Jim's column 3.4.2021

 In their last game, at home to Wycombe, the Sky Blues drew 0-0 again making it seven goal-less draws in a season, six of them at home. The record for the most in a season is eight, set in 1970-71 under Noel Cantwell when the side were ultra cautious and scored only 37 goals and conceded 38 (the latter a club record low) in finishing 10th in the old First Division.

This seasons seven equals the number in the post-Wembley season of 1987-88 when John Sillett's team recorded six 0-0's at home and one away but still managed an impressive 10th place finish thanks to more away wins than at home.

The current situation with Rotherham and their backlog of games due to Covid-19 issues reminds me a little of the 1968-69 season when the Sky Blues were locked in a relegation dog-fight with neighbours Leicester City. I'm sure many younger City fans won't be aware of the circumstances of that season and I thought I would remind readers about City's great escape. In February Noel Cantwell's Sky Blues, who had survived on the final day in the previous campaign, looked doomed, at the foot of the table and five points behind 20th placed Leicester. A combination of a bad winter and Leicester's FA Cup run, which took them to the final, meant however that when Coventry finished their season Leicester still had five games to play.

After City played their final game, a thrilling, gutsy 0-0 draw against Liverpool at Highfield Road they had to sit and wait for 25 days while Leicester played their final five games and hope and pray that they wouldn't overtake City's final total of 31 points. The Foxes needed seven points out of 10 (only two points for a win in those days) to send City down.

At Wembley in the FA Cup Final, Leicester lost 1-0 to Manchester City and on the following Tuesday night played their first of the five league games, beating Tottenham 1-0 with an Allan Clarke goal. The following Saturday they lost 2-1 at Ipswich with a very late goal by Mick Lambert leaving them needing five points from three games. A 2-1 home win over Sunderland on the following Monday piled the pressure on the nail-biting Coventry fans and a nine day wait before the next game didn't help.

Their penultimate game was at home to Everton and the Foxes struggled for the first hour. Alan Ball gave the Toffees a 10th minute lead and the Merseysiders should have wrapped up the points before Graham Cross equalised with a controversial goal. The draw meant Leicester had to win their final game – away to Manchester United to stay up and send the Sky Blues down.

The big question was: how would United approach the game? In City's favour it would be Matt Busby's last game in charge and surely they would want him to go out on a high. In addition Noel Cantwell was a United old boy and had many friends at Old Trafford.

City fans were glued to the radio (no internet or iFollow in those days) and were stunned when David Nish put Leicester ahead in 35 seconds. Two minutes later George Best levelled the scores with a brilliant goal and a minute later Cross put through his own goal to give United the lead. Best continued to dazzle and United should have been further ahead by half-time. Two minutes after the break Peter Shilton just managed to beat away a Bobby Charlton special but the ball went to Denis Law who coolly volleyed home. Leicester fought hard, hit the post twice and Rodney Fern made it 3-2 in the 72nd minute but United saw out the game to end Busby's 24-year managerial reign with a victory and send Leicester down. Coventry City were safe!

The two sides had met at Highfield Road in early April and in front of over 41,000 City had won with a late Neil Martin goal just seconds after Leicester were denied a strong penalty claim at the other end. Those two points ultimately kept City in Division 1.

                 Neil Martin's winning goal against Leicester 1969

If you have a question about Coventry City's history please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @clarriebourton

Jim's Column 20.3.2021

 Coventry City's defeat at Luton on Tuesday evening saw the Sky Blues punished yet again for indiscipline. Whilst many believe that Kyle McFadzean didn't handle the ball on the goal-line three minutes before half-time, the referee sent off the defender and awarded the home side a penalty from which they duly scored.

Kyle became the 150th City player to be sent off since World War Two and joined an elite group of players to receive a red card three times. He received his marching orders at Rotherham last season and earlier this season for two yellow cards at Reading.

The previous members of the 'Three Red Cards' club are:

Dion Dublin, Paul Williams, David Thompson, Youssef Safri, Michael Doyle and Carl Baker.

'Fadz's' red card was the sixth for a Coventry player this campaign (five in the league, 1 in the League Cup) and we are now one card shy of the club record of seven in a season. The current record was set in the first two seasons after relegation from the Premiership (2001-02 and 2002-03) both saw seven red cards (all in the league).

The culprits back then were:

2001-02: Lee Hughes (2), Youssef Safri (2), David Thompson, Marc Edworthy and Jay Bothroyd.

2002-03: Calum Davenport, Safri, Craig Hignett, Dean Gordon, Gary Caldwell, Gary McSheffrey and Youssef Chippo.

Penalties conceded-wise we are heading for a new club record. Tuesday night's penalty was the eleventh conceded (10 League, 1 League Cup) and all 11 have been successfully converted by the opposition. The record for spot-kicks conceded in a season is 12 in 2013-14 season in League One and Joe Murphy set a record himself by saving five of them.

One record equalled on Tuesday night was the most penalties converted by the opposition in a season. The 11th, scored by Luton's Elijah Adebayo, matches the 1979-80 season when the Sky Blues conceded 11 and all were successfully converted.

I looked at the effect of those penalties on the final score of the relevant games. In 1979-80 only three results would have changed, a loss at Tottenham would have been a victory and defeats v Man United and Aston Villa would have been draws. The extra four points (there were only two points for a win in those days) would have lifted the team from 15th to 10th in the final table.

This season four league results would have been different if the penalties had not been awarded: two defeats (Watford and Forest) would have been draws, and two draws (Norwich and Birmingham) would have been victories. Theoretically, the penalties conceded made the difference of six points, and without them the team would now be in relative mid-table safety with 44 points. They also wouldn't have been eliminated from the League Cup at Gillingham!

Nigel Vines was in touch this week. His first game was a 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday at Highfield Road. He remembers it was the game in which City's Roy Barry broke his leg. He asked if I could tell him the year. It was March 1970 and happened early in the game when Roy made a somewhat reckless challenge with Wednesday's Tommy Craig and came off worst. Many fans heard the crack of the bone and knew immediately it was serious. Referee Clive Thomas booked Roy as he was being put on a stretcher to leave the pitch. Roy had only joined the Sky Blues from Dunfermline in the previous October and had had a massive effect on City's form – they lost only three league games that he started before his tragic injury. After the Wednesday game City's route to European qualification wasn't affected and they achieved the club's highest ever finish, sixth. Roy's recovery was long and hard and he didn't play first team football again until the final game of the following season missing the European campaign that he had helped achieve.

             Roy Barry stretchered off in March 1970 after breaking his leg

Nigel also pointed out that in my piece last week about City games where they finished with nine or ten men I didn't mention the 3-3 draw with Portsmouth last year at Fratton Park after being reduced to 9 men. Apologies for that omission.

If you have a question about Coventry City's history please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @clarriebourton

Jim's Column 13.3.2021

 Another member of the Sky Blue Family passed away this week. Leamington-born Gordon Simms died aged 84 after a short illness. Gordon was a great supporter of the Former Players Association and a regular at home games for many years. Cranston & Plummers

Gordon grew up in Leamington attending Clapham Terrace primary school and Campion High School. He spent four years at Highfield Road in the 1950s but was unable to command a regular first team place. He was spotted playing for Leamington works team Flavels in 1955 by City coach Ted Roberts. In a game against Aston Villa’s 'A' team he gave the veteran Amos Moss such a roasting that Villa wanted him to go for a trial but when no one met him at the pre-arranged time outside Leamington Town Hall, Roberts stepped in and fixed a trial with City. In the trial, at Leek Wootton, Gordon scored the only goal and was signed on amateur forms. He was an apprentice plumber, one of three on City’s books at the time, and later taught plumbing at Mid Warwickshire College for over twenty years. A winger who could play on the right or left, Gordon scored lots of goals for the 'A' team and made a number of reserve team appearance before his sole first team game against Colchester in October 1957 (City won 1-0).

                                Gordon in his playing days

In 1958 he went into the army for his mandatory two years National Service and played regularly for a strong Army representative side which included Everton and England star Derek Temple. He was a Physical Education instructor in the Army and played some football for Notts County without appearing for the first team. After leaving City he played briefly for Nuneaton Borough and Lockheed Leamington before a knee injury caused him to hang his boots up. However it was only temporary – he visited the now celebrated Coventry-born acupuncturist, J R Worsley, and recovered so much that he managed a long career at Warwick Town in the Warwickshire Combination. For the last 25 years he had lived in Cubbington and a few years ago successfully fought off leukaemia.

Gordon was a regular in the Legends Lounge at the Ricoh and will be missed by his old playing colleagues such as Brian Nicholas, Bill Tedds, Ian Goodwin, Graham Walker, Ronnie Farmer and Ken Brown.

                    Gordon in 2015 with James Maddison & Ryan Haynes

He leaves a widow Enid, two children, son Chris (another Ricoh regular) and daughter Karen as well as five grandchildren and a great grandchild born in November who sadly he never saw.

RIP Gordon

After City's game at Blackburn two weeks ago, a game that saw Leo Ostigard sent off for two yellow cards, several people asked me what City's record was like when finishing matches with ten men. I did some research and discovered that unsurprisingly the Sky Blues rarely win when reduced to ten men with a red card.

City have had 149 players sent off in competitive games since the war and there have been five instances of two men sent off in the same game. Out of those 144 games the team has won 28 but all but five saw City leading at the time of the dismissal. Of those five, three wins came with 10 men overturning a losing position to win, all three in the 1990s:

1994-95 West Brom (a) FA Cup 2-1 (10 men City score two late goals to beat 10-man West Brom. (Paul Cook and Albion's Raven dismissed)

1995-96 Plymouth Argyle (a) FA Cup 3-1 (10 men City win after Dave Busst sees red at 0-0 and Argyle take lead)

1998-99 Charlton Athletic (h) League 2-1 (Charlton leading 1-0 when John Aloisi sent off but City score two late goals)

Two victories with 10-men came after the scores were level at the time of the red card:

2003-04 Cardiff (a) League 1-0 (Peter Clarke is sent off after 24 seconds. McSheffrey scores late winner)

2020-21 MK Dons (a) League Cup 1-0 (Declan Drysdale dismissed after 30 minutes, Walker scores 82nd minute winner)

There has been only two occasions when City have drawn a game from a losing position after players were sent off and both games saw City finish with nine men. In 1995-96 City were losing 3-2 at home to Wimbledon when Richard Shaw became the second City player to be shown a red card (Paul Williams got one in the first half) in the 81st minute. Two minutes later David Rennie equalised to make it 3-3 and earn a draw. Then last season at Portsmouth City were trailing 3-1 when Fankaty Dabo saw red. With fifteen minutes remaining Matt Godden scored a penalty but three minutes later substitute Gervaine Kastaneer was also sent off. In a hectic finale Michael Rose levelled the scores four minutes from time and the team held out for a 3-3 draw.

If you have a question about Coventry City's history please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @clarriebourton

Thanks to Mike Young for photographs

Jim's column 6.3.2021

Ian St John the former Liverpool and Coventry City player sadly passed away this week, aged 82. Many tributes have been paid to him in national newspapers and the media in general and his illustrious career with Liverpool, as a Scottish international player and his almost unique television career alongside Jimmy Greaves has been well covered. I thought it would be of interest to focus more on his Coventry City connection.

Liverpool paid Motherwell a club record fee of £37,500 to bring St John from Motherwell to Anfield in 1961, arriving at the same time as another Scot, centre-half Ron Yeats. They were the last pieces in the Bill Shankly jigsaw and kick-started the Reds' ascendancy to the top of English football. Promotion to Division One was achieved in the first season and over the next nine years St John, nicknamed The Saint and beloved by the Kop, was at the heart of a team that won two league titles (1964 and 1966), the FA Cup (1965), as well as reaching the final of the European Cup Winners Cup (1966). Ian made over 400 appearances for Liverpool and won 21 Scottish caps in an era when there were far less international games and the Scottish talent pool was overflowing.

Eased out by Shankly in 1971 he spent some time that summer in South Africa playing for Hellenic of Capetown before, in September 1971, aged 33, Noel Cantwell persuaded him to come to Highfield Road in a player-coach role with the early emphasis on a playing role.

                      St John with wife Betty & City boss Cantwell

Prior to his arrival his memories of Highfield Road weren't good. In 1967, days after City had clinched promotion to Division One, St John was in a Liverpool side that came down to play in George Curtis and Mick Kearns' testimonial game. He was on the end of a strong challenge from big George in the first half and had to leave the game. As he limped from the pitch he allegedly gave a mouthful of abuse to Curtis along the lines of 'we come down here for your testimonial and that's how you treat us'.

       The walk of shame after being sent off at Highfield Road on Boxing Day 1967

Five months later, on Boxing Day, the Reds returned for their first ever league game with the Sky Blues. City's Brian Lewis, always an abrasive character, was given the role of marking St John and their niggly exchanges exploded on the half hour. St John was lucky not to be booked for a blatant challenge on the halfway line. As the free-kick was taken St John reacted – either to a remark or as some say, Lewis grabbing the Scot in Vinnie Jones fashion – and felled Lewis with a right-hook. It was fully a minute before St John would walk and he received what Derek Henderson in the Coventry Telegraph described as ' the worst verbal roasting I have heard a Highfield Road crowd give a visiting player' as he made the slow journey to the tunnel.

Both Curtis and Lewis had departed Highfield Road when St John arrived in 1971 and he made his debut in a 1-0 home win over Tottenham and a week later returned to Merseyside and had the audacity to score City's winner in a 2-1 win at Goodison Park. The good form continued as the Sky Blues beat Leeds for the first time in the top flight with St John scoring the second goal in a 3-1 victory. City's form fell away after the three successive wins and they won only once in the next 13 games with St John a virtual ever-present in midfield. Cantwell came under pressure in the bad run and after Second Division Hull City won at Highfield Road in the FA Cup the genial Irishman was sacked.

In a shake-up in December Tony Waiters had been appointed Director of Coaching with St John elevated to Assistant Manager but it did little to improve matters on the pitch. In the aftermath of Cantwell's sacking Waiters walked out and St John told chairman Derrick Robins that he didn't want to stay in the circumstances and played the last of his 22 games for the club against West Brom on 17th March 1972, Bob Dennison's first game as caretaker manager.

The Saint played a few games for Tranmere Rovers the following season before suffering a broken leg and went into management. He was briefly a success at his old club Motherwell before three unremarkable seasons as manager of Portsmouth. Later he moved into the media where he carved out a new career as part of arguably the finest double act in football punditry, Saint and Greavsie. Jimmy Greaves cracked the jokes while Saint tried to keep a straight face and the chemistry proved a hit. During the 1987 FA Cup run Jimmy consistently tipped City to lose whilst, I am sure, secretly willing his old Chelsea team-mate John Sillett to be a success.

RIP Saint

Ron Newman (1 May 1933 – 20 February 2021)

It is sad to report the death, at the age of 87, of former Coventry City player Ron Newman. A skilful forward signed from Northampton Town in 1956 Ron scored within a minute of his debut against Southampton at Highfield Road which is probably the fastest ever City debut goal at a home game. Ron only played 13 games for the club over two seasons in what was a dark period for the club.

Born in Pontypridd in South Wales Ron was a talented all-rounder at school and represented Wales schoolboys at rugby as a scrum half. Despite growing up in the rugby hotbed of South Wales football took priority however after a Northampton scout spotted young Ron playing for Ynysybwl FC near his home town and he signed for the Cobblers in October 1953. Two other Pontypridd boys also joined Northampton around that time, Ken Leek, a Welsh international centre-forward who later played for Leicester City, and centre-half Colin Gale.

Ron had to wait almost two years for his first team debut, at Bournemouth in April 1955 when he scored the only goal. The following season Northampton started the season with five straight victories with Ron playing at inside right and he appeared to have cemented his place in the team. However an injury cost him his place and he was unable to get back into the team.

In March 1956 City manager George Raynor arranged a swap deal bringing Ron to Highfield Road with centre-forward Charlie Dutton moving to the County Ground. Coventry City was still in disarray after the departure of manager Jesse Carver back to Italy at Christmas. The team had been in a golden seam of form before his departure with seven wins in eight and lying fifth in Division Three South with an outside chance of promotion. Head coach Raynor, famous for leading Sweden to third place in the 1950 World Cup, had stepped into the manager's chair but the team's form had been poor with only two wins in nine and the team had slipped to 10th with any promotion hopes disappeared.

Three days after signing Ron went straight into City's first team for the home game with Southampton, replacing Eric Johnson and promptly scored in the very first minute. Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph described the goal in the Pink:

(Denis) Uphill started it with a splendid through pass to Peter Hill and the inside-left darted down the middle before drawing out Traynor and flicking the ball to 'new' boy Newman who coolly shot City into the lead with an unstoppable shot.

City won the game 2-0 with Ken McPherson scoring in the second half in front of 13,493 and Ron kept his place for a further five games and netted another goal in a 4-1 win over QPR. Ron lodged with a couple in Clovelly Road. There was another change of management at the club in the summer of 1956 with Harry Warren arriving from Southend and Ron was soon out of favour. After seven first team games early in the season he was in the reserves playing alongside a young George Curtis, Steve 'Kalamazoo' Mokone and Iain Jamieson. 

In 1957 he was released by City and joined another Third Division club Torquay United where he played four games that season before moving into non league soccer with Bedford, Rugby Town and Rushden Town. In 1964 after leaving Rushden Town he went to Wellingborough and for three years was player-coach to their reserve team, “Newman's chicks”, as they were known.

                          Ron at 2012 Legends Day

Ron worked in insurance for most of his working life, even when he was playing, and retired from the Britannic Assurance Company in 1996. He continued to live in Northampton with his wife Sheila (they were married for 63 years) and sons Kevin and Michael becoming a keen golfer at Northampton Golf Club and represented his county. Ron was a member of the Coventry Former Players Association and attended several Legends Days until his health deteriorated. His widow Sheila told me he was very proud to be in the Association and looked forward to receiving their newsletters. RIP Ron.

Jim's column 20-2-2021

Three weeks ago I wrote about Coventry City's nursery club in 1940s, Modern Machine Tools and how many of the teenagers who played for that team progressed to playing league football with City. I had an email from John Green.

Thanks for a great article on Modern Machine Tools team last Saturday. In the early days they played in the Coventry Minor League and their home games were played at Spencer Park. I was a goalkeeper and played on a couple of occasions as a stand-in for the injured Reg Matthews. Names I recall from those occasions, Albert Sneddon, John Quinney, Billy Gray, Jimmy and Peter Hill. I had signed for the club on a Sunday evening when Charlie Elliot, who was the chief scout, visited my home following a trial that morning at Highfield Road. A successful Cheylesmore Youth Club team who played in the Youth Club League were invited to play against the Modern Machine team and as goalkeeper I was monitored and coached through the game by Billy Morgan, who had been first team keeper before the war. I went on to play in the City 'A' Team but my father wanted me to finish my apprenticeship and so ended my time at Coventry City.

The 'A' team was City's third XI and in the late 1940s they played in the Birmingham Combination alongside some strong Midland non-league sides such as Nuneaton Borough, Atherstone, Bedworth as well as the 'A' teams from Wolves, West Brom and Birmingham City. I found a programme from January 1948 with John in goal for them for a game at Stafford Rangers. Also in the City team were three players who had played first team games, Bob Ward, Jack Evans and Freddie Gardner. Coventry-born Gardner was more famous as a cricketer, playing over 300 games for Warwickshire between 1947-61.

Loan signing Matty James became Coventry City's seventh captain of the season when he led the team out in the home game with Watford two weeks ago. He follows Liam Kelly, Kyle McFadzean, Michael Rose, Matty Godden, Dom Hyam and Fankaty Dabo. Initially I believed this to equal the club record set in 2016-17 (the League 1 relegation season) when seven different players took the armband. Subsequently I discovered that in 2010-11 eight different players skippered the team.

In 2010-11 Lee Carsley was club captain and led the team in every league game until just before Christmas when he was injured and Michael Doyle took over on four occasions. James McPake skippered the team in a League Cup tie at Morecambe. In January Doyle went on loan to Sheffield United and Keiren Westwood took the armband. In early March in a disastrous home game with Bristol City the club used three different captains – Westwood started but was injured and Marlon King took over but then received a red card for striking Bristol's Damian Stewart and Aron Gunnarsson ended the game with the armband. Richard Wood became the seventh captain for four games before Sammy Clingan made it eight captains when he took over for the final eight games of the season.

A while back Marshall Stewart told me a story about former City secretary Bernard Hitchener. Bernard served the club for over forty years, first as assistant secretary before the war and after the war as secretary until 1963 when he became ticket office manager. Marshall takes up the story.

One of Bernard's tasks at reserve games on Saturday afternoons when City's first team were away from home was to answer the telephone at Highfield Road whenever it rang from the away ground with the latest score. He then passed the news - often bad in the darkest days of the fifties - to the chairman in the directors' box. The chairman's expression communicated the bad news to nearby supporters and it gradually rippled around the ground. Otherwise, when City were losing, the fans had to wait until half time until a member of the ground staff trudged around the pitch to display the latest scores on the pitch-side scoreboard.  

                Bernard Hitchener in the CCFC Ticket Office

What a difference from these days when every game is shown on ifollow, social media reports every incident and goal from every game and the days of a hand operated scoreboard are long gone.

Peter Hindley (19.5.1944 – 1.2.2021)

It's sad to report the passing of former Nottingham Forest, Coventry City and Peterborough United defender Peter Hindley. Peter, who appeared in over 400 games for Forest, played only 33 games for the Sky Blues in 2 ½ seasons at the club in the 1970s but was a popular player and a big influence in the dressing room. Affectionately known at the City Ground as 'The Tank', Hindley was a tough, uncompromising full-back who switched to a central defensive role after his move to Coventry.

Born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Peter was the son of a professional football, Frank, who was making his way in the game with Forest when World War 2 started in 1939. By the time hostilities ceased Frank, a centre-forward, was past his best and briefly played for Brighton.

Peter too started as a centre-forward in school where he was an outstanding natural athlete and scored heaps of goals for Worksop Boys Club including 50 in one season. When he went for trials at Forest they told him they didn't need any more centre-forwards but would he try out in defence. He quickly adapted his game and became one of the outstanding right-backs in the country during the mid 1960s. He made his first team debut as an 18-year-old but after playing in a variety of positions he became the regular right-back in 1964-65 and was a virtual ever present for nine seasons. In 1966-67 he was a member of an outstanding Forest team that finished second to Manchester United in the league and reached the FA Cup semi final before losing to Tottenham. Manager Johnny Carey was able to put out a virtually unchanged team throughout the season with four members, including Peter, playing every single match. Players like Joe Baker, Ian Storey-Moore, Terry Hennessey and Peter Grummitt were part of the finest Forest team in the pre-Clough era. Peter's performances earned him an Under 23 tour place and he won one cap in a 0-0 draw in Greece alongside future full internationals such as Allan Clarke, Ralph Coates and Colin Harvey.

After Forest were relegated from Division One in 1972 Peter retained his place but in January 1974 Coventry manager Gordon Milne, looking for defensive cover, signed him for £35,000 and he went straight into the first team. In an inauspicious debut City were thumped 5-1 at Newcastle however Neville Foulger in the Coventry Telegraph described his performance as 'impressive...showing real strength in the tackle'. He initially played at right-back but soon moved to central defence alongside either Larry Lloyd or Alan Dugdale. He rarely had a bad game for the Sky Blues but is more often unfairly remembered for a 35-yard own goal in a home defeat to Leeds.

Colin Stein was at the club at the same time as Peter and remembers him fondly: 'Pete was one of the fastest full-backs I've ever seen. He was strong and quick and loved to attack on the overlap. When he moved to centre-back he was a great partner for Larry Lloyd who wasn't the quickest. He loved his greyhounds and the horses and used to tell me to back any horse trained by Fred Winter.'

Another former playing colleague David Cross recalls Peter as: ' an unsung hero who was a proper player, hard but not dirty and very consistent not only on the pitch but off the pitch too. If you were in the trenches he was the sort of guy you'd want with you. We had a lot of fun in those days and really bonded on our end of season tour to Singapore. 'Honk', as he was known at the club, was always telling us which of his greyhounds was going to win and which to avoid because he'd been feeding them meat pies to slow them down.'

His former manager Gordon Milne cannot speak more highly of him: 'He had a great attitude to the game, he always gave 100% and really enjoyed his work. He had a smiley personality that rubbed off on his team-mates in the dressing room. For a big man he was quick and I was only sorry he picked up an injury at Coventry as he would have played a lot more games.'

                                               1975-76 squad

Peter suffered a groin injury at Bramall Lane in December of that year and struggled to regain his place when he was fit, making only two further appearances before his final game, again at Newcastle, in December 1975. Playing in the Central League side however he helped nurture future first teamers such as Harry Roberts, Paul Dyson and Garry Thompson.

Whilst at Highfield Road Peter was granted a testimonial by Forest and manager Gordon Milne's Sky Blue team played out a 1-1 draw at the City Ground with the Forest fans giving him a warm send off.

His widow Sandra told me: 'We loved our time at Coventry. We moved from Nottingham to Dunchurch and enjoyed living there, making lots of friends. The club was so friendly and the players and wives mixed a lot. We always enjoyed the annual Soccer Ball.'

After being given a free transfer in the summer of 1976 Hindley signed for Peterborough United, then managed by former City boss Noel Cantwell. Over the next three seasons he played 129 games for Posh but, at the age of 35, he was released after the club's relegation to Division Four in 1979. He went on to play one season for Southern league Burton Albion, managed by his former Forest team-mate Ian Storey-Moore.

After his football life he set up in business as a painter and decorator in the Peterborough area and continued with his hobby of training greyhounds. Sandra and Peter trained several dogs that won prestigious events at Wembley. He was first diagnosed with dementia thirteen years ago and had to give up his work and had been in a nursing home. He passed away last Monday and is survived by his wife Sandra , daughters Leanne and Francine and four grandchildren. RIP Peter

(thanks to Mike Young for pictures)