joined several other ex-City men including Jack Evans, Charlie Timmins and Ernie Ward. Paul had some useful information:

In 1958-59 season he played between 25-30 games and was second top scorer with 14 behind Robertson on 23. He played inside left for the Brakes in the Birmingham Senior Cup final at Villa Park on 13th April 1959 against Stourbridge who beat Lockheed 2-1 thanks mainly to a brilliant display by the Glassboys German born goalkeeper Newman (Neumann). Hill was picked to play in the penultimate game at Hereford with a 6.00pm kick off on Saturday 25th April 1959 but he never turned up.  Jimmy was not in the Brakes squad for 1959/60 season. 

Coventry City’s run without a win was extended to 11 on Sunday against Stevenage (equalling the dreadful run under Andy Thorn last autumn) and if a win is not forthcoming today at Prenton Park it will be the worst run since 2003. Like the present dire run, that sequence of 16 games was over two seasons, during the stewardship of Gary McAllister, and consisted of the last 12 games of 2002-03 and the first four games of 2003-04. It ended with a 4-2 home win over Stoke City. 

Next Saturday is another special day at the Ricoh Arena when a host of former City players will gather for a mini-Legends Day specifically to celebrate the life of Ernie Machin who passed away in July. Around 30-40 former players are expected to attend including many from Ernie’s time at the football club from 1962-72. Fans wishing to attend the pre-match lunch with the Former Players, in what is always an electric atmosphere, should contact the football club. The Memorial Service for Ernie Machin has been re-arranged and will now take place at Coventry Cathedral on Wednesday 3rd October 2012 commencing at 3pm.  All Ernie’s friends and City fans are welcome.

Gate footnote: Last Sunday’s crowd for the Stevenage game was 9,485 – the smallest City home crowd since November 1991.

Jim's Column 8.9.2012

                                                 The 'other' Jimmy Hill

On Tuesday evening a sparse crowd of 5,437, the lowest home crowd since 1985*, watched City’s debut in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy against League Two side Burton Albion. The suffering fans were subjected to a lacklustre ninety minutes football followed by a thrilling 19-goal penalty shoot out culminating in a Coventry City victory courtesy of the hero of the hour Joe Murphy. The Irish goalkeeper has taken a lot of stick from some fans since he stepped into Keiren Westwood’s shoes last season, but on Tuesday evening he not only saved Burton’s  tenth and eleventh penalties but stepped up to score the twenty second penalty of the night to make it 10-9 to the Sky Blues and secure a place in the last 32 of the competition.

For the Sky Blues it was their first penalty shootout since 2001 when, in a League Cup tie at Peterborough, after the teams had been level at 2-2 after 120 minutes, City triumphed 4-2 on penalties. The few hundred fans who travelled to Peterborough that day probably remember it as the day that Manhattan Twin Towers were destroyed by Al Queda (11 September) and the game should not really have gone ahead in respect of the dead. City’s successful penalty takers that night were David Thompson, Jay Bothroyd, Lee Hughes and Lee Carsley with only Magnus Hedman missing. Before Tuesday Hedman was the only Sky Blue goalkeeper to take a penalty in a shootout.

Penalty shootouts were introduced into domestic football in 1976 when the League Cup adopted them if a replay was inconclusive after 120 minutes but other lesser competitions introduced them for swifter conclusions and City’s first shootout was in 1988 in the Simod Cup semi-final at Reading. With the scores level at 1-1 after 120 minutes City lost the shootout 4-3 after leading 2-0 and the Second Division side went on to Wembley.

The only other shootout in a City competitive game was in the FA Cup in 1998. After defeating Aston Villa in round five City were hot favourites to beat Second Division Sheffield United to clinch a semi final place. However a laboured 1-1 draw at Highfield Road saw the Sky Blues travel to Bramall Lane for a replay. An early paul Telfer goal looked to have won the tie but the Blades equalised with virtually the last kick of the game and a goalless extra time meant penalties. Kicking into the rabid United Kop end City’s penalty takers froze (including the normally deadly Dion Dublin) and the Blades triumphed 3-1.

During the summer I received an email from Alan White of Binley regarding the ‘other’ Jimmy Hill who played for Coventry City in the 1950's. Alan believed he was a Binley boy and that his late Dad often used to tell him that he knew him well. He recently acquired a programme of the Millwall v Coventry game played at the Den on Boxing Day 1955 in the old Division 3 South. In the City line-up at no.11 is Hill.J , along with Matthews, Austin, Timmins, Jamieson, Kirk, Harvey, Moore, Uphill, McPherson and P.Hill.

Although Jimmy possibly lived in Binley he came from Wishaw in Scotland where he was born in 1931. As a 17-year old Jimmy Hill looked set to be an outstanding left-winger as he dazzled for City’s youth team, Modern Machines FC and was given his debut at Hull in 1949. His first team chances however were limited and it was only after Norman Lockhart left for Aston Villa in 1952 that Hill won a regular place. He played 68 games and scored eight goals before losing the left wing berth first to Colin Collindridge then later to the prodigious Ray Sambrook and he moved to Millwall in an effort to get first team football. His stay at the Den was short and he went on to play for Wisbech Town and Shrewsbury. I am pretty sure he lived in Coventry until his death in 1993.

  * In 1985 1,086 watched a Full Members Cup game at Highfield Road against Millwall when neither side could progress in the competition.