Jim's column 20.1.24

What a game at the CBS Arena last Saturday! The Sky Blues demolished the league leaders Leicester City 3-1 in a thrilling final twelve minutes or so to inflict only the fourth league defeat of the Foxes' season. The defeat ended Leicester's 11-match unbeaten run in the Championship in which they had won nine and meant City became the first team to score more than two goals against them. You have to go back to February 2008 for the Sky Blues' last win over their M69 rivals since which the clubs have drawn four and Leicester have won three.

Watched by the biggest crowd of the season, 29,914, which is also the second biggest league crowd ever at the CBS Arena, the Sky Blues showed all of their renowned 'never say die' attitude to overcome a team packed with players with Premiership experience and pedigree. Trailing from a controversial penalty, the team never panicked and showed great patience until eleven minutes from time when Callum O'Hare scored the equaliser. A second goal from Milan Van Ewijk and another O'Hare special sealed a famous comeback victory. 

It was the second successive league comeback following the 3-1 win at Middlesbrough something no Coventry City side has done since December 2012 during Mark Robins' first spell as manager. Then there were two away wins in four days over Christmas. At Stevenage on Boxing Day City trailed 1-0 until the 78^th minute before Richard Wood, Carl Baker and David McGoldrick ensured a vital win. Three days later at MK Dons Daniel Powell gave the home side an early lead, Franck Moussa equalised, Ryan Lowe restored the Dons lead before Stephen Elliott nabbed two goals to give the Sky Blues a 3-2 win and extend their unbeaten run to 12 games.

The victory was also City's first comeback win at the CBS Arena since March 2022 when Sheffield United were defeated 4-1 after taking an early lead. City's scorers on what was Legends Day 2022 were Gyokeres, O'Hare 2 and Godden. The Leicester win was the 23^rd home league comeback win since the move to the new stadium in 2005 including one at Sixfields (2013-14) and five at St Andrews (2019-21) and in my opinion was the most exciting, bearing in mind the quality of the opposition and the atmosphere in the stadium. The Fulham win in 2021 was good as was the last minute 3-2 win over Peterborough at Sixfields at Christmas 2013. In fact poor Peterborough have been the losers in three of those 23 comebacks and the 2015 3-2 win with two late Adam Armstrong goals was a classic.

Saturday's excellent crowd took the average for the season to 24,742 and if maintained will be the club's highest average since 1970-71 – the season that City played in Europe, averaged 26,039 and finished 10^th in the old Division One. This season's average has only been bettered in 10 out of the 97 seasons the club has been members of the Football League – the best being in City's first season in the top flight, 1967-68, when crowds averaged a staggering 34,705. Whilst the CBS Arena has an official capacity of 32,609 there are a number of unusable areas between home and away fans meaning that record average will not be bettered.

Jim's Column 13.1.24

Coventry City continued their good form with a comfortable 6-2 home victory over Oxford United in the FA Cup Third round. Big cup victories are a rare thing for the Sky Blues and it was the club's biggest victory in the competition since 1999 when Macclesfield Town were put to the sword 7-0 at Highfield Road. Since City joined the Football League in 1919 there have only been five instances of them scoring six or more goals in the FA Cup:

1929-30 Coventry City 7 Bath City 1

1934-35 Coventry City 7 Scunthorpe & Lindsey United 0

1963-64 Trowbridge Town 1 Coventry City 6

1998-99 Coventry City 7 Macclesfield 0

2023-24 Coventry City 6 Oxford United 2

In the first three instances the opponents were non-league clubs whilst Macclesfield were in the third tier of the league as are Oxford.

Matty Godden came off the bench to score two goals – the first City player to achieve that feat since Amadou Bakayoko did it at Charlton Athletic in a League One game in 2018-19. He is only the eighth Coventry sub to score two goals in a game and the first in an FA Cup game. After substitutes were introduced to the domestic game in 1965 Bobby Gould was the first sub to score two (at Nottingham Forest in 1967) and since then has been followed by Jay Bothroyd, Patrick Suffo, Chris Maguire, Ryan Haynes, Max Biamou, Bakayoko and now Godden.

Godden has now scored 50 goals for the club and is the first player to reach that level since Gary McSheffrey. The two Cup goals take him to 21^st in the all-time table which is headed by Clarrie Bourton with 189, followed by Billy Lake with 129. He is now within striking distance of Ernie Hunt (51) Ronnie Rees (52) and Terry Gibson (52). 

The draw for the fourth round gave City a trip to their favourite Cup ground, Hillsborough, the scene of their sixth round and semi final victories in 1987. It also means trips to Sheffield Wednesday in successive weekends with a league game next Saturday followed by the Cup trip the following weekend. I'm not a great one for omens but several readers have reminded me that in City's memorable 1986-87 season City played Wednesday on successive Saturdays. The teams fought out a tough league game at Highfield Road with City prevailing 1-0 in a snow-affected game. Lloyd McGrath scored the winning goal and Dean Emerson, then in the form of his life and being tipped for an England call-up, suffered a bad knee injury following a challenge by Gary Megson. Seven days later the Sky Blues pulled off one of their greatest Cup results, winning 3-1 at Hillsborough where the Owls were unbeaten in 23 FA Cup ties. 

Another footballing legend died this week. Following hard on the heels of Bobby Charlton, Franz Beckenbauer, the man who marked Charlton in the 1966 World Cup final and the 1970 quarter final, passed away aged 78. 'Der Kaiser', the Emperor, started his career as a midfield player but later became an outstanding central defender winning the European Championships with West Germany in 1972, the World Cup in 1974 and the European Cup three times with Bayern Munich (1974-76). I particularly remember his imperious performance in the 1976 European Cup final against St Etienne at Hampden Park when he didn't misplace a pass all game. He also managed Germany to victory in the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

                       Franz Beckenbauer can't stop Neil Martin scoring at Highfield Road in 1970

Franz captained Bayern against Coventry City in the UEFA Fairs Cup in 1970. Bayern destroyed the Sky Blues 6-1 in the first leg in Munich but City won the second leg 2-1 at Highfield Road and Beckenbauer was given a tough time by City's centre-forward Neil Martin but still managed to show the Coventyry crowd his outstanding ability.

Jim's column 6.1.24

An impressive Christmas and New Year programme saw the Sky Blues rise seven places up the league table to eighth place with 10 points out of a possible 12. The unbeaten run was extended to seven games and there has only been one defeat in 11 - away at high-flying Ipswich at the start of December.

The latest victory came at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium - their first win there in a regular season fixture. Despite winning the play-off semi final second leg there last season City had played 11 league games since the stadium replaced Ayresome Park in 1995 and never won.

Three days earlier Swansea City had grabbed a fortuitous point at the CBS Arena with a late goal from a free-kick just as the fans were about to celebrate a comeback from behind victory for the first time since Good Friday 2022. Goals from Haji Wright and Ellis Simms had cancelled out Liam Walsh’s early goal and a victory had looked certain until Liam Cullen’s clever free-kick. On New Year’s Day however the long wait for a win from behind ended with an impressive second half display from the Sky Blues to seal a 3-1 victory. Between April 2022 and Monday City had fallen behind in 29 league games and failed to win. They had managed 11 draws but 18 times had ended up losing the game. The run stretched back to the 4-2 win at St Andrew’s when City came from 2-0 to take the points.

I have mentioned City's remarkable attendances this season before but have to point out that the Christmas games pushed this season's average to 24,807 and with likely sell-outs at the Leicester and Leeds home games to come the 25,000 barrier may be broken by the end of the season. If the average remains at this level then it will be the club's highest average since 1970-71 when it was 26,039. The Boxing Day crowd of 29,208 for the Sheffield Wednesday game was the second highest for a league game at the CBS Arena bettered only by the 30,175 for the Birmingham game last season. It was also the largest Boxing Day home crowd since 1969 when 32,649 watched the Sky Blues beat Ipswich Town 3-1.

On Thursday I was at the CBS Arena for the launch of the appeal for donations to the statue of George Curtis and John Sillett. Joe Elliott’s committee have done a fantastic job in raising over £130,000 towards the cost of the new statue but £87,000 is still required to make the monument a reality. Joe introduced several of the 1987 FA Cup squad including Trevor Peake, Lloyd McGrath, Steve Ogrizovic, Dave Bennett and Dean Emerson as well as Mick Kearns, former teammate of George and John and a member of the 1987 coaching staff. The legends’ families were represented by Jean and Neil Sillett and Inga and Julie Curtis and the sculptor Douglas Jennings was introduced. Douglas has previously produced a number of football-related statues including George Cohen (Fulham), Graham Taylor (Watford) and Jimmy Dickinson (Portsmouth).

If you would like to make a donation to the fund go to www.CCFC.Co.uk/statue-appeal

Jim's column 23.12.23

Gordon Milne is the longest serving Coventry City manager since World War Two having been in charge from 1972 until 1981. During his first two seasons at Highfield Road his title was Team Manager and Joe Mercer was at his elbow as General Manager but there was never any doubt that Gordon was in charge of on-pitch matters. He has recently published his biography 'Shankly, my Dad and Me' and it is an excellent read.

Gordon's Dad was Jimmy Milne who played alongside a young Bill Shankly for Preston North End before the war and appeared together in the 1937 FA Cup final. After the war Jimmy became the trainer at Deepdale, Shankly saw his playing career out with Preston and was a neighbour of the Milnes. Gordon remembers as a child playing in the street with Shanks and after cutting his teeth as a young player with Preston it was no surprise that in 1960 Shankly, by this time managing Liverpool, made Gordon, a talented half-back, one of his first signings. The essence of the book is the influence that his father and Shankly had not only his football career but his life in general.

Gordon tells the story how Shankly transformed not just the team at Anfield but also the club. Unbelivably the Reds had been out of the First Division for eight years but signings such as Ian St John, Ron Yeats and Gordon got them promotion in 1962 and two years later they lifted the League Championship. Over seven seasons Gordon played almost 300 games for Liverpool, picking up two league winner's medals in a golden period for the club that saw European Cup semi finals and a Cup Winners Cup final. The club also lifted the FA Cup in 1965, beating Don Revie's Leeds United but Gordon had to sit it out with a knee injury. Gordon describes the scene at Anfield four days later when Shankly told him and Gerry Byrne (a casualty at Wembley) to parade the Cup around the pitch before the crucial European Cup semi final first leg against Inter Milan. For Gordon the ear-splitting reception they got from the Kop was his greatest memory of his time at Anfield.

In 1963 Alf Ramsey selected him for his first England cap against Brazil and he went on to win 14 caps in all. In 1966 he was in the initial World Cup squad of 28 players which was reduced to the final 22 just before the tournament. He left Liverpool for Blackpool in 1967 and after hanging his boots up he started his managerial career at non-league Wigan before coming to Coventry with Mercer in 1972. The M-men as they were christened by Coventry Telegraph's Derek Henderson excited the fans with a brand of attacking football and apart from the almost disastrous 1976-77 season relegation was rarely mentioned. At the same time he kept the finances on an even keel even if it meant selling some of the club's outstanding homegrown players. In the book Gordon deals with the infamous Bristol City game in 1977 and, contrary to the views of many in Sunderland, confirms that the decision to delay the kick-off was not made by Jimmy Hill or anyone associated with the club.

                    Gordon with Bristol City manager Alan Dicks celebrating the 2-2 draw in 1977

He reveals that during his 10 years at City he was interviewed for two big jobs – in 1974 Liverpool considered him as Shankley's replacement before opting for Bob Paisley and the same year he was shortlisted and interviewed for the England manager's job which ultimately went to Don Revie. The book also describes his time at Leicester City and fascinating times in Turkey with Besiktas and at Newcastle with Bobby Robson.

It's a great read with some wonderful stories from his 60 years in the game and will evoke many memories of the Sky Blues in the 1970s whilst reminding us how Bill Shankly turned Liverpool into a major force in European football. The book is published by Pitch Publishing and is co-written with Steve Younger.

2023 has been a great year to be a Coventry City fan. Mark Robins' team gave us an exciting run to the play-offs and the highest final position since we left the Premiership over 20 years ago. We've had another trip to Wembley where the difference between success and failure came down to a penalty shoot-out. This season we've seen the highest crowds at home games for 50 years creating an electric atmosphere and positive signs that the 'new' team are bedding in and becoming a strong Championship side.

Finally, a Merry Christmas to all my readers and the hope that you and yours, as well as our beloved Sky Blues have a healthy and prosperous 2024.

Jim's column 9.12.23

What a strange game at Ipswich last Saturday! At half-time we were admiring an excellent first half from the Tractor Boys in which they had dominated the Sky Blues and topped it off with a fantastic world-class goal from Wes Burns. At full-time, after a much improved second half display from Coventry, we were left with the feeling that the team could have got a result, a draw at least, and that Ipswich were not as invincible as we had thought 45 minutes earlier. The key moment of that second half was the penalty miss by Matty Godden when City were in the ascendancy.

Godden's failure from the spot at Portman Road was his second successive penalty miss – his other was in the home game with Watford in September – after 11 successful spot kicks since he joined the club in 2019. His last successful penalty was in the League Cup game at AFC Wimbledon in August. He's not alone in consecutive penalty misses Micky Quinn and Paul Cook both missed two in a row back in the 1990s. In a home game in January 1989 Brian Kilcline had his penalty saved by Wimbledon's Hans Segers but followed up to score then, a month later, he missed a penalty against Arsenal at Highfield Road but later in the game scored the winner past David Seaman from the spot! Gary McSheffrey is another who missed two in a row and retained the penalty taking duties. We'll have to wait and see if Matty keeps the duties following his misses.

I thought I would compare Godden's penalty record with City's penalty kings of the past. Matty's eleven successful penalties leaves him well short of the club's all-time record penalty scorer Ronnie Farmer who managed 23 penalties with only one miss between 1962-67. Brian Kilcline scored 19 penalties but managed to miss five. Gary McAllister is third in the list with 18 successful penalties and just one miss. Gary McSheffrey and Mick Coop are also ahead of Godden with 16 successful spot kicks.

                                                   Ronnie Farmer

		Penalties	Misses
1. Ronnie Farmer	1962-67	23	1
2. Brian Kilcline	1985-91	19	5
3. Gary McAllister	1996-2003	18	1
4= Gary McSheffrey	2003-12	16	6
4= Mick Coop	1973-80	16	3
6. Matt Godden	2019-23	11	2

Jim's column 25.11.23

The recent Stoke home game witnessed the third 25,000 plus crowd of the season (25,003) and lifted the average home attendance to 24,310, up 19% from last season's average of 20,369. Obviously there are more season tickets but it's still a remarkable increase especially as the average following from visiting fans is currently down by 8% at 1,864. With home games against local rivals Birmingham City and Leicester City coming up I expect the overall average to further increase.

If the average remains above 24,000 then it will be the club's highest average attendance for over 50 years - since 1972-73 when the average was 24,623. What a roller coaster ride the club's attendances have taken over the years as the chart shows. Before Jimmy Hill arrived in 1961 the average had been under 11,000 but in his first full season in charge, with the Sky Blue Revolution under way, the crowds increased to 17,908 with another massive jump to over 26,000 in 1963-64 as City won promotion to the Second Division. The gates plateaued in Division Two but leapt again in 1967-68 as City reached the First Division for the first time in their history. That debut season in the top flight saw an average of 34,705, the highest in the club's history, with even the smallest home crowds being 28,000! There were three 40,000 crowds with over 47,000 for the visit of Manchester United. 

The novelty of Division 1 quickly wore off however and by 1970-71 gates were back to the Division 2 levels of 26,000 and although there was a slight renaissance in the late 1970s when Gordon Milne's team were playing very attractive, attacking football, there was a slow, steady decline of attendances. By 1980-81 the average had dropped to under 17,000, prompting Jimmy Hill to controversially make the stadium all-seater with a capacity of 20,000. Within two years gates were back to the levels last seen before Jimmy's arrival – an average of 10,552 in 1982-83.

The re-opening of the Spion Kop, the FA Cup success in 1987 and the Sillett years saw crowds back up to the 16-17,000 level but as the 1990s arrived we were back to 13-14,000. Big Ron's arrival, the new East Stand and the spending spree of the late 1990s boosted attendances and the stadium was pretty much full for most home games with the average reaching almost 21,000 in the final three years in the Premiership.

Relegation in 2001 dealt a blow to attendances and the final seasons at Highfield Road saw gates down to below 15,000. The move to the Ricoh in 2005 saw an initial boost to over 21,000 (the best average since the late 1970s) but the initial gloss of the new ground slowly wore off, not helped by lack lustre seasons on the pitch. Between 2005 and the club's relegation to the third tier in 2012 crowds fell every season and by 2012 the average was only 15,000. 

Another 5,000 fans deserted the club in the first season in League One but that was nothing compared to what happened with the move to Northampton when the average was under 2,500. Despite 27,000 turning up for the return to the Ricoh in September 2014 the average for the season was under 10,000 and although it crept up to 12,000 the following season as City's attractive football under Tony Mowbray brought the fans back. It was a short-lived increase and in the miserable League One relegation season they were back to under 10,000.

Since Mark Robins' arrival gates have soared again – 12,000 in 2018-19 and 19,000 back at the Ricoh in 2021-22 with a blip in the St Andrews League One championship season (6,653) and a fan-less season due to Covid in 2020-21. Last season saw another rise to 20,369, the highest for 16 years and this season, with 19,000 season ticket holders, a 50-year record will be broken.

In 1972-73 the Highfield Road capacity was around 45,000 and the biggest crowd of the season was 42,911 for the visit of Manchester United in late January. The lowest crowd was 16,391 for the Stoke game with a further four attendances under 20,000, three of them in the period before Joe Mercer and Gordon Milne transformed the team with the purchases of Colin Stein and Tommy Hutchison in the October. The local derbies with Birmingham (35,304) and West Brom (31,541) also attracted over 30,000 and there were over 38,000 for the FA Cup tie with Grimsby albeit with 8,000 away fans. The wide variation between the largest and smallest gates demonstrates how, back then, there were far fewer seats and season tickets, and how the team's performances, the quality of the opposition and the importance of the games had a much greater effect on gates than the modern day. 

Ronnie Rees tribute

Ronnie Rees (4 April 1944 – 29 October 2023)

Coventry City fans who were around in the 1960s will be saddened to hear of the death of the former winger Ronnie Rees. Thrown into the first team at the tender age of 18 by Jimmy Hill, Ronnie was an immediate success and was a key member of the Third Division and Second Division championship sides in 1964 and 1967 respectively. Growing up in an era when wingers were fashionable Ronnie had all the attributes of a top performing wingman. He was incredibly quick, had a mazy dribble, a great cross and a vicious shot. One of the fans' most popular players of the JH era, the Welsh wing wizard played 262 games for the Sky Blues, putting him 25^th in the all-time most appearance table. He also had an eye for goal and netted 52 in his 5 ½ seasons at Highfield Road, 16^th in the club's all-time scorers and the highest scoring winger in the club history.

Ronnie was born and grew up in Ystradgynlais, a small Welsh town 15 miles north of Swansea. Spotted playing for Merthyr Boys, he joined Coventry City straight from school as an apprentice, sweeping the terraces, cleaning the first team's boots and playing for the 'A' or 'B' team on a Saturday. He played in the same youth team as Bobby Gould and Dietmar Bruck but despite the future stars in the team their Youth Cup campaign in 1961-62 came to a juddering halt with a 9-1 defeat to Aston Villa's under 18s with a certain Ralph Brown netting seven goals. By the end of the 1961-62 season he had played 26 reserve games, scoring 3 goals, mainly on the right wing but was not considered to be close to the first team. The close season of 1962 saw recently appointed manager Jimmy Hill sign a completely new forward line: Willie Humphries, Hubert Barr, Terry Bly, Jimmy Whitehouse and Bobby Laverick. Despite being awarded a professional contract, Ronnie's first team chances looked slim at that stage.

Of the five new forwards all except former Everton and Brighton man Laverick started well. After only four games JH dropped Laverick in favour of Roy Dwight but was still unhappy with the left wing slot. On 15 September 1962 Ronnie was called up for first team duty in a home Division Three game with Shrewsbury. In front of 14,000 Ronnie didn't disappoint as Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph reported: 'Rees revealed a refreshing directness that should have acted as a stimulant to his colleagues'. The game ended 0-0.

He kept his place three days later as the Sky Blues beat Bradford Park Avenue 3-1 and his performance impressed Nemo: 'He beats his man often like a veteran, has poise on the ball, and it is a rare occurrence for a pass to go astray. From the start he shows a propensity to shoot on sight'. Rees was here to stay and in his fifth game he scored his first goal, against Second Division Swansea, the club whose net he had slipped through, in a 3-2 League Cup win. Maybe he was out to prove Swansea wrong but he was City's star man and hit a 25-yard 'dipping' shot that crept inside an upright. Nemo described him as 'irrepressible and unlucky not to score a second goal near the end'.

A bout of gastric flu kept him out of the side for a few games but he returned to action on 10 November in a 3-0 victory over Wrexham and was an ever present for the rest of the season. In fact he was not on the losing side until the end of March when City's remarkable FA Cup run came to an end at the hands of Manchester United. Within three months of his City debut he won the fist of seven Wales under 23 caps and in February 1963 he scored twice as the under 23s beat Northern Ireland 5-1.

The fixture backlog due to the Cup exploits and the harsh winter meant City missed out of promotion but twelve months later the team won the division. Ronnie and captain George Curtis were the only ever presents and his 15 goals was only bettered by George Hudson and Ken Hale. The highlight for Ronnie was a hat-trick in the 8-1 hammering of Shrewsbury Town at Highfield Road.

Ronnie took to Second Division football with ease and missed only one game in 1964-65, scoring nine goals and winning his first full cap for his country, a 3-2 victory over Scotland in Cardiff. Rubbing shoulders with Welsh legends such as John Charles, Ivor Allchurch and Cliff Jones, Ronnie was impressive, setting up two goals for Ken Leek and kept his place for seven further internationals that season including a trip to Wembley to face England and World Cup qualifiers in Florence and Moscow. City's season was one of consolidation and the team finished 10^th but 1965-66 saw a serious promotion challenge and Ronnie was at the heart of it. Willie Humphries had left and versatile Ronnie was switched to the right wing to accommodate Dave Clements in the number 11 shirt. Once again Ronnie missed only one game and scored nine goals as well as winning a further eight caps for Wales including two games against Brazil in an end of season tour of South America. Brazil were warming up for the 1966 World Cup and Ronnie faced stars such as Garrincha, Gerson and Tostao.

                            The 1967 Promotion team with Ronnie far right on middle row

The Sky Blues missed out on promotion by one point in 1965-66 but strengthened by the signing of Ian Gibson they were one of the favourites for promotion the following season. Ronnie was back on the left wing and although the team stuttered in the autumn by December things were buzzing again in the city and Rees and Gibson were building a great partnership. Arch rivals Wolves were beaten at Molineux 3-1 with Ronnie scoring one of his five goals that season and by March promotion was looking increasingly possible. BBC Match of the Day cameras came to Highfield Road for the first time that month and Ronnie wowed the armchair fans by making City's goal in a 1-1 draw. The goal can be watched on YouTube and shows Ronnie picking the ball up in his own half before starting a mazy run that takes him past several Bolton defenders to the left edge of the penalty area. His pinpoint cross finds Bobby Gould unmarked eight yards out and the centre-forward finsihes with aplomb. Just over a month later the Sky Blues had the rematch with Wolves in what JH dubbed The Midlands Match of the Century. In front of 51,452 fans City came from behind to win 3-1 and Ronnie scored the third goal – a typical Rees goal, a low ground shot with pace that left the Wolves 'keeper clutching at air. Possibly Ronnie's best goal in a Coventry shirt came in a testimonial game against Liverpool at the end of the season when his twenty five yard thunderbolt brought the house down. 

Once again promotion to a higher division posed no problem for the Welsh winger and Ronnie netted seven goals in his first twelve top flight games including braces against West Brom and Tottenham. He terrorised full-backs as he had done for the previous five years and Derek Henderson commented after a 2-2 with Sunderland in October that: 'the elegantly-moving Ron Rees – playing better now than at any time in his career – looked capable of making Sunderland bite the dust'. As City struggled in their debut season in the First Division like many of the team, Ronnie's form began to suffer and in January 1968 new manager Noel Cantwell dropped him for the first time in his career. He was recalled and scored his final City goal in a 1-1 home FA Cup draw with Tranmere. Three weeks later, on transfer deadline day, he was on his way to West Brom in a deal worth £70,000 with the proceeds of his sale funding the purchase of Chris Cattlin and Ernie Hunt. He admitted that he had been unsettled for some time but his comment 'I suppose a change could do me good' suggests that he may not have wanted to leave. Two days later City pulled off a shock 2-0 win over Manchester United and Ronnie was, to many, quickly forgotten as City edged towards safety.

It was in unauspicious debut for Ronnie at the Hawthorns as Everton won 6-2 but the Baggies got their revenge six weeks later by winning the FA Cup final at Wembley. A Cup-tied Rees could only watch as his team-mates celebrated. Ronnie was at the Hawthorns less than a year but managed 12 goals in a free-scoring side, including one in Albion's 4-2 defeat at Highfield Road. The City Ground, Nottingham was next on the list and he appeared 101 times for First Division Forest before dropping down to Division Three with Swansea in 1972 at the age of 27. His 39^th and final Welsh cap came in 1971 (21 came as a Coventry player) but his form sadly tailed off and he was released in 1975 and played non-league football with Merthyr Tydfill, Haverfordwest and Bishopton. After leaving Swansea he continued to live in the area and worked at Ford's Swansea factory and later at Cardiff City as an administrator until he suffered a severe stroke at the age of 51. Although he was a member of the Former Players Association he was never well enough to attend a Legends Day and spent the last few years in a care home. My condolences to his widow, Coventry-born June, and his family.

His funeral will take place on Friday 17^th November at the Morriston Crematorium, Swansea at 2.30pm.