Jim's column 21.12.2019

Tuesday night's FA Cup second round replay saw Bristol Rovers emerge victorious against Plymouth Argyle and earn a third round home tie against the Sky Blues. Rovers are having an excellent season and look good outside bets for promotion and a return to the second tier of English football where they have not appeared since 1993. The shock departure of manager Graham Coughlin this week may have an effect on the 'Gas' but one of the most vociferous crowds in League One will give them the advantage on 5th January.

The clubs have met only once in the FA Cup previously – a second round tie at Highfield Road in 1963. City were strong favourites having scored 19 goals in four successive victories one of which was a 4-2 win over Rovers in a league game, two weeks previously. City were top of Division Three whilst Rovers were 13th. The form-book however went out of the window with Rovers winning 2-1.

The day's biggest FA Cup attendance, 26,248 saw Rovers score an early goal through former England international winger Geoff Bradford then defend in depth to thwart the goal-crazy Sky Blues. Harold Jarman scored a second goal just before half-time and although City had 22 shots at goal to Bristol's eight, the home side couldn't break through the strong Rovers' rearguard. Ken Hale scored a goal in the 87th minute and a minute later Ron Rees looked to have been fouled inside the penalty area but the referee waved play on. It would have been a travesty for Rovers who deserved their victory and went on to defeat Second Division Norwich in round three before losing 4-1 at Old Trafford in the fourth round.

Many City fans felt City didn't try in the Cup game and were saving their energies for the promotion push but manager Jimmy Hill denied these accusations saying that clubs of their size needed the income that FA Cup runs bring to help keep themselves solvent. Whatever the truth, the Sky Blues, despite a rocky springtime eventually won their promotion to the Second Division.

Coventry City have reached Christmas with only three league defeats, which, in terms of defeats, is the second best first half of the season in the 100 years of the club's Football  League history. It's only bettered by 1937-38 when on Christmas morning they had only suffered one defeat. A defeat at Bramall Lane in front of over 40,000 made it two and knocked City off the top of the table. Sadly, the second half of that season was somewhat of a disappointment and the team missed promotion to Division One by two points.

More news from Bob Dobbing in Australia and it's positive. His operation to remove his prostate was successful and he is keeping his fingers crossed that the cancer has been caught in time. He sent me a nice email after receiving his 1960s City shirt from the Former Players Association.

First of all Jim I would like to offer my sincere thanks for the manner in which you put all this together, I’m really very flattered and feel very privileged to be in such company with the players from Coventry City Football Club from that period.

I think this may have been initially driven by a Catherine Loftus my niece who is a “mad football/Sunderland fan” which is really nice for me as she is just so special, I had no idea she was doing this.

Yes it’s been a bit of a rough time the last few weeks but I’m pleased to say “so far so good” we’ll just see how things go.

Dobbing with his 1960s City shirt

My time at Coventry was an unreal experience for a 15/16 year old shy “Geordie boy” I just loved being there, a great club, a great bunch of guys from ground staff lads through to the first team players, incredible. The best education of my life, I was staying with friends of my Dad’s family in Grangemouth Road, Radford, living right opposite Dietmar Bruck. Dietmar was very good to me while on trial, taking me to the ground every day and getting me home when he could, something I was always very grateful for.

It was a very sad time for me to leave Coventry but I guess not making the first team it had to be. I spent a season in the Fourth Division at Hartlepool United, that was like going from a very progressive, professional club to the other end of the scale (chocolates to boiled lollies!) Playing in most first team games for the season missing only a handful through injury, I decided to investigate the offers I had from the USA, South Africa and Australia, so Australia it was. Another ex-City man Robin Hayward was in Melbourne and Don Peachey was in Sydney.

Life in Melbourne was really good, I was married to the lovely Pauline before we moved to Melbourne, Pauline was a “Sky Blue Girl” working in the pools office with Arthur Pepper in the 1960s, she actually featured in a Sky Blue Programme August 12^th 1969. We sadly lost Pauline to cancer in 2003 after 33 years married life – a very sad time for us all.

I had a contract with the Melbourne Soccer Club playing in the State League which was the major league in Melbourne Victoria (State) at the time. The standard was quite good , playing many club games, being selected for the State Team playing against other State Teams and visiting European clubs notably Moscow Dynamo and an English FA side described as an England “B” team in which Dennis Mortimer played. It was nice to catch up with Dennis after all that time. I managed to be selected in a Preliminary Australian Squad as a build up to the 1974 World Cup in Munich, But sadly missed out due to breaking my right “Tib and Fib” in a club game some three weeks after the squad was announced. I managed to get myself fit after 10 months hard work only to break the same leg again in a comeback game. Six months after the second break I had to have a bone graft which really put me back with my playing days by about two and a half years. It was very tough to take but after recovery I played back in the same league with a degree of success along with some coaching success too.

Melbourne has been a great place to live, I am walking distance to a lovely beach. I had a great interest in sailing both off the beach and ocean sailing too.

All being well I’m hoping to pay a visit next year to the UK and would just love to say hello Jim and personally thank you for your interest.

Merry Christmas to all my readers and let's hope 2020 will be a year of promotion for the Sky Blues.

Jim's column 14.12.2019

What a tremendous result for the Sky Blues at Ipswich on Tuesday night. Few City fans gave their team a chance in the Second Round replay at Portman Road but Mark Robins's side put on a super display to seal a place in the Third Round. City's record in away FA Cup replays has traditionally been awful and this was only the fifth time in the club's history in the competition that they have won an away replay and the first since 1997 when Gordon Strachan's side narrowly scraped home in a Third Round replay at non-league Woking.

Since that close shave in 1997 City have lost replays on three occasions after being held on their own ground, at Middlesbrough (0-1) in 2006, at Colchester (1-3) in 2004 and at Bramall Lane in 1998 when they lost on penalties after a late Blades' equaliser.

Over the years City have been notoriously vulnerable in FA Cup replays. In the 1990s they lost at Southampton (1991), Cambridge (1992), Norwich (1995), Manchester City (1996) as well as the Sheffield United game in 1998. In the 1970s there were defeats after home draws at Liverpool (1970), QPR (1974), Arsenal (1975), Newcastle (1976) and West Brom (1979). Perhaps the most embarrassing defeats were at non-league Scunthorpe (2-4) in the 1936 promotion season and at Tranmere (0-2) in 1968. In total City have been involved in 31 FA Cup away replays and won only five.

The only times that City have won replays on opponents grounds are:

1974 Derby County 1-0 after 0-0 draw

1991 Wigan Athletic 1-0 after 1-1 draw

1995 West Brom 2-1 after 1-1 draw

1997 Woking 2-1 after 1-1 draw

2019 Ipswich 2-1 after 1-1 draw.

Following my piece about former City full-back Bob Dobbing a few weeks ago I heard from Kevin Ring who remembered Bob from the 1960s:

You wrote about Bob Dobbing and how he is unwell. I remember him well. As a
teenager I would go to reserve games and stand behind the goal at the West
End, often with girlfriends (they had a thing for young footballers).
Bob was a regular in the reserves. I found a picture
of him in my old childhood scrapbooks (from The Pink), lining up with other young hopefuls.
My memory tells me (Left to Right) it's Martin Clamp, Malcolm Keley, Mick Coop, Tom
Sinclair (who I used to deliver morning papers to in Lodge Road),
Paul Bloodworth, Don Peachey, Bob Dobbing, Roy Linnie, Dave Matthews, Mick
Cartwright, Pat Morrissey, John Chambers, John Docker, Willie Carr.

Jim's column 7.12.2019

Footballers' biographies generally leave me cold generally being ghost-written, formulaic and revealing little about the subject. One biography that bucks that trend this year however is Six Foot Two, Eyes of Blue, the story of the late Jim Holton, the former Manchester United, Coventry City and Scotland defender. Sadly, Jim died of a heart attack in 1993 at the tragically early age of 42, but author Colin Leslie has researched Big Jim's life with the zeal of a forensic scientist to produce an excellent book.

Released as a teenager by West Brom, Jim joined Shrewsbury Town and within two years had earned a big money move to Manchester United, managed at the time by the legendary Tommy Docherty. Within months he was a fixture at centre-half in the Scottish team, starring in his country's 1974 World Cup final campaign and earning a reputation as one of the hardest defenders in the country.

Disaster however was looming for Jim and two broken legs ended his Old Trafford career. By 1977 he was at Highfield Road, via Sunderland, and Gordon Milne got a bargain when he paid £40,000 for the popular hard man. Many thought his best days were over but Jim became one of the key players of the 1977-78 team, arguably one of the best City sides of the last fifty years. He went on to play 100 games for the Sky Blues (more than any other club), assisting in the development of young defenders such as Gary Gillespie and Paul Dyson. After hanging up his boots he stayed in Coventry and went into the licensed trade, running the Town Wall Tavern and later the Rising Sun and the Stag.

Colin has tracked down many of Jim's former team-mates from all his clubs and his international days including Tommy Hutchison, Ian Wallace and Andy Blair, to produce an excellent story of Jim's life.

For younger readers the title of the book comes from a famous terrace chant of the 1970s originating from United's Stretford End and picked up by City's West End. Ironically his eyes were brown!

Six foot two, eyes of blue. Big Jim Holton's after you.

Congratulations this week to Sky Blues' fan Margaret Allen who celebrates her 90th birthday on Monday. She is still a regular at home games after over 50 years following the club from her Coventry home. As a young woman her passion was speedway and she was often found at Brandon watching the Bees but only came to football when Jimmy Hill was the manager and her young sons, David and Colin, like most Cov kids of that era, followed the bearded wonder like a modern day Pied Piper.

Margaret, who travels to home games at St Andrews, has had many favourite City players over the years including Ian Gibson, Danny Thomas, Richard Shaw, Big Mo and Greg Downs, whilst these days loves Callum O'Hare, Amadou Bakayoko and Jodi Jones. She meets up with David and his wife Ann at home games and provides much-welcomed hot coffee at half-time to the Woodfield family.

She was at Wembley in 1987 but her favourite games were the semi-final against Leeds at Hillsborough that year and ta famous 4-0 victory over Liverpool in 1983. She remembers queuing all night outside Highfield Road to buy tickets for the League Cup semi-final second leg against West Ham in 1981 and the despair when City's young stars' Wembley hopes were dashed by Paul Goddard's late, controversial goal at Upton Park.

Margaret was back at Wembley to see the Checkatrade Trophy lifted in 2017 and the following year for the Play-off final victory over Exeter City. She is still hoping to see her beloved Sky Blues back in the Premiership in her lifetime. Happy 90th Birthday Margaret.

Jim's column 23.11.2019

Ipswich Town's victory over Lincoln City in the FA Cup First Round replay means that the Tractor Boys will be at St Andrews to face the Sky Blues next Sunday in the Second Round. Whilst the clubs have met many times in the league and League Cup they have never met in the FA Cup before. It means that the clubs will meet twice in six days at St Andrews as the Suffolk club are due to face the Sky Blues in a league game on the following Saturday.

The obvious question arose, when did City last play the same club at home on successive weekends? The answer is January 1947 when City were drawn against Newport County in the Third round of the FA Cup, a week before the club's Second Division clash at Highfield Road. Newport were having a nightmare season and would eventually be relegated having conceded 133 goals and City were comprehensive winners of both games. A 5-2 victory in the Cup-tie saw George Lowrie score a hat-trick with other goals from Ted Roberts and George Ashall. Seven days later City went goal-mad winning 6-0 with Lowrie getting another hat-trick and Roberts (2) and Ashall also on the score-sheet again. City travelled to Division Two leaders Burnley in Round Four and lost 0-2 to a team that would reach the final at Wembley in May.

There is another occurrence of successive home games against the same club: on 26th October 1959 City played Southend in a Southern Floodlit Cup replay (a competition which pre-dated the League Cup), having drawn at Southend the previous week. City won 4-0 with goals from Ken Simcoe (2), Brian Nicholas and Alan Daley. Five days later Southend were back at Highfield Road for a league game and this time the Bantams won 2-0 with goals from Ray Straw and Ken Satchwell. This was the fifth year that the Southern Floodlit Cup was played for but only the second season that City had entered. It was somewhat of a 'Cinderella' competition but all the league sides in London and the South entered and put out strong teams. After defeating Southend, City beat First Division Fulham and Southampton to reach the final against West Ham who were defeated 2-1 at Highfield Road in front of almost 17,000.

There are some other examples of several games against the same club in a short space of time. In 1986 City played Liverpool three times in eight days with two League Cup games and a league game at Anfield in between. In 1932 City faced Reading four times in 17 days with an away league game and an FA Cup tie that went to three games including a second replay at Stamford

Talking of Ipswich Town, long distance City fan Colin Heys asked me about a Coventry City game against Ipswich in 1982. He has acquired a single-sheet programme for the game played at Highfield Road and wondered why a full programme wasn't issued.

The Sky Blues had been due to play Ipswich on 14th November but the game was postponed because of World Cup qualifying games. It was rearranged for a midweek game (26th February). On Friday 15th January, as snow and ice hit the country, City's scheduled game at Old Trafford was called off because of a frozen pitch. City chairman Jimmy Hill moved quickly and suggested to Ipswich manager Bobby Robson that City could play Ipswich on a frost-free Highfield Road the following day. Bobby agreed and the game went ahead at short notice. There was no time to print a full programme but enough time to get BBC Match of Day cameras there. Sadly City blew a good chance of beating the league leaders and threw away a 2-1 lead, conceding three goals in the last nine minutes. There were only another four games played in Division 1 that day plus 15 or so in other divisions. John Wark scored first for Ipswich but with nine minutes left City led through goals from Steve Hunt and Gerry Daly. As City wilted goals from Arnold Muhren, Paul Mariner and Alan Brazil sealed the win for the Tractor Boys.

City's line up was: Blyth: Thomas, Barnes, Francis (sub Hormantschuk), Dyson, Gillespie, Bodak, Daly, Hateley, Hendrie, Hunt. The attendance was 11,578.

Jim's column 16.11.2019

It is with great sadness that I report the death this week of former City player Peter Wyer at the age of 82. Born in Coventry in 1937, Pete attended Christ the King school in Coundon and shone with Coventry Schoolboys. He played part-time football with Coventry Amateurs and Atherstone and was doing an apprenticeship when he he impressed City's management in a private trial game in 1955. After some excellent performances for the 'A' team and reserves he was given his debut by manager Jesse Carver as a second half substitute in a friendly against Sheffield United at Highfield Road. He scored City's second goal in the 3-2 defeat and five days later he was given a starting position at Crystal Palace as City had injury problems. They lost 3-0 at Palace and he was back in the reserve team the following week.

                                                                 Peter is his playing days 

He was a skilful inside-forward who could also play wide, but failed to impress and was released in the summer of 1956 without playing another first team game. He joined Derby County where former City boss Harry Storer was manager and made two appearances for the Rams in two seasons, scoring one goal, before Billy Frith re-signed him for Coventry in 1958. Despite his enthusiasm Peter got few opportunities and played only four games in City’s Fourth Division promotion season. In 1959 he joined Nuneaton Borough and later played for Rugby Town. He was a regular visitor at the Ricoh until last year and was also an enthusiastic member of the Former Players Association from the start. His health had declined over the past couple of years, he suffered with dementia, and had to leave last year's Legends Day after being taken ill.

                                                              Peter at 2017 Legends Day

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about City's Winston Churchill Trophy game against Fulham in 1965, played on the same day as the great statesman's funeral. Roger Hillier has reminded me that the trophy was played for again the following season against Northampton Town in a game which doubled as a testimonial game for long serving City stalwarts George Curtis and Mick Kearns. The game took place on Tuesday 10th May 1966, the night after Southampton, by drawing 1-1 at Leyton Orient, clinched promotion and consigned the Sky Blues to third place in Division Two.

The Cobblers had just been relegated from the First Division after their one and only season in the top flight. A crowd of 13,576 raised almost £3,000 for the players' testimonial fund and the game ended 2-2. Peter Denton and Ray Pointer gave City a two-goal lead in the first half but Northampton came back in the second half with goals from Billy Best and Jim Hall. George Hudson, who had signed for Northampton two months previously, played but was hampered by an injury sustained in their final league game. A four-page programme was issued for the game.

City's line up was: Glazier: Kearns, Hill: Bruck, Curtis, Farmer: Denton, Machin, Gould, Pointer, Clements. Dudley Roberts substituted for the injured Denton at half-time.

Kyle Walker's appearance in the goalkeeper's jersey for Manchester City in their Champions League game against Atalanta last week prompted City fans to ask when City last had an outfield player go 'between the sticks'. It was more common in the days before multiple substitutes and there wasn't a goalkeeper on the bench to replace an injured custodian. The last time the Sky Blues had an outfield player in the 'keeper's jersey was in a home game against Stoke in 2005 when Stephen Hughes had to go in goal after Ian Bennett received a red card just after half-time. Manager Micky Adams had a habit of not including a goalie on the bench and it almost backfired on him that day. Hughes however made a number of excellent saves and City got a 0-0 draw.

You have to go back 30 years for the previous occurrence – at Millwall in 1989 – when Steve Ogrizovic was injured and had to go off at half-time with City losing 3-0. There were two subs allowed in those days and City's were outfield players Dougie McGuire and Kevin Macdonald. Macdonald came on and David Speedie went in goal. David Smith pulled a goal back and 'Speedo' kept Millwall at bay until the 89th minute when Ian Dawes beat him with a corker from 25 yards.

I believe there were seven other instances since the war of outfield players going in goal including Bobby McDonald, John Craven, Ronnie Rees, George Lowrie and Roy Kirk (who did it three times!). Older City fans will remember Rees's appearance in goal, at Maine Road in 1965 when Bill Glazier broke his leg. Rees took over with City losing 1-0 but he kept a clean sheet and Ken Hale popped up to score an equaliser.

Jim's column 9.11.2019

Max Biamou had an interesting week. Despite receiving a red card on Saturday for a bad challenge against Accrington on Saturday the club circumvented the rules to play him in the EFL trophy game against Southampton on Tuesday evening. The three-game suspension for the red card was temporarily forgotten as the French striker scored a hat trick to virtually guarantee the club’s place in the knockout stages of the competition. Let’s hope those stages generate bigger crowds for a competition that is really struggling to attract the fans. The crowd at St Andrews on a bitterly cold Tuesday was only 375, the smallest for a competitive home game since 1900, although I did find a crowd of 306 at Highfield Road in November 1940 for a War League game which was strictly speaking not a competitive game.

Max is the first Coventry City player to score a hat trick in a Cup competition since Gary McSheffrey netted three in a 8-0 home victory over Rushden and Diamonds in the League Cup in 2002-03. Since 2000 there have been only ten Sky Blue hat tricks, as follows:

2000-01. John Aloisi v Preston (h) League Cup

2001-02. Lee Hughes v Crewe (a)

2002-03. Gary McSheffrey v Rushden (h) League Cup

2009-10. Freddy Eastwood v Peterborough (h)

2015-16. Jacob Murphy v Gillingham (h)

2015-16. Adam Armstrong v Crewe (a)

2017-18. Jodi Jones v Notts County (h)

2017-18. Marc McNulty v Grimsby (h)

2017-18. Marc McNulty v Cheltenham (a)

2019-20. Max Biamou v Southampton (h) EFL Trophy

Older City fans may remember Robert (Bob) Dobbing, a full-back who was a regular in the reserve team between 1967-69 but never quite made the first team. Sunderland-born Dobbing joined City straight from school and played in the same youth team as Willie Carr, Jeff Blockley and Trevor Gould. After emigrating to Australia in the 70s he was chosen to represent Australia but broke his leg before the game. He lives in Melbourne but still has family in the North East and they have been in touch with the bad news that Robert has prostate cancer. He had an operation this week and everybody is hoping that he has a successful outcome. CCFPA have sourced a 1960s style City shirt for him and that is winging its way to him in Australia.

                                                         Bob Dobbing with son Steven and daughter Natasha

Jim's column 2.11.2019

What a blow for the Sky Blues to concede that added-time equaliser at Peterborough last weekend. Max Biamou's stunning 86th minute bicycle kick appeared to have clinched a deserved three points but Muhammed Eisa squeezed home a 95th minute leveller. City fan John Baker, who lives in the Peterborough area, pointed out that Posh have scored late goals on City's last three visits to London Road. Last season Louis Reed scored a consolation goal for Posh in the 97th minute and in December 2016 Michael Bostwick scored a Posh equaliser in the 93rd minute after City had led for over 70 minutes with a Jordan Willis goal. It was an excellent game and in the tradition of the games between the two clubs going back to 1961 when a rampant Posh, managed by former City boss Jack Fairbrother, won 3-1 at Highfield Road. Since then the Sky Blues have the edge over their rivals and haven't lost at home to Posh in 11 games since then.

Last week's home win over Fleetwood was the third time in five games that the team have come from behind to win at home, a remarkable achievement. Before the Blackpool game this season the team had failed to recover from a deficit in a home league game since April 2016 – a total of 74 games. City's record of coming back from a losing position isn't great and three is the most in a season since 2012-13 when coincidentally Mark Robins was also in charge – he took the Sky Blues to comebacks in three games (Walsall at home and Stevenage and MK Dons away) whilst Steven Pressley had taken over by the time the team made it four for the season. The best record in the modern era was in 1977-78 when Gordon Milne's team came from behind to win on six occasions on their way to finishing seventh in the old First Division.

Roger Hillier wrote to me asking about City's games in the Winston Churchill Remembrance Trophy. The friendly trophy was initiated in 1965 and a game between City and Fulham was played on the day of Churchill's funeral, 30th January. There was no game the following season but in March 1967 West Ham came to Highfield Road for a friendly game and the trophy was again on offer. West Ham won on penalties (City's very first penalty shoot-out) after a 3-3 draw. Roger believes that this was the first time a penalty competition settled a game in England.

Roger was interested in the Fulham game and I was able to give him some details of the game. Fulham, then a First Division side, brought a strong team and included internationals Johnny Haynes, George Cohen and Bobby Robson, and a young Rodney Marsh. George Hudson gave the Sky Blues a 34th minute lead which they held until 13 minutes from time when John Key, later to join City and be part of the 1967 promotion team, scored an equaliser. Five minutes from time Scottish international Graham Leggatt scored the winning goal and after the game City chairman Derrick Robins presented the trophy to former England captain Haynes. The attendance on a very cold day was 10,881.