Billy McDonald pictured (far right) in 1937
Last week’s column with my observations about relegation and
the small number of points acquired to date by the Sky Blues depressed a number
of readers. So this week I will try and be a bit more up beat and frivolous.
In my absence from Saturday lunchtime sessions in the
Whitefriars Inn my friends are getting very frivolous. Last week they got to
discussing the number of City’s great players’ names started with HU. There’s
Willie Humphries, Ernie Hunt, Darren Huckerby, not to mention arguably the two
greatest ever, George Hudson and Tommy Hutch. My chums set about coming up with
a team of HU’s and asked for my assistance.
The conclusion was that we could put out a great forward
line but defence would be tricky. Then Dave Long pointed out that Stephen
Hughes had once played most of a game in goal after Ian Bennett got a red card
and therefore in the absence of a ‘real’ goalie starting HU, Hughesy got the
vote! The casual midfielder wouldn’t have got into the side in his normal
position anyway.
No true full backs’ names started HU but back in 1991 Lee
Hurst made his debut as a full back in an FA Cup debacle at Southampton’s Dell
(Not an omen, I hope), so he could play at number 3. Ernie Hunt played a number
of times in midfield so could get the number 4 shirt and 'Sailor' Hunter was a
centre-half from the 1920s and gets the 5 shirt. Jailbird Lee Hughes wouldn’t
get a game up front so he could play at right back and the left-footed Michael
Hughes (one of Dowie’s useless Palace refugees) could play at 6. The team
therefore lines up in an old 2-3-5 formation, as follows:-
Goal
Stephen Hughes
Right Back Left
Back
Lee Hughes Lee Hurst
Right Half Centre
Half Left Half
Ernie Hunt Billy
Hunter Michael Hughes
Outside Right Inside Right Centre Forward
Inside Left Outside Left
Willie Humphries Darren Huckerby George Hudson Steve Hunt Tom
Hutchison.
The attack would be so potent that we probably wouldn't need much of a defence
anyway.
David Kite is a long-suffering City fan whose dedication
goes back to the 1940s. He contacted me recently to tell me about the Red Lion
pub, which is located on Corley Moor. He tells me that in the donkey box
(I don’t know what that is) on the Left Hand side of the entrance are two
picture frames, which contain Churchman cigarette cards of eight famous
football players from the 1930s. Two players are of particular interest to him
and he asked me for more information.
One is a certain W. McDonald of Coventry City, whom he
believes was a Scottish international before the war and the other is the great
England centre forward Tommy Lawton, who played for Burnley, Everton, Chelsea
and was subsequently transferred in 1947 to Notts County in the old Third
Division South whilst still an England player for an English record transfer
fee of £20,000. David wondered if the great Lawton ever appeared at
Highfield Road.
Let me deal with Billy McDonald first. Hailing from
Coatbridge in Scotland he was an inside forward who joined City in the summer
of 1936 from Tranmere Rovers and stayed three seasons. In 1936 City had just
won promotion from Division Three and manager Harry Storer saw the Scot as the
ideal replacement for Jock Lauderdale who was showing signs of his age. Billy
made 96 appearances at inside forward and scored 23 goals and was a member of
the team that was unbeaten in the first fifteen games of the 1937-38 season.
That team looked set for promotion to Division One but ran out of steam after
Christmas and finished fourth. Billy had previously played for Airdrie and
Manchester United. He left City for Plymouth in 1939 just before the war
started but retired from playing about 12 months later. He died in Scotland in
1979, aged 71. Sadly, David, he never played for Scotland. The picture shows
Bill on the right with his City colleagues at the pre-season photo shoot (l to
r): Walter Metcalf, Bill Morgan and Clarrie Bourton.
Lawton was a big star before, during and after the Second
World War. He made his First Division debut for Burnley, aged 16 and was soon
on his way to Everton for £6,500, a massive fee for a teenager. A prolific
scorer, especially with his head, he won his first England cap two weeks after
his 19th birthday in 1938 and scored in each of his first six
internationals. His 34 goals in the 1938-39 season helped Everton to win the
League Championship. After the war he joined Chelsea but failed to settle in
London. David is right in saying that he moved from Chelsea to Third Division
Notts County and in six seasons at Notts he scored over 100 goals and helped
County to promotion to Division Two in 1950. In total he scored 235 goals in
383 league games and 22 goals in 23 full England internationals. I believe he
played once at Highfield Road for Notts County, in 1951-52, and scored in a 2-0
away win.
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