Richard Owen was in contact recently to tell me that his father Rod is soon celebrating the 70th anniversary of his first Coventry City game and asked me to confirm the details. Rod remembers it as a game just before Christmas at home to Notts County when County's star centre-forward Tommy Lawton scored in a home defeat for the Bantams.
Rod thought it was 1951 but after checking the records I was able to confirm that it was 16th December 1950 making it 71 years since his first game. Two weeks ago I wrote about the eight game winning start to that season and City went into that game having not lost at home with nine wins and one draw and second in the table behind Manchester City.
On a snow covered pitch with blue chalk marking the lines the surface was treacherous but Lawton, more renowned for his heading ability, skated over the icy pitch in the first minute and netted with a low shot. The former England striker made it 2-0 after 15 minutes following another City defensive mistake on the slippery ground. Bryn Allen pulled a goal back in the second half and though City piled pressure on the Notts defence they held out for a 2-1 win to end City's unbeaten home record. In those days the last two Saturday's before Christmas were notorious for lower than average attendances and the club must have been pleased with the gate of 25,102.
Tommy Lawton was a prolific scorer before and after World War Two. Signed by Everton as a 17-year-old in 1937 he scored 34 goals as Everton won the league title in 1938-39 and after the war he played for Chelsea, Notts County, Brentford and Arsenal, making his last appearance in 1955 two weeks before his 36th birthday. He scored 22 goals in 23 full internationals in an England shirt and 24 goals in 23 games in war-time internationals. A true giant of the game.
Richard says that his dad tells him that he used to sneak in as a lad when the turnstile operators turned a blind eye occasionally! Richard continues: 'He was a policeman in Coventry, Warwickshire and Birmingham from the 1960s into the 1990s so policed occasional Coventry games as well as Birmingham City. It was actually through Blues that he got us Cup Final tickets in 1987. He started taking me and my sister in the late 1970s and we went together right into the mid-1990s when I went to the USA. But he kept going with friends of mine and I rejoined him on my return in 2008. When we got relegated to the fourth tier he almost retired having got back to where he started, but Mark Robins has given him a new lease of life and is going now with my 6-year-old lad and the thought of making the trip back to the top for the second time is keeping him going!'
Even though it is 71 years and not 70 Richard is hoping to do something special for the Stoke home game just before Christmas.
Jon Burton had some interesting questions for me recently. He wanted to know which City players had scored 40 or more goals in a season as well as the youngest and oldest players to score hat-tricks for the club.
Clarrie Bourton is the only City player to score 40 or more league goals – he scored 49 in 1931-32 season and 41 the following season. He was a veritable goal machine and went on to net 189 goals in league and cup for Coventry.
The youngest hat-trick scorer is Adam Armstrong, on loan from Newcastle, who was a month short of his 19th birthday when he scored three goals in the 5-0 win at Crewe on New Years Day 2016.
The oldest is probably George Lowrie who was 33 years and three months in February 1953 when he scored three goals in a 4-1 victory over Millwall in a Third Division South match. Lowrie was in his second spell with the club having joined in the summer of 1939 as a 19-year-old and having to wait seven years for his full debut! He was a prolific scorer for the City immediately after the war, scoring 47 goals in 56 games, including five hat-tricks in 1946-47, and earning a big money move to Newcastle United. The move to the North East didn't work out and following a spell at Bristol City he rejoined Coventry in 1952.
One of these days, perhaps not in my lifetime, the Sky Blues will win at Preston! Not for the first time City took the lead there with a stunning shot from Tyler Walker only to be pegged back and beaten by a lively home display in the second half. The Deepdale hoodoo continues and City have now failed to win in all 20 league visits there.
If you have a question about the history or statistics of Coventry City please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @clarriebourton
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