Gone But Not Forgotten

Obituaries are provided for the following former players/ staff of Coventry City Football Club (in order of death, most recent first):-

2023: Peter Thomas (1944-2023); Tony Knapp (1936-2023); Cédric Roussel (1978-2023); Ken Brown (1933-2023)

2022: Graham Spratt (1939-2022); Jimmy Whitehouse (1934-2022); Ron Farmer (1936-2022); Bob Wesson (1940 -2022); Alan Turner (1943-2022); Mike Dixon (1937-2022)

2021: Peter Hindley (1944-2021); Ron Newman (1933-2021); Ian St John (1938-2021); Gordon Simms (1936-2021); George Curtis (1939-2021); Brian Nicholas (1933-2021); John Sillett (1936-2021); Norman Greenway (1924 – 2021)

2020: George Hudson (1937-2020); Maurice Setters (1936-2020); ; Tony Waiters (1937-2020); Lol Harvey (1934-2020); Ron Wylie (1937-2020);

2019: Peter Wyer (1937-2019);  Colin Collindridge (1920-2019); Graham Newton (1942-2019)

2018: Jim Brogan (1944-2018); Ken McPherson (1927-2018); Cyrille Regis (1958-2018); ‘Ernie’ Hunt  (1943 – 2018)

2017: Allan Harris (1942-2017); John ‘Jack’ Lovering (1922-2017); Ray Paul (1923-2017); Roy Proverbs (1932-2017);

2016: Brian Hill (1941-2016); Peter Denton (1946-2016); John O’Rourke (1945-2016);  Ian Gibson (1943-2016); Jack Boxley (1931-2016); Ken Satchwell (1940-2016); Ray Pointer (1936-2016);

2015: Don Howe (1935-2015); Jimmy Hill (1928-2015); Márton Fülöp (1983-2015); Ken Cornbill (1937-2015); Ernie Hannigan (1943-2015); Trevor Lewis (1921-2015); R.K.Ken’ Jones (1926-2015); Steve ‘Kalamazoo’ Mokone (1932-2015); Peter Hill (1931-2015); Ken Hale (1939-2015) and Alan Leather (1932-2015)

2014:  Bill Gray (1931 – 2014); Bill Farmer (1927-2014); Don Bennett (1933-2014); Gordon Nutt (1932-2014); Tony Hateley (1941-2014); Albert McCann (1941-2014);

2013: Gerry Baker (1938-2013); Geoff Strong (1937-2013); Jimmy Knox (1935 – 2013);

2012: Dave Sexton OBE (1930 – 2012); Iain Jamieson (1928-2012); Stan Smith (1925-2012); Ernie Machin (1944-2012); Eddy Brown (1926-2012); Barry Lowes (1939 – 2012);  Jack Evans (1926 – 2012); Harry Hart (1926 – 2012)

2011:  Alf Setchell (1924-2011); Vernon Griffiths (1936-2011); Eric Dobbs (1920-2011); Jack Kendall (1921- 2011);

2010: Norman Smith (1919 – 2010); Barry Hawkings (1931 – 2010); Charlie Timmins (1922 – 2010); Charlie Ashcroft (1926 – 2010);

2009: Charlie Dutton (1934 – 2009); Ken Watkins (1923 – 2009); Tommy Capel (1922 – 2009); Neil Dougall (1921 – 2009); Terry Bly (1935 – 2009); Regis Genaux (1973 – 2009);

2008: Alan Moore (1927 – 2008); Alan ‘Digger’ Daley (1927-2008); Jack Barnes (1908-2008); Wilf Nash (1913-2008)

2007: Graham Paddon (1950-2007);  Dennis Uphill (1931-2007);

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Ken Brown (18/10/1933 – 12/08/2023

Ken Brown RIP (c.CCFPA/AScaysbrook)

Ken Brown, who passed away on 12^th August after a short illness, was not only a former Coventry City player but also involved with local football at many levels for most of his life. Although he never played a first team game for the club he was a regular ‘number 12’ in the 1955-56 season in the days before substitutes when clubs would have an extra man on matchday duty in case of an injury or illness in the pre-match warm up.

Ken, a Cov kid, was a regular at City and was Sky Blue through and through and will be sadly missed by his large family and many friends inside and outside of football.

Born in Coventry in 1933 Ken was a part-time professional at Highfield Road in the days when the club had 40 or more professionals. He was a regular for the A team for a couple of seasons before he broke into the reserve team early in the 1955-56 season. He made a scoring debut in a 3-0 win at Norwich in the Football Combination playing on the left wing. His team-mates included Peter Wyer, who stayed a close friend for life, Charlie Dutton and Bill Patrick and a young George Curtis joined the club that season and also became a good friend. His performance at Carrow Road earned him a regular place and on Boxing Day 1955 he netted both goals in a 2-1 home win over Birmingham City reserves. A few trips as 12^th man gave him the taste of first team football but as one of four left wingers at the club he had limited opportunities and in February 1956 he went on loan to Corby Town for three months.

At the end of the season he was granted a free transfer by Coventry and joined Hinckley Athletic, then a Birmingham Combination side. Some dazzling performances soon attracted league scouts and in November 1956 he signed for Nottingham Forest for ‘a four figure sum’. Ken scored on his Forest reserve debut at Grimsby and was a regular in the team without getting a first-team chance. One of his team-mates was future Coventry legend Ron Farmer and Ken and Ron started a beautiful friendship which lasted until Ron’s death last year. After less than a year at Forest he was on the move to Third Division Bournemouth who had been FA Cup giant-killers the previous season, defeating Tottenham and Wolves in a famous run. Within a month Ken got his first-team debut and scored in a 4-0 win at Shrewsbury but after six starts he was back in the reserves.

Ken Brown at Legends Day 2022 (DN)

After one year at Bournemouth he moved further along the south coast, signing for Fourth Division Torquay United, scoring one goal in nine appearances and at the end of the season he was released and moved back to Hinckley. In a dazzling return debut Ken scored two goals in a 8-1 thrashing of Ashford Town but within months he was on the move again, to Lockheed Leamington. Brakes manager Syd Ottewell converted Ken to a striker and he scored prolifically for the exciting Lockheed team over the next 18 months playing with other former City youngsters Mick Lane and Ernie Ward. Southern League Burton Albion is believed to be his last club and by this time he was working at the Standard car factory in the City as well as rearing a young family with his wife Jean.

Football-mad Ken was soon running and coaching the Triumph Athletic works team in the Coventry leagues and worked at the Standard until the factory closed in 1980 as well as helping Jean run a general store in Dunchurch. After the Standard he became a postman in the Tile Hill area before retiring in 1998. In 2007 he was one of the early members of the newly formed Former Players Association and loved meeting up with other City ex-players. He never missed a Legends Day and was a regular at Golf Days as well as lunching regularly with other club veterans. Ken remained sprightly, cheerful and active supporting Sky Blues In the Community’s Walking Football initiative and forging a close friendship with Dave Busst.

Dave told me: ‘Ken was a great charcter who always had a smile and loved talking about his journey. He was one of the original walking footballers and at 81 he was still demanding the ball. Off the pitch he was happy to share his experiences with all the other players and he became a close friend personally and to all the staff at SBITC’.

Ken is survived by three children, son Ken and daughters Lynn and Lorraine, six grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. The funeral is to be held at Canley Crematorium at 2.30 pm Wednesday 30^th August and afterwards at the Standard Triumph Club, Herald Avenue.

Cédric Roussel (06/01/1978 – 24/06/2023)

Cédric Roussel RIP

A major shock in the summer was the death, at the age of 45, of former Coventry striker Cedric Roussel in his homeland Belgium. Cedric was one of numerous European players scouted by Ray Clarke in the 1990s and joined on a seasons long from KAA Gent in 1999. After substitute appearances against Newcastle (home) and Sheffield Wednesday (away) he was given his first start by Gordon Strachan in a home game with Watford and made a good impression in a 4-0 victory, playing alongside Robbie Keane. In his second start, at home to Aston Villa, he achieved legendary status by heading a goal after eight minutes and having a hand in Keane’s winner. A tall, solid striker who was good in the air, Cedric was a popular player at the club in a golden season that earned the team the sobriquet ‘The Entertainers’ for their dazzling displays on Sky TV that campaign. In January 2000 Coventry signed Cedric on a permanent deal, paying Gent a reported £1.2 million.

Jim Brown ties Cedric to CCFPA 2015

Cedric went on to score nine league and cup goals in 25 appearances including braces on successive Saturdays against Charlton and at Old Trafford against Manchester United. The following season with Keane, and McAllister having moved on was a struggle for both Roussel and the team. He was hampered by injuries and managed only two goals in 18 games and at one stage Coventry were trying to move him on to Wimbledon as a makeweight in a deal to bring John Hartson to Highfield Road. That deal never materialized, although City did later sign Hartson, and in February 2001 he was transferred to Division 1 club Wolves for £2 million. His time at Molineux, under manager Dave Jones, was not productive and after 28 games and just two goals he returned to Belgium, on loan to RAEC Mons where he rediscovered his scoring boots. A permanent move to KRC Genk followed and his form earned him three full caps for Belgium. Although his professional playing career continued for another 11 years he rarely stayed long at one club. There were short spells in Russia (Rubin Kazam), Italy (Brescia) and Cyprus (AEK Larnaca) as well as numerous Belgian clubs and he finished at RRC Waterloo in 2015 at the age of 37.

Following his playing career he became an estate agent in Belgium and visited Coventry for a match in 2015 when I had the pleasure of welcoming into the Former Players Association. In June he suffered a cardiac arrest at a cafe in his hometown of Mons and paramedics were unable to revive him.

Tony Knapp  (13/10/1936 – 22/03/2023)

Tony Knapp in the Sky Blue

Peter Thomas (20/11/1944 – 19/01/2023)

Peter Thomas RIP

It’s sad to report the death of former City goalkeeper Peter Thomas after a short illness. Peter, who was 78, died surrounded by his family in Tramore, Ireland

Coventry born Peter joined Coventry City as a goalkeeper from his work’s team G.E.C. in the close season of 1965. Bill Glazier was recovering from a broken leg and Jimmy Hill needed a deputy for Bob Wesson. Peter made 21 appearances for the reserves in 1965-66 but with Glazier back Peter was allowed to go to Irish club Waterford on loan in August 1966. In early October Peter, who at 5′ 10” was on the small side for a goalkeeper but was an excellent shotstopper, was recalled to Coventry following Wesson’s sale to Walsall.

Just over a month later an injury to Glazier gave Peter his first team chance and he donned the green jersey for the home game with Cardiff City. Peter’s debut was largely overlooked by the media as the attention was on the recall of star man Ian Gibson following a major bust up between the player and Jimmy Hill. ‘Gibbo’ had been out of the team for seven games but celebrated his return with a virtuouso performance and two goals in a 3-2 victory. Peter had a relatively quiet game but was beaten by two goals in the last two minutes by a young striker called John Toshack. A young Mick Coop also made his Sky Blues debut that day.

Three days later Peter played in a first team friendly against Scottish club Morton – City won 3-2 – but Glazier returned for league action the following Saturday and Peter was back in the reserves. The Cardiff game will be remembered as the start of a 25-game unbeaten run which took the Sky Blues to the First Division for the first time.

Two months later Peter was allowed to sign permanently for Waterford where he went on to have a long and successful career. In 1968 Waterford qualified for the European Cup and were drawn against Manchester United in the First Round. United won the first leg 3-1 at Landsdown Road, Dublin but Peter saved a Denis Law penalty. United ran riot in the second leg, winning 7-1, but newspaper reports praised Peter for keeping the score in single figures!

Peter playing in the NASL

Peter took up Irish citizenship in the early 70s and won international honours, appearing four times for the League of Ireland XI and gaining two full Republic of Ireland caps.  He kept a clean sheet in his international debut in 1973 against Poland but had to miss the second half due to a pulled stomach muscle. His other cap was against the World champions Brazil at the Maracana Stadium  in 1974. Eire lost 2-1 with Rivellino scoring the winner. Coventry’s Jimmy Holmes also appeared in the game.

At Waterford he played almost 600 games and won every honour in the domestic game including five League of Ireland championship medals. Later he joined Galway United, Drogheda and for a short spell managed Waterford and coached Tramore FC. In the 1970s he spent several summers playing in the USA with Washington Diplomats, Utah Golden Spikers, Las Vegas Quicksilvers and Sacramento Gold.

In the Irish press there have been fulsome tributes to ‘Tommo’ as he was known in Irish football and he is described as ‘the best goalkeeper to grace League of Ireland football’. RIP Peter.

Alan Turner (05/07/1943 – 23/09/2022)

Alan at Legends Day 2017

It’s sad to report the death of former Coventry City player Alan Turner who played under Jimmy Hill in the 1960s. His friend and former playing colleague Dennis Oakes informed me that Alan died on 23rd September.

Alan, who was with the club from 1962-66, only made four first team appearances but was a regular in the reserve team during those years, playing over 120 games for the ‘stiffs’.

Born in 1943 and a native of Hull, Alan was a junior with Hull City and an amateur player with Chilton FC before Scunthorpe United took him on as a reserve player in 1960. Jimmy Hill had only arrived at Highfield Road in the previous November and invited Alan to a month’s trial in January 1962 following a recommendation from one of Hill’s old army mates. He made his ‘A’ team debut against West Brom on 20 January and Alan scored the first goal in City’s 2-1 win with Dietmar Bruck scoring the winner.

Alan Turner in the Sky Blue

A scheming inside-forward with a good eye for goal, Alan made his reserve team debut at Aldershot on 14 February alongside other youngsters Brian Hill, Dietmar Bruck and Bob Wesson and Alan Dicks, City’s new Assistant manager also made his debut. The reserves ended a bad run of results by winning 1-0 thanks to a goal by Mike Dixon. A week later he scored his first goal in an 8-2 home reserve win over QPR and was a regular in the reserves until the end of the season, scoring three goals in 13 games. On 24 April he got his first team chance in the Third Division game at Ashton Gate as JH gave promising youngsters a run out – winger George Bassett also debuted and young striker Colin Holder also played. 18-year-old Alan had a tough game against experienced defenders and City lost 3-2.

The club had some outstanding forwards in that era and Alan was restricted to reserve games for the next three seasons but he was a regular in the 1964-65 team that won promotion from Football Combination Division Two in front of average crowds of over 5,000, scoring nine goals.

Denis Oakes & Alan Turner Legends Day 2017

He didn’t play for the first team again until Easter 1965 when he was called up to play in a 2-0 Second Division home defeat to Cardiff and a week later appeared in the final game of the season, a 3-1 win at Leyton Orient. His fourth and final game for the club was in a Division Two game at Highfield Road against Southampton in September 1965 when he stood in for the injured Ron Farmer – the Sky Blues ran out 5-1 winners.

Alan was transferred to Third Division Shrewsbury Town in July 1966 where he played a further sixteen games and scored three goals before moving to Bradford Park Avenue in May 1967 where he played the whole season and scored four times in 32 appearances. Bradford finished rock bottom of the Football League and had to apply for re-election and Alan was released. His last professional club was Northern Premier League side Wigan Athletic and he later moved back to Humberside and played in non-league with Goole Town where he was player-manager. He worked for GKN in the 1970s and lived on Humberside.

Alan had been a frequent attender of CCFPA Legends Day over the years and is pictured at Legends Day 2017 with Bedworth-born Dennis Oakes. My condolences go out to his widow Joan. Funeral takes place at 11.30 am on the 21st October at Haltemprice Crematorium near Hull.

Mike Dixon (14/03/1937 – 13/11/2022)

Mike Dixon RIP

We were very sad to hear (belatedly) of the death of former CCFC striker Michael (Mike/Mick’) Dixon who passed away last November, aged 85.

A centre-forward, Mike was a fringe player with Second Division Luton when City manager Billy Frith signed him for City in the summer of 1961 and he made his debut in a 3-0 home win over Newport County. His first goal came four days later in a 3-3 draw at Swindon and he had a good scoring record in a struggling team that autumn.

He appeared in the infamous Kings Lynn FA Cup defeat in November 1961 which precipitated Frith’s departure and the arrival of Jimmy Hill and Mike scored the winning goal in Hill’s first game against Northampton. With six goals in Hill’s first six games it looked like Dixon would be part of JH‘s plans but an injury in January ended his season and he wasn’t retained at the end of the season. In total Mike scored a dozen goals in twenty appearances for City.

Mike Dixon RIP (Luton Town)

Born in Willesden, London on 14^th March 1937 the teenage Mike (he preferred to be called ‘Mick’) made a name at local Luton side Sundon Park FC and had short spells with both Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion on trial without making a first team appearance. He then developed his game at Hitchin Town before Luton Town took him to Kenilworth Road in April 1957. In 1959 the Hatters, then a First Division side, reached the FA Cup final and two weeks before the final he was given his first team debut at West Brom. Luton suffered relegation the following season and Mike’s only appearance was in a 5-1 home loss to Wolves but at least he netted the consolation goal. His third and final game for the Hatters was at the end of the 1960-61 season just before he joined Coventry.

After leaving City in 1962 he dropped into non-league with Cambridge United, managed by former City player Roy Kirk, and later played for Stevenage, Dunstable Town, Biggleswade, Weymouth, Poole and Sittingbourne.

Mike continued to live in Luton and avidly followed the career of his more famous footballing son Kerry Dixon who began his career at Dunstable before building a glittering career of more than 600 games between 1980-1997 with a host of clubs most notably Reading, Chelsea and Luton Town. Kerry also won international caps for England as well as managing Doncaster Rovers, Hitchin Town and Dunstable Town.

Bob Wesson (15/10/1940 – 31/08/2022)

Bob Wesson RIP

Former City goalkeeper Bob Wesson sadly died last week. Bob, who was 81, was City’s regular ‘keeper in the early sixties, played in the great FA Cup run in 1963 and won a Third Division championship medal under Jimmy Hill the following season. He made 156 appearances for the Sky Blues before losing his place to Bill Glazier and moving to Walsall where he played over 200 games for the Saddlers.

Born in Thornaby-on-Tees Bob played his early football for Thornaby Boys Brigade and had trials with Headington United (now Oxford United) and his local team Middlesbrough before signing for Coventry City in November 1958 following a brief trial. Manager Billy Frith had signed South African goalkeeper Arthur Lightening but wanted a young deputy and 18-year-old Bob moved down from the North East. He made his reserve team debut in a 4-2 defeat at Millwall playing alongside other youngsters such as Brian Hill, Mick Kearns and Ken Satchwell. His early games were inauspicious however and was rested after conceding 14 goals in his first four reserve games culminating in a 7-2 home defeat to Mansfield Town.

Bob in the early 1960s

Bob spent the next two years in the ‘A’ Team with the occasional reserve game before suddenly getting a first team call-up at Newport County in March 1961 when Lightening was injured. The game ended 3-3 and Bob won praise from Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph match report.

‘…the brawny Wesson had to face a stiff first-half breeze with the ball coming in at all angles and varying speeds. He came out of this ordeal with flying colours, right from the save he made in the opening 60 seconds as he scooped a dangerous Meyer shot away for a corner. Wesson never kept goal by half-measures. When the ball was not in a catching position, he came roaring out with both fists to thump it away to safety, and his confident manner inspired the City defence to a rousing display.’

He retained his place for the final eleven games of the season despite being between the posts for another 7-2 defeat at Watford. In 1961-62, with the arrival of Jimmy Hill, Lightening was fit again and preferred to Bob who was restricted to the reserves apart from four first team games. Things changed however in August 1962 when Hill controversially sold Lightening to Middlesbrough after a disciplinary issue and signed another keeper, Dave Meeson, from Reading leaving Bob rather bemused. As luck would have it Meeson’s signing was one of JH’s transfer blunders and after 15 games and some poor performances he was dropped in favour of Bob. Bob’s return to the team coincided with an FA Cup First Round tie with Bournemouth at Highfield Road and the Sky Blues scraped through 1-0 thanks to several superb saves by Bob in the dying minutes to foil the Cherries. Bob’s patience was rewarded with an uninterrupted run as first choice goalkeeper and he was a vital cog in the team that reached the club’s first FA Cup quarter final in over 50 years.

The following season, 1963-64, Bob was a virtual ever present as the Sky Blues set a blistering pace at the top of Division Three. The team led the table by ten points at the turn of the year but a near-disastrous run of eleven games without a win almost cost the team promotion. JH tried everything to turn around the team’s form and even reliable Bob was rested for five games but was back between the posts for the final few games.

The 1963-64 champions. Bob is second from left, back row.

In the higher division Bob’s form took a slight dip and Hill, keen to strengthen the team spent £35,000, a world record fee for a goalkeeper, on Crystal Palace’s Bill Glazier. Bob was back in the reserves but five months later Glazier suffered a broken leg and Bob was recalled. He didn’t let the side down and kept goal in Glazier’s absence for over a year. Once Glazier was fully fit he regained the jersey and Bob realised that he would never be first choice at the club.

Bob (seated) with fellow CCFC veteran Bill Tedds

In September 1966 he joined Third Division Walsall for £15,000 and was a regular at Fellows Park for the next seven seasons. His only spell out of the Saddlers team was when 18-year-old prodigy Phil Parkes emerged on the scene in 1969 and Bob was allowed to go on loan to Doncaster. Within a year Parkes was off to London for an illustrious career with QPR and later West Ham United and Bob was back in the team.

Bob’s professional career ended after a bad shoulder injury sustained in an FA Cup tie with Kettering in 1972 and he left Walsall the following summer before a spell at Burton Albion.

Bob and his wife Janet (who died in 2016) then entered the pub trade in Warwickshire and Leicestershire for over two decades before he finally retired. Bob, who was an active member of CCFPA, had not been in the best of health over the last few years but nevertheless followed the Sky Blues, whenever he felt up to it, at the CBS Arena as well as at St Andrews before the pandemic. He was an ever present at Legends Day since the formation of CCFPA and despite being restricted to a wheelchair was there last March to meet up with his friends and former colleagues.

He will be greatly missed by the Sky Blue family and especially that group of older Former Players who had regular lunches in Coventry in recent years. His funeral takes place at Rugby Crematorium on 26th September at 3pm.

Ron Farmer (06/03/1936 – 11/06/2022)

Ron Farmer RIP

It’s sad to report the death of another of Coventry City’s iconic players from the 1960s, Ronnie Farmer. Ron who was 86 and had been in a nursing home for some time, passed away on Saturday.

Ron was a key player in the club’s rise from Division 4 to Division 1 between 1958 and 1967 and was one of only four players to appear for the club in all four divisions of the Football League (George Curtis, Brian Hill and Mick Kearns were the others). A skilful half back with excellent passing skills, he was signed from Nottingham Forest in November 1958 and was an important member of the team promoted from Division Four that season. Over the next seven seasons Ron was a virtual ever-present in the side with his main strength being winning the ball and feeding his forwards with penetrating passes. He also had a penchant for scoring long-range goals and taking penalties and during his City career he missed only one out of 23 spot-kicks.

Ron in CCFC action in the late 50s

Born in Guernsey in 1936, Ron was evacuated from the Channel Islands to Birmingham a day before the Nazis invaded the islands in 1940. After returning to the island five years later he made his name at the North Athletic club and later attracted the interest of Nottingham Forest. Along with his elder brother Bill (a goalkeeper) he moved, aged 16, to the mainland to try and carve out a professional football career. Bill was ten years older than Ron and won a first team place at the City Ground soon after arriving. He went on to play 58 games for Forest between 1953 and 1956 before joining Oldham Athletic.

Ron had stiff competition for a first team place but finally got his chance in January 1958 against Gillingham in the FA Cup. In the same Forest team was Scots-born winger Stewart Imlach, someone whose path would cross with Ron again later. Forest were a newly promoted First Division team, managed by the legendary former Villa player Billy Walker, and Ron had the chance to play nine league games against top opposition that season.

Ron in Action

In the summer of 1958 Forest signed former Manchester United wing-half Jeff Whitefoot and Ron was restricted to reserve team games. In November of that year City manager Billy Frith signed him in a £6,000 double deal with goalkeeper Arthur Lightening and he went straight into the City first team in a 5-1 home win over Chester. Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph wrote: ‘After a quarter of an hour feeling his way, Farmer settled down to a polished display of wing-half play and soon achieved complete understanding in midfield with (Paddy) Ryan’.

Ron Farmer in Bantams’ all white strip 1960-61

His first City goal came in a 3-2 home win over Crewe when he netted from just outside the penalty area. The signings of Farmer and Lightening were a major boost to the club’s Division Four promotion hopes and Ronnie played in 26 successive games as City finished runners up and were promoted to Division Three.

Bill Farmer

In 1959 brother Bill joined him at Highfield Road on a free transfer from Worcester City but failed to win a first team place. Ronnie, on the other hand, blossomed in the higher league. The half-back line of Kearns-Curtis-Farmer became the lynchpin of the team in the early 1960s and although Jimmy Hill successfully converted Mick Kearns into a full-back, another stalwart Brian Hill became the regular right-half.

Hill arrived at Highfield Road in November 1961 at a time when Ron was on the injury list and quickly assessed the squad he had inherited. In early March Ron returned to first team action but Jimmy had largely decided the major surgery required to the playing staff and it seemed that Ron wasn’t part of his longer term plans. Jimmy had his eyes on Ards winger Willie Humphries and wanted to offer Ron in part exchange for the Northern Irish winger.

Ronnie Farmer

A few years ago Ron described what happened: ‘I had not played for the first team under Jimmy but he called me in and said how did I fancy a move to Ireland, I want to sign Humphries and I’d like to offer you to Ards? I told him that he hadn’t seen me play and anyway I didn’t fancy a move to Ireland. Whenever we met he reminded me that he was going to sell me before he’d even see me play’.

Ron played in every game until the end of the season and his performances, including five goals in the last seven games, convinced Hill that he was worth keeping. In 1962-63 he was a regular at wing-half but youngsters Dietmar Bruck and Brian Hill were snapping at his heels and the manager preferred Bruck in the latter stages of the memorable FA Cup run meaning Ron missed out on the big games with Sunderland and Manchester United.

Ron & his No.6 original

In August 1963 he became the only City defender to score a hat-trick when, against Crystal Palace at Highfield Road he scored two penalties and a stunning 35-yard free-kick past a dazed, future City goalkeeper Bill Glazier in a 5-1 victory. Farmer was ecstatic but he recalls that Jimmy Hill wasn’t impressed. Ron explained : ‘it was tradition that if you scored a hat-trick you got to keep the match ball but when I asked JH for the ball he said that because I scored two penalties it wasn’t a proper hat-trick!’ That season he played 44 league games and scored 11 goals – eight from penalty kicks – as City won the Third Division title and was voted City’s Player of the season.

Ron was entrusted with taking spot-kicks soon after Jimmy Hill’s arrival in 1961 and over the next five seasons he missed only one out of 23 attempts – that was at Millwall in 1964 when a win would have virtually clinched promotion from Division Three. Farmer, worried that goalkeepers were rumbling his strategy of always hitting the ball to his right, hit the spot-kick towards the other corner but, although goalkeeper Alex Stepney was helpless, the ball hit the post and bounced to safety and the game ended 0-0. His nonchalant penalty-taking style fooled many goalkeepers. The kicks may not have been powerful but they were always deadly accurate in their execution. Ron went on to take a further eleven penalties for the Sky Blues and never missed another and holds the club record for most penalties scored.

In 1965-66 the Football League introduced substitutes and Ron became the first City player to be substituted after fracturing his cheekbone in a collision with Manchester City‘s Johnny Crossan and was replaced by Bruck. City missed out on promotion by one point but Ron had another excellent campaign. In the 1966-67 Division Two promotion season there were signs that 31-year old Ron was slowing up but he played 34 games however an injury cost him his place to Brian Lewis and he missed the final memorable run-in. The club’s defence, with Curtis, Hill and Kearns still going strong, was the team’s strength and the key factor in the 25-match unbeaten run. Ronnie managed two goals, a trademark penalty in a 4-2 Boxing Day win over Rotherham and a 30-yard free-kick which ‘slithered’ past Norwich’s goalkeeper in a 2-1 home win.

The 1966-67 Second Division Champions. Ron is 2nd from left middle row.

Ronnie remembered having a stinker in the opening game at home to Hull:

‘I misplaced so many passes that I fully expected to be substituted. Nothing I did came off and I was crap but I kept running and tackling. Before the next game we had a team-talk and JH went round the room asking us how we thought we had played. I told him, “I was surprised you didn’t take me off, I was hopeless”, he replied, “you kept running, you kept tackling and you blocked some passes, all that was wrong was your passing and the rest of your game was fine, so I wasn’t going to take you off”.

Jimmy Holmes, Ron Farmer & Ian Wallace at Golf Day

In 1967 as Ron reached the milestone of 300 games for the club Jimmy Hill paid him a tribute, ‘The ironic thing is that towards the end of my first season here, he was hit by injuries and I contemplated giving him a free transfer because I had not had a real chance to see what he could do – and he was being barracked by the crowd. Afterwards I kept telling people he was our most accurate player. It is a wonderful performance by him and he has really earned his testimonial.’

In the First Division Ron played just four games, all away from Highfield Road, taking his total appearances for the club to 315. He had the honour of returning to Forest’s City Ground as a Coventry player and was one of City’s eleven heroes in a memorable 3-3 draw. One of his greatest regrets was not playing a home game in the top flight. In October 1967 he signed for Fourth Division Notts County on a free transfer. His move however cost County a few bob as Jimmy Hill insisted that they paid Ron his reward for foregoing his Coventry City testimonial. He rejoined old friends Stewart Imlach (coach at Meadow Lane) and Billy Gray (his former Forest manager) and spent two happy seasons in the twilight of his career.

In 1969 he joined non-league Grantham but soon after was lured back to Highfield Road as youth team coach. He led an outstanding crop of young players to the FA Youth Cup final in his first season including Dennis Mortimer, Bobby Parker and Alan Green and although the final was lost to Tottenham Ron was feted as a good coach. In November 1971 however he was sacked as manager Noel Cantwell brought in Tony Waiters as his Director of Coaching, three months later Cantwell and Waiters would lose their jobs.

Ron pictured at Legends Day 2009 (4th from left)

Ron Farmer, Gordon Quinney & Ken Brown

A disillusioned Ron went to Massey Ferguson where he worked in the factory alongside several other ex-City stars and played and coached an excellent works team. He continued to live in Coventry after retiring and was one of the first members of the Former Players Association when it was formed in 2007. He continued to attend home games up until the start of this season, ironically his final game was the Forest home game.

He leaves three children, Justine, Adam and Matt.

Jimmy Whitehouse (19/09/1934 -05/05/2022)

Sky Blue Jimmy Whitehouse R.I.P.

It is sad to report the death of former Coventry City forward Jimmy Whitehouse at the age of 87. The tall, blond scheming inside forward was a star of Coventry’s famous 1963 FA Cup run when, as a Third Division club, they reached the sixth round in a blaze of glory and started Jimmy Hill’s Sky Blue Revolution. Jimmy scored six goals in nine games in the weather interrupted campaign, a record in the club’s time in the Football League.

He was one of the five new forwards that Jimmy Hill signed in the summer of 1962 when he revamped the team, the kit and the whole face of the club. He started slowly as far as goals were concerned but when the FA Cup came around he turned into an ace goal-getter, somewhat similar to Keith Houchen 24 years later. An injury in the summer of 1963 meant he missed the start of the 1963-64 campaign and when he recovered he couldn’t win his place back from Ernie Machin and played only nine more games in Sky Blue. In March 1964 manager Jimmy Hill sold him to Millwall for £4,500.

JH’s New Forward Line 1962: Jim Whitehouse, Willie Humphries, Hugh Barr, Terry Bly & Bobby Laverick

He had been signed on a free transfer from Reading, where he had a five-year career scoring 67 goals in over 220 games. He grew up in Greets Green in the Black Country he joined his local team West Brom as an amateur and had six years at the Hawthorns without ever quite making the first team. The Baggies were one of the top teams in the country in the mid 1950s and went close to achieving the double in 1954, winning the FA Cup and finishing second in the league. Jimmy had to move down to Third Division Reading to make a name for himself. A fee of £250 took him to Elm Park and he scored on his debut for the Biscuitmen in August 1956 and was first choice inside forward for the next six seasons. Never a prolific scorer he did manage all four goals in a 4-0 win over Gillingham in 1958 and two goals in a 4-2 home win over Coventry the following year.

Jimmy Whitehouse in Sky Blue action

A free transfer brought him to Highfield Road in 1962 and he made his debut in the new Sky Blue kit in the opening day 2-0 victory over Notts County. By the time the First Round of the FA Cup came round Jimmy had scored two league goals and two in the League Cup but he notched the only goal in the home win over Bournemouth

In the Second Round a 0-0 draw at Millwall brought the South London side back to Highfield Road for a replay and Jimmy was on target along with Hugh Barr as the Sky Blues progressed 2-1.

In 2004 Jimmy told me the story of the Cup campaign:

‘It was the winter of the big freeze and there was virtually no football from Christmas until the first week in March. Our third round game at Lincoln was postponed sixteen times and when the thaw finally came we ended up playing six Cup games in three weeks.’

City, who prior to the freeze had been in a strong league position, just four points behind leaders Peterborough, romped home 5-1 at Lincoln with Jimmy netting after just 15 seconds – one of the fastest goals in the club’s history. The victory earned a plum tie with Second Division Portsmouth a week later. A late Ken Hale goal gave City a fortunate 1-1 draw at Fratton Park and three days later a pulsating replay ended all-square.

Jim Whitehouse & Jim Brown

Jimmy recalled, ‘I scored two goals in the replay and we were 2-0 up and looked home and dry but Pompey scored twice in the second half to take it to extra-time. We had to play the second replay at Tottenham’s White Hart Lane and I can remember the amazing vocal support the City fans made. Ron Saunders put Pompey ahead but Terry Bly equalised and I scored the winner and we won 2-1’.

Six days later Second Division leaders Sunderland were humbled in front of a cup-crazy 40,000 Highfield Road crowd with many others getting in free after some gates were broken down. They saw the Sky Blues win a thriller 2-1 with late goals from Dietmar Bruck and George Curtis and earn the plum draw, a home tie with Manchester United.

Five days later in front of a capacity 44,000 crowd City’s run ended as they lost 1-3 to Matt Busby’s star-studded team that included Bobby Charlton and Denis Law.

Jimmy had scored nine goals in six FA Cup games to add to his nine league goals and played some of the best football of his career but it was not sufficient to win promotion for the club. The concertinaed cup run had taken too much out of the players and a tired City slipped to finish fourth.

In 2004 he told me: ‘Jimmy Hill was very good to me and I have some fond memories of Coventry and the football club. Those Cup ties were unbelievable and I can remember them as if they happened yesterday.’

Hugh Barr & Jimmy Whitehouse

His former playing colleague Dietmar Bruck recalls Jimmy fondly: ‘At eighteen I was the youngest player in the 1963 team and he always encouraged me and gave me advice. I remember him telling me not to worry about making mistakes as that was how you learnt. He was a true gentleman and when we met up at Legends Days we always reminisced about the great times under JH’.

After losing his place to Machin Jimmy played only 10 games for the Sky Blues in 1963-64, scoring three goals including two goals in the 2-2 away draw with his old club Reading in January. In March 1964 he joined Millwall and although he scored a brace on his home debut he could not save the Lions from relegation to Division Four. Jimmy and his wife moved back to the Reading area In 1964-65 he played 33 games and scored 15 goals before moving on to non-league football with first Hillingdon Borough and later Hastings United and Andover. He worked for an engineering company in Reading after hanging up his boots and moved to Tilehurst near Reading. Later he indulged his love of betting by becoming a part-time on-course bookmaker and he could often be found at Oxford and Reading greyhound tracks. He joined the Former Players Association at its inception and was a regular at Legends Days until his health deteriorated. Jim suffered from Parkinson’s and dementia and lost his wife Olive during Covid. He leaves a daughter Sharon and grand-daughter Lucy.

Graham Spratt (17/07/1939 – 24/02/2022)

In the last week I have also been made aware that former City goalkeeper Graham Spratt passed away earlier this year. Born six weeks before the outbreak of war in 1939, Graham, who had previously been on Leicester City’s books, was signed from Oadby Town as a seventeen-year-old in 1956. He made his debut for the reserves in a 2-2 draw at Swindon in November of that year. His form in the reserves earned him a call-up to the first team at the start of the 1957-58 season and he was praised after an impressive debut in a home 2-2 draw with Watford. It was a miserable season for the club however with a bottom half finish in Division Three South consigning City to the newly formed Division Four. Graham, who at 5 ft 8 ins was short for a goalkeeper, was described as ‘the next Reg Matthews in the making’ in the Coventry Telegraph and was often the hero for keeping the score down. Despite impressive notices Graham lost his place after a 7-1 thrashing at Southampton at the end of February when Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph described him as ‘the star turn’ for keeping the score down! Manager Billy Frith felt the youngster needed a break and Graham played just one more first team game, in a 4-1 defeat at Walsall.

CCFC 1957-58 with Graham in the centre of the middle row

That summer Frith signed a new goalkeeper Jim Sanders who managed 10 games before suffering a broken leg. Graham was called up to play against Carlisle and although City lost 2-1 he got positive reviews. Frith however was not convinced and relegated Graham to the reserves, preferring 41-year-old trainer Alf Wood for the next game. Graham was a regular for the reserves for the rest of the season but released by the club the following summer at the tender age of 19 having played 28 league games and two FA Cup ties for the club. After leaving City he played for Rugby Town and became a postman and worked for Royal Mail until his retirement. His daughter Julie tells me that he excelled at most sports and was wicket-keeper for Dunton Bassett cricket team as well as an accomplished bowls player for the Soar Valley club. He lived in Blaby for many years before moving to Mountsorrel in Leicestershire. His wife Sylvia passed away in 1982 and long time partner Thelma passed away four years ago. He leaves two daughters Joanne and Julie.

RIP Graham. Sadly Graham was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a number of years ago.

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Another former City goalkeeper John Green recently passed away. John never played for the first team but played for the ‘A’ team in the seasons immediately after World War Two. He was a regular at Diamond Club lunches and often wrote to me with memories of his playing days.

Norman Greenway (08/24 – 2021)

Norman in 1977

‘Norm’ as he preferred to be known in later life was a ‘Coventry Kid’  who became the Association’s oldest member then aged 87 when we signed him up at the end of 2010. Born in the City in August 1924, after an unsuccessful  trial with the Bantams he gained experience with both Nuneaton Town and Bedworth Town and played for Coventry Gauge FC, his works side (where he was in a reserved occupation) .  Norm helped the City out during the war years and in season 1942-3 made six appearances for the first team at inside left, outside left and left half and can claim to be never on the losing side!

Though we have not yet managed to find a photo of Norm in his Coventry City strip when Jim Brown originally made contact with him and he sent us a match report from that season of the Town’s 3-0 home victory against City Transport where Norman’s contribution is described thus, ” It was Greenway’s match undoubtedly. The sturdy Bedworth right half doing a prodigious job…”. He also sent a vintage programme from 6th May 1950 of a game between Bedworth Town and the Pick of the League  to celebrate the Town’s achievement of becoming Champions of the Birmingham Combination 1949-50. Norm is third player from the right (back row) on the front page photo of the victorious team (below).

For a more recent likeness Norm is also shown above right from 1977 working as a manager for John Crane Mauri Pty Ltd. in Australia after he and his family emigrated to New South Wales. We sent condolences to wife Norma, son and four grandsons and grand daughter.

John Sillett (20/07/1936 – 29/11/2021)

John Sillett CCFC gaffer

Affectionately known as ‘Snoz’, John Sillett will be universally remembered as the man who masterminded Coventry City’s 1987 FA Cup win. Few of his tributes will mention his role as a key player in the club’s meteoric rise up the Football League in the 1960s or his magnificent achievement in managing the Sky Blues to three consecutive top half finishes in the top flight of English football.

John was born in Southampton but grew up in the Hampshire village of Nomansland – his parents Charlie and Anne Sillett ran the Lamb pub in the New Forest village. Charlie had a good football career with Southampton, making 183 appearances between 1933-38, mainly as a full-back and latterly as captain of the Saints. Charlie, who was a gunner in the Royal Navy in the war, sadly lost his life in 1945 when the ship he was on was sunk in a U-boat attack.

John in the Sky Blue 1963

John and his elder brother Peter inherited their father’s football talents and were both on Southampton’s books as teenagers. In 1953 with the Saints strapped for cash Chelsea, managed by Charlie’s former teammate Ted Drake, signed the pair of them for £12,000. Peter, three years John’s senior and already a regular at the Dell, went on to win three England caps at right-back and played in the Chelsea championship side of 1955 as well as a member of the 1958 England World Cup squad.

John, originally a centre-forward converted into full-back, got his first team chance on New Year’s Day 1957 against the Busby Babes at Old Trafford alongside Peter and he was up against David Pegg, one of the country’s top wingers who would sadly lose his life a year later in the Munich air disaster. Apparently John was a military policeman at the time and the Daily News match report was complimentary: ‘Young Sillett, a military policeman, who borrowed a raincoat so he could travel in civvies, had Manchester United’s bright young winger in custody for the 90 minutes’. However United, on their way to a second successive League title, won 3-0 and after two more games John was back in the reserves. A further league game (against post-Munich Manchester United) came the following season and it wasn’t until the start of the 1958-59 season that John became a regular for the Blues by which time his pal Jimmy Greaves, who coined the nickname ‘Snoz’ on account of his over-sized nose, had hit the football scene like a whirlwind.

John & Jimmy Greaves

In those days Chelsea could score for fun but also concede more – in 1958-59 they scored 75 goals but let in 98! Wolves, the reigning champions were beaten 6-2 and Newcastle 6-5 but they conceded six at Bolton, five at both Manchester clubs and Blackpool. Manager Drake introduced so many youngsters that the team were dubbed ‘Drakes Ducklings’ by the press and John played with outstanding talent such as Peter Bonetti, Terry Venables and Bobby Tambling. John had one black mark at Chelsea – he was sent off at Luton for a bad challenge on Luton’s Northern Ireland winger Billy Bingham.

John was a regular in 1960-61 and won his first representative honour when selected for the Football League that beat the League of Ireland 4-0 in Dublin. The following season however Drake was sacked after a poor start and John lost his place when Tommy Docherty arrived as manager. He was on the transfer list and playing in Chelsea’s reserves in April 1962 when several managers including Coventry City’s new boss Jimmy Hill enquired about signing him.

After 102 games for the Blues John became one of Jimmy’s first signings along with Willie Humphries. Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph described him as ‘a six-footer, a hard defender with a relentless tackle’. He made his debut in a 2-0 home defeat to Hull City, playing alongside George Curtis, Ronnie Farmer and Dietmar Bruck on a grassless Highfield Road. Nemo liked what he saw that day and wrote: ‘Sillett’s unhurried defending, plus his calm positional play, stamp him as a full-back of much more than average use next season’.

In 1962-63 the Sky Blue Revolution started and John was the regular right-back, playing 49 league and cup games. Whilst never a spectacular player he was a solid defender and a steadying influence in the Coventry defence as well as a big character in the dressing room. City looked good bets for promotion from Division Three until Christmas when the worst winter of the 20th century took hold and little football was played for over two months. By the time the thaw came City had a massive fixture backlog, exacerbated by the club’s best FA Cup run for fifty years. John played in all nine cup ties as City reached the quarter finals beating higher division opponents Portsmouth, after a three-game epic, and Sunderland before losing to Manchester United. It was the Sillett-Curtis partnership that combined for the late winning goal in the sensational finale against Sunderland – John’s free-kick finding George’s head in a crowded penalty area. Five days later he had to mark Bobby Charlton in the United tie and although Bobby scored two goals John had a fine game. After the cup exit they had 16 league games still to play in six weeks and their promotion challenge petered out mainly through tiredness. In the final game of the season, at QPR, John scored his first Coventry goal – a thumping free-kick from 25 yards.

Coventry City team photo 1962-63

Promotion was achieved in 1963-64 and in a virtually unchanged defence John missed only five games and was a key player in the team’s success. In Division Two a slipped disc in his back affected him and restricted his appearances but he helped the club consolidate in the higher division with a tenth-placed finish. A concerted promotion push the following season ultimately saw the Sky Blues miss out on the top two places by a single point and John’s back problems restricted him to 11 appearances. In a crucial top of the table game at Molineux in January it was John’s free-kick that set Ray Pointer up for the winning goal. In total John made 128 appearances for the club and scored two goals.

In the summer of 1966 John was transferred to fellow Second Division club Plymouth Argyle as a replacement for Tony Book and played 41 games over the next two seasons, the second of which saw Argyle relegated. Imagine John’s shock in 1967 when his old adversary Billy Bingham arrived as Argyle’s new manager.

With his playing career over, in 1968 John joined Bristol City where the his former Chelsea pal and former Coventry assistant manager Alan Dicks was in charge. As youth team coach John took Bristol to the semi finals of the FA Youth Cup in 1970 where they lost to Tottenham who went on to play the Sky Blues in the final. He went on to become First Team coach and many of his youth team went on to be part of the club’s team that won promotion to Division One in 1976 including Gerry Gow, Tom Ritchie and Geoff Merrick. His son Alan told me that this was one of the most satisfying periods of his career, developing young players and guiding their careers through to the first team.

In 1974 he became manager of Hereford United and stamped his style on the team. Ably supported by veteran player-coach Terry Paine and the prolific scoring of Dixie McNeil the team won promotion from the old Division Three as champions in his second season. In the higher division John stuck by his principles and played attacking football but it was a step too far for the Bulls and they were relegated. John resigned in January 1978 with the club struggling at the foot of Division Three but not until he had unearthed a gem in Kevin Sheedy who signed for Liverpool.

In 1979 Jimmy Hill, now managing director, brought John back to Highfield Road initially as Chief Scout and later as youth team coach but he made his influence felt from day one. Garry Thompson was recovering from a broken leg and recalls: ‘John was always encouraging me in the gym as I recovered. Later he was the great motivator in the management team and knew how to get the best out of me. He’d take me for a coffee and give it to me straight but always with a smile. When we beat West Ham in the League Cup semi final he was first on the pitch at the final whistle with a bear hug. He was a giant’.

John left the club in late 1983, soon after Bobby Gould became manager for the first time. Gould’s replacement Don Mackay, who had succeeded John as Bristol City youth team coach, invited him back in 1985 to work with the youth team. His team, that included Steve Sedgley, Tony Dobson and David Smith, reached the semi-finals of the Youth Cup. In April 1986 with three games remaining the Sky Blues looked to be heading for relegation following a 5-0 thrashing at Anfield. Mackay was relieved of his duties and chairman John Poynton asked ‘Snoz’ to became chief coach supported by general manager and great friend George Curtis.

The partnership was immediately successful with two of the last three games won and relegation avoided with a final day victory over Queens Park Rangers. The pair brought a breath of fresh air and a smile to the club with their happy-go-lucky attitude and expressive style of football. Sillett got the best out of Dave Bennett and Cyrille Regis and with a side largely inherited from Mackay and Gould, but inspired by the partnership, the Sky Blues roared to the FA Cup final twelve months later.

John with his management team in 1989. (L to R): John Peacock,     Terry Paine, Neil Sillett, John, George Dalton, Mick Coop, Mick Kearns

Only two low-key signings were made in the summer of 1986 with Keith Houchen and David Phillips arriving but there were promising signs from day one. The team lost only one of its first eight games playing entertaining attractive football and when they defeated Tottenham 4-3 at Christmas the football world started to take notice. The team were never outside the top half of the table and were a match for anyone at home, losing only three games all season. However it was away from Highfield Road that the Cup success was largely achieved with momentous wins at Old Trafford, Stoke’s Victoria Ground and Hillsborough (twice). Undoubtedly influenced by Jimmy Hill, John and George developed a fantastic team spirit in the club with lots of off-pitch bonding with wives heavily involved, a bond that is still strong today.

On an unforgettable day in May 1987 Sillett’s team put the smiles back on the faces of not only Coventry City but also football in general in one of the most exciting finals since the war. Older City fans will never forget him dancing around Wembley with the cup like a child who had been given the keys to a sweet shop. Big John was deservedly rewarded with promotion to team manager. Two months after the Wembley triumph he made his first significant purchase signing David Speedie from Chelsea for £780,000. His immortal quote at the time was “Coventry City have shopped at Woolworths for too long, from now on we’re shopping at Harrods”.

For the next three years Sillett achieved miracles. His team was rarely out of the top half of the table and never had a relegation battle, they finished 10th, 7th and 12th and reached the League Cup semi final in 1990. They did however suffer embarrassing FA Cup defeats at Sutton and Northampton but was gracious and sporting in his reactions to the losses. The ’87 team slowly broke up but the spine of the team stayed: Oggy, Peake, Kilcline and Regis. He had his critics some of whom argued that he should have broken up the 1987 side sooner and that his transfer dealings were uninspiring. Despite this his cheery style always shone through and he was an excellent ambassador for the club.

In October 1990 he was surprisingly relieved of duties despite being 14th in Division One. Chairman Poynton dealt with his departure in an untidy fashion, negotiating with his successor Terry Butcher whilst John was on his sick bed and unaware of developments. Two months later, according to son Alan, he got a call from Elton John offering him the manager’s post at Watford but he politely declined.

Eight months after departing Highfield Road John joined Hereford United for a second time but the club’s finances were in a poor state and he failed to sprinkle his magic. After Hereford he worked as a pundit on Central TV and returned to watching the Sky Blues. Many fans will remember him for his rallying call on the arrival of Ron Atkinson in 1995 when the reception he received was almost as great as that given Big Ron. With managers these days going on well into their 60s one has to wonder if John retired from club management too soon.

He continued to live in Balsall Common and was part of Sven Goran Eriksson’s scouting set up working part-time with other former City managers Dave Sexton and Noel Cantwell in the early 2000s. He got to watch a lot of football and monitor the progress of squad players and possibles. He boasted that it was he that recommended Wayne Rooney to Sven! He and his wife Jean continued to be regulars at Coventry home games and in 2011 he was made a life president of the club also attending many Diamond Club and Former Players Association events.

John’s other great love was horse racing and he and Jean have owned many horses over the years and he loved meeting up with his favourite trainers Barry Hills and Nicky Henderson where the talk was all football and horses. His horses Charlie Sillett (named after his father) and Major Laugh gave him success on the flat.

John’s contribution to the football club and the city will never be forgotten and his name is woven into DNA of the club. The triumvirate of Coventry City’s 20th century success, Jimmy Hill, George Curtis and John have all now died and their passing leaves a massive hole in the club’s history but his smiling Wembley jig will forever be remembered.

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Brian Nicholas (20/04/1933 – 14/10/2021)

Brian Nicholas

It’s sad to report the death of former Coventry City player Brian Nicholas at the age 88. An old-fashioned wing-half, Brian made 121 appearances for the club following spells at Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers. He was a key member of Coventry’s 1959 Fourth Division promotion side but was one of several players who did not survive the arrival of Jimmy Hill in 1961.

Born in the mining village of Cwmaman near Aberdare in South Wales his parents moved to Slough when he was four years-old. At school he was a natural athlete – he won the 440 yards hurdles at the All-England Schools Championships and had a cricket trial with Middlesex but football was his first love. Despite being Welsh-born, in 1948, at the age of 14, he won four England Schoolboys caps, one of them against his country of birth in a game played at Highfield Road. Playing alongside future full internationals Norman Deeley and Albert Quixall, he helped England to a 2-1 victory in front of a 25,000 crowd. Another youngster in the team was Mark Jones who later signed for Manchester United. Brian and Mark were great pals and roomed together. Mark was tragically killed in the Munich Air Disaster in 1958, an event that deeply saddened Brian. Within a year Brian, who had a shocking head of red hair back then, had left school, signed as an apprentice for QPR and on 7 May 1949, at the age of 16 years and 17 days he made his debut for the Second Division side at home to Leeds United. Leeds had their own prodigious 16-year-old that day, John Charles, who went on to become a Welsh legend.

                                             Brian at QPR in 1949                                               

Brian turned professional on his 17th birthday but didn’t appear in QPR’s first team until 1950 mainly due to National Service commitments. After making five appearances in 1950-51 and six the following season, he became a regular first-teamer in 1952-53 by which time the R’s were in Division Three South. Brian had other talents on the pitch – in 1954 against Bristol City he went in goal for fifteen minutes when the QPR ‘keeper was knocked out. A week later with both QPR ‘keepers on the injured list he played in goal from the start against Torquay. He let in two goals in the first half but kept the Torquay forwards at bay in the second half as QPR came back to win 4-2. In all he played 120 games for Rangers, scoring two goals and in 1955 was selected to play for the London XI v Swiss club Basle in the inaugural Inter Cities Fairs Cup. There was talk that season of him being selected for the full Wales side and in the summer of 1955 Brian moved across West London to recently crowned First Division champions Chelsea then managed by the legendary Ted Drake.

At Stamford Bridge competition for places was stiff and Brian had two excellent wing halves ahead of him in England international Ken Armstrong and Derek Saunders. He played 10 games in the first season including four games in seven days in February as Burnley took the Pensioners to four replays in their FA Cup tie. He was remembered at Chelsea for his lack of hair – he lost most of his hair by the time he was twenty! Over three seasons he played 29 games for the Blues and appeared against numerous Coventry past and future players including goalkeeper Reg Matthews, John Sillett, Alan Dicks and Bobby Laverick as well as a 17-year-old goalscoring sensation Jimmy Greaves.

In January 1958, languishing in Chelsea’s reserves, Coventry’s recently appointed manager Billy Frith swooped to sign Brian for a ‘substantial’ fee. City were in the bottom half of the old Third Division South and looking odds-on to be ‘relegated’ to the new Fourth Division in the divisional reorganisation at the end of the season. Two days later Brian made his debut at right half at Torquay in a 1-0 defeat and so poor was City’s form that none of Brian’s first nine games were won. His home debut came a week later against Brentford and after a 0-0 draw Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph reported: ‘Nicholas, making his home debut promised well. He was fearless in defence and always fought for the ball.’

CCFC 1958-59

The 1959 promotion squad with Brian 3rd left front row

The team’s away form was dire with 21 goals conceded in five games including a 7-1 loss at Southampton and any hope of avoiding relegation disappeared. Despite a brief flurry of wins at theend City finished 19th. The following season was a different matter and the team were always in contention for promotion with Brian an influential player in the middle of the park. From the end of September the team were never out of the top four and the shrewd signings of Paddy Ryan, Ronnie Farmer and Arthur Lightening ensured that manager Frith led them to promotion at the first attempt. The team hit the top of the table in early December and Brian was given the accolade of ‘Player of the Year’ by Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph. On Boxing Day at home to Torquay however tragedy struck when Brian sustained a serious ligament injury which kept him out of action for three months and meant he missed the promotion run in.

Back in Division Three the following season the Bantams almost made it successive promotions but missed out after two bad defeats at Easter, finishing fifth. Brian was an ever present until a loss of form at the end of March after which City’s promotion challenge faltered. In 1960-61 he started the season as captain but inconsistent form cost him his place and played only 10 games all season and went on the transfer list at one stage. City’s upward momentum however stalled and they finished 15th but Brian was back to full fitness in 1961-62 in what was to be a momentous watershed season in the club’s history.

Brian started that season as the first-choice right half but results were very patchy and things came to head in November with home defeats to Crystal Palace and Kings Lynn, in the FA Cup. Frith was sacked and in came Jimmy Hill and the revolution started. Brian initially retained his place in the new regime but by March 1962 with Farmer fit again after injury Hill preferred him to Brian. It was no surprise at the end of the season when he was given a free transfer. In total he made 121 appearances for the club but never scored a goal.

Brian at Legends Day 2015

Settled with his family in Coventry, Brian decided not to take up offers in league football but signed for Southern league club Rugby Town. He had a brief spell as player-manager with Hinckley Athletic but after suffering knee problems he left the game in October 1963, aged 30, and went to work at Massey-Ferguson, Coventry where he worked until retirement. There he teamed up with many old playing colleagues including Reg Matthews, Alf Wood and eventually Ronnie Farmer. After retiring from Massey he worked as a driver for Europa Cars well into his 80s.

In the modern game Brian would be classed as a defensive midfield player, steady, skilled and a strong tackler but capable of defence splitting passes. He was an effective defender in an era when pitches were not the best and opposing forwards were rugged and uncompromising. He was a popular member of the Former Players Association (CCFPA) and attended virtually every Legends Day before Covid. He was great pals with Lol Harvey, who passed away last year and they and their wives were also regulars at Diamond Club lunches.

Brian died peacefully, surrounded by his family. He had been married to his wife Margaret for 65 years and he and Margaret had two children, Kevin and Kim, six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. Brian loved football and was a regular at Sky Blues home games over many years, enjoying friendly banter with friends such as Lol Harvey and Ronnie Farmer and often accompanied by several generations of his family. Brian was a true gentleman and a genuinely nice man who will be missed by all that knew him.

George Curtis (05/05/1939 – 17/07/2021)

George Curtis (05/05/1939 – 17/07/2021)

Coventry City have lost a true great with the passing of George Curtis who has died, aged 82. Affectionately known as ‘The Iron man’, George Curtis was undoubtedly the greatest centre-half and captain in Coventry City’s history.

The son of a Welsh miner who had moved to the Kent coalfield in the 1930s, George was born in Dover in May 1939, months before the outbreak of war. He joined the club’s groundstaff in October 1955 from Snowdown Colliery Welfare as a 16-year-old, on the recommendation of former player Harry Barratt who was managing Snowdown at the time. Barratt, a club legend from the post-war years himself, had already supplied goalkeeper Alf Bentley and defender Eric Jones to Coventry and shortly afterwards was appointed as the club’s Chief Scout.

George leads Sky Blues out at Highfield Rd 1968

Within days George was in the Youth team who were playing in the inaugural season of the FA Youth Cup and he starred in a 4-0 home win over Kidderminster Harriers. A debut for the reserves followed before Christmas, a 2-2 draw at Southampton’s Dell, where his teammates included Alf and Eric, Lol Harvey and Frank Kletzenbauer. Seven days later his promising career almost came to an end when he was dropped after a 5-0 home defeat to Millwall’s reserves. To be fair it was a very young team against an experienced Millwall side. He was back in the ‘stiffs’ in February, as a forward, and managed a goal in a home win over Swindon. After just 16 reserve games he was called up for the first team for the trip to Newport on 21 April 1956, becoming the youngest player for the club at that time, aged 16 years 11 months.

A fresh-faced George Curtis in 1957. Credit: Photo by Colorsport/ Shutterstock (3075283a)

City lost 4-2 at Newport in a dramatic Division Three South game. City’s England goalkeeper Reg Matthews was carried off early in the game, with defender Roy Kirk going between the posts as well as a player from each side being sent off (a rare occurrence in those days). Kirk did save a penalty but let a couple of soft goals in. Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph did however find space to commend the debut boy:

‘George Curtis made a memorable debut at left back. After a shaky opening Curtis settled down to give a splendid showing after the interval when his constructive clearances were outstanding. Definitely a hopeful prospect is Curtis – indeed the best we have known for some while.’

George in Bantams strip 1958

His performance ensured he played the final two games of the season including a home debut 0-0 draw with Reading. England scouts had noted his progress and he was selected to play for England Youth at the end of the season, winning two caps alongside future stars such as John Barnwell and Chris Crowe. Two more caps came in 1957 and he played alongside a young Maurice Setters. The following season, with City under a new manager, Harry Warren, saw the club finish 16th in Division Three South, the club’s lowest final position since the 1920s.

George was in and out of the team under Warren and made 22 league appearances in 18 months before Warren’s replacement, Billy Frith, brought him in at centre-half, a career changing decision for George. Despite only being 5 feet 10 inches, George was commanding in the air as well as being physically strong in the challenge. Within weeks Nemo was waxing lyrically about him – after a 1-1 draw at Aldershot he wrote:

‘Mark the date: Saturday, April 18th, 1958. Mark the ground: the Recreation Ground at Aldershot. For it was there that George Curtis, Coventry City’s boy footballer, became George Curtis the man. Curtis shone light the beam of a lighthouse through the swirling fog over the sea. It was he who stopped the Aldershot forwards when it seemed they might well overrun City’s defence, and by his example set the pattern of a rugged defensive show to follow.’

George in Bantams strip

City had been ‘relegated’ to the new Division Four on the reorganisation of the league in 1958 and after a poor start to the new season Frith recalled George and he played 43 games as City roared to promotion at the first attempt. At the age of 19 he had established himself as the regular centre-half and was to miss only six league games in the next nine seasons. During this period he became one of the most feared defenders in the Football League. Considered by many opposition fans to be over-physical, he always maintained he played the game in a fair but hard manner. He turned out for Coventry on many occasions when lesser mortals would have gone sick and his style epitomized the spirit of the club during this period. Some fans would argue that he often won games single-handedly.

George in the Sky Blue

In the meantime George did his National Service, mainly at Bridgnorth from where he often took precarious motorcycle journeys to play for City. George helped City lift the Southern Professional Floodlit Cup in 1960 and early the following season scored his first senior goal – an injury time headed winner against Reading. Jim Douglas remembers listening to a radio commentary of City’s FA Cup game at Anfield in 1961 in which the commentator described George as the man with the ‘billiard table legs’.

Jimmy Hill arrived in November 1961 and instantly recognised that George was not only the man to build his side around but the captain he needed both in the dressing room and on the pitch. George played the role perfectly, acting as the go-between between the players and JH but clearly knowing who the gaffer was. He had first captained the side on Christmas Day 1959 as a 20-year-old and JH’s faith in him was rewarded as George captained the side to the Third and Second Division Championships. A stickler for discipline and a leader by example, Hill knew George would keep the dressing room in order and as a result had few problems in his six years as manager.

George & JH Celebrate 3rd Div Championship 1963-64

Following his England youth caps as a teenager George had fallen off the international radar but his performances in 1961-62 impressed the England selectors enough for him to be named as a reserve for the Under 23 side and George travelled to Holland but didn’t play nor get called up again. Many City fans believed George could have graced an England number five shirt in 1966! In December 1962 George’s run of 174 consecutive appearances came to an end when he suffered a bad ankle injury on a rock hard pitch at Brighton.

George Curtis & (now CCFPA committee man) Dietmar Bruck

He manfully finished the game (moving into attack) but couldn’t recover before the next match. He missed one game out of 57 in that memorable season when the Sky Blues reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup. It would be another two years before he missed another game.

That Cup run effectively revolutionised the club with some success after many years of stagnation and the famous victory over Sunderland will be remembered forever by those present. With eight minutes left City trailed the Wearsiders 1-0 then Dietmar Bruck equalised with a speculative lob that sailed over the keeper and three minutes later George came up for a free-kick and sent one of his bullet headers into the net to send Highfield Road wild. In 1964 George captained the side to the Division Three title and promotion and was named Midland Footballer of the Year.

Shaking hands with Colchester captain Duncan Forbes in the famous 1964 game

He easily took to life in Division Two enjoying physical battles with a higher standard of centre-forwards including Preston’s Alex Dawson, Bolton’s Wyn Davies and Portsmouth’s Ron Saunders, without ever looking second best. His importance to the team was illustrated in December 1964 in a League Cup tie with Leicester City at Highfield Road. George pulled a ligament early in the game but gamely carried on till half-time. Just before the break he sliced a cross into his own goal to make it 3-0 to the visitors but without their captain the Sky Blues slumped to a record 8-1 defeat. Four days later, a Curtis-less City were taken apart by Rotherham and lost 5-3. Thankfully George had recovered by the following game and didn’t miss another game until he broke his leg at Nottingham in 1967.

George proudly stands on back row with the 1966-67 team that brought top flight football to Coventry for the first time in 87 years of organised football. It was an extraordinary season in more ways than one for, when they lost 3-1 at Huddersfield on November 19th, City were in seventh place, 5 points behind leaders Wolves. Yet when Ian Gibson returned to the side to score 2 goals in the 3-2 defeat of Cardiff on the following Saturday, it was the beginning of the club’s longest unbeaten run – 25 League games-culminating in a defeat of Millwall at Highfield Road on May 13th 1967, which clinched the championship. During this period, City did the double over Wolves, who were promoted with them, and finished seven points clear of the third-placed Carlisle. The squad with the Second division cup is(left to righ, back row): Brian Lewis, George Curtis, Bill Glazier, Mich Kearns, Dudley Roberts. Centre row: Norman Pilgrim (physiotherapist), Ronnie Farmer, Dietmar Bruck, John Tudor, Mick Coop, Ernie Machin, Brian Hill, Alan Dicks (assistant manager). Front row: Peter Hill (trainer), John Key, Ian Gibson, Jimmy Hill (general manager), Bobby Gould, Ronnie Rees, Pat Saward (coach). 4th August 1967

The 1967 promotion season was the pinnacle of his playing career. George’s never-say-die attitude rubbed off on the whole team and whilst the football was rarely spectacular the team ground out results every week and went unbeaten in 25 league games from November until the end of the season.

Skipper George leads out the sixties Sky Blues

With his shorts hitched up and chest pushed out George led the team out of the tunnel at a run every week and the opposition knew that they were in for a hard game. George upset the fans at away grounds, none less than at Charlton’s Valley in February 1967. George and Charlton’s Matt Tees went for a ball near the halfway line and the City captain cleared it into touch with one of his trademark bullet headers. In his momentum, Tees went on to the track and hit the trainer’s hut. Charlton manager Bob Stokoe got up and angrily pushed Curtis away and then the referee took George’s name despite first telling him it was a fair challenge. The abuse rained down on Curtis and his team-mates and the London press accused City of being a ‘rough’ and ‘dirty’ side.

Before the famous Wolves game the pundits were predicting that Derek ‘The Doog’ Dougan would take George to the cleaners. An early mistake by George let in Peter Knowles for the first goal but George recovered, put ‘the Doog’ into the front row at the old Covered End and won virtually every header from that point. To this day older City fans say it was noticeable that Dougan didn’t fancy the battle that day.  Few First Division centre-forwards were relishing the arrival of George Curtis in the summer of 1967 but sadly he broke his leg in the second game of the season at Forest’s City Ground. A picture of George on the stretcher epitomises the man – he was sitting up smiling whilst he must have been in severe pain. Many City fans present never forgave Frank Wignall for the challenge that night, believing that it was an illegal late tackle but George never blamed Wignall, more evidence of a great sportsman.

Allan Harris backing up George Curtis in mid 60s

Six months later George was back playing a reserve game and over 8,000, more than double the average crowd, watched his first comeback game. Just over a month later he came on a substitute for the first team against Stoke and received a phenomenal ovation from the crowd. Twenty four hours later he hobbled away from Stoke’s ground after being substituted at half-time with fears that he had broken the same leg again but it was only bad bruising and he was soon fit again. Whilst recovering George had lost his place to Maurice Setters (who had performed miracles for the team) but by November 1968 Curtis had regained the number 5 shirt and playing a key part in the club’s survival in Division One as well as nurturing a young Jeff Blockley alongside him.

John & George at Wembley

The writing, however, was on the wall and George’s place was under threat after manager Noel Cantwell signed Roy Barry from Dunfermline in October 1969. His last appearance was at Burnley as a substitute in a 0-0 draw when City finished the game with George, Barry, Setters and Blockley all on the pitch – a true hardman’s convention. In early December Aston Villa manager Tommy Docherty signed George for a £25,000 fee and although he scored three goals in 18 games that season, including a debut goal, he couldn’t stop Villa being relegated to Division Three. Two years later he played 25 games as Villa won promotion back to Division Two but missed the run in after suffering a bad broken nose. Approaching his 33rd birthday he decided to hang up his boots.

Within weeks he was back at Highfield Road becoming commercial manager and in 1983 becoming managing director. When Don Mackay left the club in April 1986 with City on the verge of relegation, chairman John Poynton asked George to fill the breach and in tandem with John Sillett they managed to breathe some life into what had been a doomed team and kept City up. The following season, with the duo still in charge, was perhaps the most successful in the club’s history with the F.A.Cup lifted for the first time.

FA Cup Final. Coventry City vs Tottenham Hotspur, Wembley 1987. George Curtis, Dave Bennett and John Sillett.

George pictured at the 1967 reunion in 2007 with Jim & JH

After the final George stepped back into his executive role and John was appointed team manager. George survived the board room changes in the early 1990s and took a well earned retirement in 1994 spending much of his time in Spain and on the golf course. For many George was Mr Coventry City, a larger than life character with a happy welcoming face at the club for sponsors, staff, players and visitors of all kinds. Over the years speaking to former players the vast majority would always ask ‘How’s George Curtis?’ Every player who played with him or under him have a George story to tell and remember him with fondness. Whilst he hasn’t been seen much at games in recent years his passing still leaves a massive hole in the club’s history but George Curtis is a true Coventry City legend.

Gordon Simms (20/12/1936 – 11/03/2021)

Gordon Simms RIP

Another member of the Sky Blue Family passed away recently we are sad to report. 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.

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).

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 with CCFC’s James Maddison & Ryan Haynes in the club’s Family Zone

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.

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

Ian St John (07/06/1938 – 02/03/2021)

Ian in the Sky Blue

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 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.

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’.

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.

Ian St John & Noel Cantwell

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 (01/05/1933 – 20/02/2021)

Ron in the Bantams Blue & White kit

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.

Ron at Legends day 2012

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.

CCFC 1956-57

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 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.

Peter Hindley (19.5.1944- 1.2.2021)

Peter Hindley in the Sky Blue

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.’

Peter in City’s away strip at Derby 21-08-1974

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.’   

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

George Hudson RIP (14/03/1937 – 28/12/2020)

The Sky Blue ‘Hud’

Sadly, legendary Coventry City centre-forward George Hudson – arguably the club’s greatest ever player – passed away this week, aged 83. ‘The Hud’, as fans knew him, thrilled City fans between 1963-66 and in an era in which there were so many legends he shone like a star with his silky skills and his phenomenal scoring record for the Sky Blues. Her we chart the rise and fall of the charismatic player who scored a goal so good that is still fondly talked about, along with his incredible ability, to this day.

Friend and fellow City historian David Brassington had no doubts about his legacy: “One has to rely on our shaky, possibly unreliable memories but no one will ever convince me that ‘The Hud’ wasn’t the greatest City player I ever saw. What is indisputable, no one – not even Hutch, Cyrille or Dion was so worshipped by the Highfield Road terraces.”  George’s arrival at Highfield Road in 1963 caused great controversy within the supporters – he was replacing leading scorer Terry Bly – and his departure, in 1966, similarly brought howls of anguish from his adoring fans; these moments were undoubtedly two of the defining moments of Jimmy Hill’s reign at the club.

George Hudson in Sky Blue action

George was born in the Manchester suburb of Ancoats, one of seven boys. A prodigious schoolboy player, he was recommended for a trial with Blackburn Rovers and after doing his National Service he went to Ewood Park as an apprentice. After signing a full professional contract in 1958 he made his first team debut in the First Division home game with Manchester City in April 1959 playing alongside illustrious stars of the day Ronnie Clayton, Roy Vernon and Peter Dobing. Rovers won 2-1 and George retained his place for the final three games of the season, scoring his first senior goal in a 3-1 home win over Luton.

he following season he was back in the reserves and with Derek Dougan scoring prolifically George was unable to get a first team start. Rovers had a good season – they were second at Christmas and although they fell away in the New Year they did reach the FA Cup final only to lose 3-0 to Wolves. In the summer of 1960 Rovers allowed George to move to nearby Accrington Stanley. Accrington were in dire financial straits and finished 18th in Division Four but George scored 35 goals in 44 games, a total only topped by the man he would succeed at Highfield Road, Peterborough’s Terry Bly. Early the following season Stanley’s situation was even worse and they sold him to Peterborough for £5,000 just before the bailiffs arrived and a few months before they resigned from the league. At Posh, Hudson was playing one division higher but continued his goalscoring feats, and scored 25 goals in 1961-62, alongside Bly who netted 29.

Jimmy Hill signed Bly for the Sky Blues and the tall, rangy forward proceeded to score 29 goals in 42 games as the Sky Blues reached the sixth round of the FA Cup and were well placed for promotion. At London Road Hudson had scored 25 goals but Hill believed that the Mancunian was the man City needed to get out of Division Three. Four days after losing to Manchester United in the FA Cup, the transfer deadline approaching, and a better than good chance of promotion, Hill paid a club record £21,000 for Hudson making it clear that there was no place for the goal-machine Bly as Hudson would be his first choice centre-forward. Not since 1950 when the club had paid £20,000 for Tommy Briggs had City paid out such a large fee.

Posh were managed by former City manager Jack Fairbrother who said that Hudson had never been put up for sale but: ‘…a staggering fee is offered and we would have been silly not to have taken it.’ A week earlier Fairbrother had been quoted as saying: ‘I will not sell…within the next two seasons Hudson will get an international cap.’  Hill was known to be an admirer of Hudson but apparently had no hint that Posh would be prepared to sell until he read that Middlesbrough and Newcastle were bidding for him. There was a risk he would lose Hudson and he moved fast.

Former colleague (and fellow CCFPA member now) Dietmar Bruck remembers Hudson’s arrival at Highfield Road: “He arrived in a smart grey suit with a velvet collar with his hair in an ‘Elvis-like’ quif – a real dandy. He had this Charlie-Chaplin-like walk and looked nothing like a footballer. Any doubts the other players had went after his first game – he was pure genius.” The fans were mystified – why had Hill had rejected a centre-forward who had scored virtually a goal a game that season – but in time the fans realised that the manager had pulled off an inspired deal.

Hudson scored a hat-trick in the first half of his debut, a 5-4 win over Halifax, to leapfrog Bly in the scoring charts but Hill faced a barrage of criticism from supporters for weeks afterwards before Bly joined Notts County where his career went downhill.  After the Cup run and the dire weather City’s fixture list was impossible. Despite the powers extending the season until the end of May the team played 16 league games in seven weeks after the Cup exit and missed out on promotion by five points. George netted six goals in 15 games which when added to his goals for Posh made him Division Three’s leading scorer. In the autumn of 1963 he was devastating, by the end of November he had netted 24 league and cup goals as City raced towards promotion, leading the division by eight points at New Year. He scored hat-tricks in three successive games for the club, against QPR in the league, German club Kaiserslautern in a friendly and Trowbridge in the FA Cup.

Clinical disdain

His Championship winning strike v Colchester

His goals were put away with clinical disdain. He’d spit on the turf, turn and waddle back to the halfway line with that curious Charlie Chaplin walk. There was no fuss or kissing and cuddling and he never milked the crowd’s adulation. In January he picked up a groin strain and needed an operation when he returned he looked out of touch and meanwhile City had failed to win in 11 games and the fans were biting their nails. Hill signed another centre-forward George Kirby and Hudson was dropped after just one goal in six games. Kirby’s arrival steadied the ship and promotion was back on. On the final day in a game City needed to win to go up Hudson was recalled and playing alongside Kirby he netted the only goal, his 28th of the season, that defeated Colchester and confirmed City as champions.

Division Two held no fears for George and another 25 goals hit the net in 1964-65 including one in a 3-0 Christmas home win over Preston on a frozen, snow covered pitch, a game in which the Coventry Telegraph described his performance as ‘almost beyond belief’. The only blemish on another good season came at Huddersfield when he took offence at a bad challenge by John Coddington and got his marching orders for landing a punch on the centre-half. George started the 1965-66 season in regal form. Four goals in a pre-season friendly victory over First Division Nottingham Forest was followed a week later by a brace in a victory over Wolves and he was averaging almost a goal a game by the end of October.

Wonder goal

George’s Wonder goal

In September in a 5-1 win over Southampton he scored arguably his most memorable Coventry goal when, with his back to goal he flicked the ball over Tony Knapp’s head, turned, then casually headed past a startled keeper. In his match report in the Coventry Telegraph Nemo wrote prophetically: “It was the sort of goal that will live in the memory and even two of the Southampton players applauded it as the crowd exploded with excitement.”

The goals however dried up for George over the winter and he netted only twice in 15 games. Hill gave Bobby Gould a few games and then, desperate to win promotion, signed another striker, Ray Pointer, at Christmas. George netted twice in an FA Cup replay with Crewe but there were signs of frustration about his performance against Bristol City a few days later. In the second half Hill moved George to the right-wing, frustrated with the number 9’s first half input. ‘The Hud’ scored City’s second equaliser but on the Monday Hill named Hudson in the reserve team to play Southampton the following evening. With an FA Cup fifth round tie at Goodison Park looming speculation rose that George may be dropped for the game.

Two great Sky Blue strikers George Hudson & Bobby Gould

Nemo explained that it was the first ‘official admission that Hudson’s form has been below par’ and he reminded supporters that their favourite had scored only five goals in his last 18 appearances. Reading between the lines it is difficult not to conclude that Hill had been concerned for some time but some were convinced that there had been a fall-out between the manager and the player that was never made public. For many fans, however, George could do no wrong and they chose to overlook the statistics because Hudson was their God. Almost 8,000 fans plus hordes of club scouts watched City’s Reserves thump Southampton 7-1 and Hudson scored one goal but was overshadowed by 19-year-old Gould who scored two and ran the Saints’ defence ragged all night.

The next morning Hill took a phone call from Northampton boss Dave Bowen who offered Hill a large fee for Hudson. The Cobblers were having a hard time in their first ever season in the First Division and were trying to keep their head above water near the foot of the table. Bowen saw Hudson as the man who might just save them. With the transfer deadline less than two weeks away Hill knew this was the time when fees were inflated by desperate buyers.Not for the first time Hill made an unpopular decision and faced the wrath of the supporters. He agreed a fee of £28,500 with Northampton – a profit of £7,500 – and then spent weeks trying to justify his decision to angry fans. He knew that time would be the judge of his actions – and he was probably proved right – but City’s stuttering form to the end of the season didn’t help his cause.

Several coach-loads of City fans travelled to Northampton to see Hudson’s debut against Leeds United rather than travel to Goodison Park to support City in the FA Cup and ITV television rubbed salt in the wounds by showing the highlights from Northampton with Hudson at his cultured best, bamboozling the England centre-half Jack Charlton and scoring a superb goal in the Cobblers’ 2-1 victory.

Maurice Setters RIP (16/12/1936 -22/11/2020)

Maurice in the Sky Blue

It is sad to report the death of former Coventry City player Maurice Setters at the age of 83. He passed away at Doncaster Royal Infirmary last Sunday after a short illness and a long battle against Alzheimer’s Disease. Maurice came to Coventry near the end of a long career and was an inspired signing for the club, inspiring the team to avoid relegation from the First Division in 1968 by the skin of their teeth after looking relegation certainties for most of the season. He is remembered fondly by older Sky Blues supporters and his former playing colleagues.

Born in Honiton, Devon, Maurice joined his local club Exeter City from school and after winning England Schoolboys and Youth honours he made his debut for the Grecians as a 17-year-old in 1954. Within twelve months, after just 10 games, he was transferred to West Brom, then a leading First Division club. Two goals on his home debut against Portsmouth endeared him to the fans and it wasn’t long before he was a regular at wing-half for the Baggies. In his three full seasons at Hawthorns the club never finished below fifth in Division One and Maurice’s form earned him 16 England Under 23 caps. Although he never won a full cap he was named in England’s 22-man squad for the 1958 World Cup squad.

In those days Maurice had an American-style ‘crew-cut’ hairstyle which added to his image as a hard man and whilst he was a fine footballer he earned a reputation as one of the country’s toughest players. In January 1960 Manchester United, rebuilding after the Munich air crash that had decimated their team, paid Albion £35,000 for Setters and he was a regular in United’s half-back line for the next five years. He was the hard man that won the ball before feeding Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and latterly George Best to turn on the magic. Maurice captained the club and was best man to Bobby Charlton at his wedding in 1961. In 1962-63 he handed the captaincy to his future Coventry manager Noel Cantwell and the pair were in the team that lifted the FA Cup, beating Leicester City 3-1, after ending the Sky Blues’ own great run that year.

Maurice in Sky Blue action

In 1964-65 Maurice had a serious contender for his club place, Nobby Stiles. The two had many similarities and ultimately Matt Busby plumped for the tigerish Nobby and Maurice left to join another First Division side Stoke City. A few months later he returned to Old Trafford with Stoke and got a standing ovation from the crowd who recognised his role in the re-birth of United.

At the Victoria Ground Tony Waddington converted him to a centre-half where despite his short stature (he was only 5 foot 10 tall) he could compete with the best in air with his timing and strength. Setters played a big part in the Potters’ revival alongside renaissance stars such as Peter Dobing and Roy Vernon. In autumn 1967 however he was sidelined with a cartilage injury and struggling to get back to fitness when the call came from Noel Cantwell.

City’s first season in Division One could not have started more badly. Manager Jimmy Hill had resigned to go to a career in television, captain and centre-half George Curtis had suffered a broken leg in the second game, inspirational midfielder Ian Gibson was sidelined by injury and star goalscorer Bobby Gould was also out injured. A 0-3 home defeat to fellow strugglers Fulham had left City at the foot of the table with just two wins in 16 games, having conceded 39 goals. Hill’s signing of Tony Knapp to replace Curtis had failed spectacularly and rookie manager Cantwell had failed to win any of his five games since arriving. The attack had been strengthened by the signing of Gerry Baker and Ernie Hannigan but the team needed a leader and an experienced defender to shore up the leaking defence. Maurice ticked both boxes.

Former club physiotherapist Norman Pilgrim takes up the story: ‘Noel was desperate to get Maurice in but at his medical I told Noel that his knee was dreadful and he needed a couple of months of rehab before he would be ready to play. Noel said he couldn’t wait and needed Maurice straight away’.

Maurice made his debut at Elland Road, Leeds where Don Revie’s team had won 10 home games in a row. Norman remembers Cantwell introducing him to Revie in the tunnel before the kick-off and says that Revie was a worried man after hearing that City had signed Setters.

Ninety minutes later City had taken a point thanks to an Ernie Hannigan goal and almost grabbed a win. In his match report Derek Henderson prophetically concluded: ‘Setters strode about City’s penalty box like a Soccer Napoleon. The chunky, lion-hearted Devonian -though clearly a long way from being fully match fit – brought that air of authority and professional outlook that could in the next few weeks transform Cantwell’s side.’

Pilgrim had to work like a demon: ‘Maurice didn’t train with the first team for two months, it was me and him in the gym every day. On a Friday he would do a lap round the pitch at Ryton and a couple of sprints and he was ready to play the following day’. It would be another three games before City would record their next win but slowly and surely the team got stronger and results improved. Setters, who was appointed captain, missed just one game, ironically City’s only away win, at his former club West Brom, and as the season came to a climax he was as fit as any player on the team. Dietmar Bruck was a team-mate of Maurice and had nothing but praise for him: ‘he added a spark to the club that had been missing that season. He was a strong character who spoke his mind and just what we needed after George broke his leg. He always led by example and never gave less than 100% even in training games.’

City’s home form kept their head above water and at the end of March Manchester United came to Highfield Road looking for an easy scalp on their way to a second successive league title and European Cup glory. Maurice had other ideas and gave a commanding defensive performance before heading home a corner for the second goal in City’s 2-0 victory. Chris Cattlin made his debut that day, marking the mercurial George Best and says: ‘I was as nervous as hell before the game but Maurice settled my nerves and gave me some advice for dealing with Best. He talked me through the game and later helped me settle at the club’.

With three games remaining City looked almost safe but then threw away the points at home to Leicester leaving two nerve-jangling away games to save their place. The first, at West Ham’s Upton Park, is recalled by Norman Pilgrim: ‘West Ham had Moore, Hurst and Peters and always played attractive football. As the team left the dressing-room Maurice turned to the rest and said ‘West Ham will be expecting us to kick them today, let’s not disappoint them!” City drew 0-0.

The final game at Southampton saw City repeat the scoreline and earn safety but not before a terrific rearguard action, marshalled as ever by Setters who was up against the 28-goal Ron Davies, the league’s leading scorer and recognised as one of the top headers in the country. Rarely did Davies get a clean head on the ball so good was Maurice’s aerial antics. I can clearly remember his blood-spattered shirt resulting from a cut requiring four stitches above an eye.

Maurice scores for the Sky Blues

The following season things didn’t improve much for the Sky Blues with another relegation battle that went down to the wire. Despite George Curtis being fit again, Maurice started the season in the number five shirt but Noel experimented with the pair as double centre-halves in a League Cup tie at West Ham and it worked a treat in a 0-0 draw. The experiment was tried again at West Brom but City got hammered 6-1 and after one more attempt resulted in a 3-0 League Cup defeat at Swindon the whole idea was shelved. George took over and Maurice spent several months in the reserves helping develop youngsters Jeff Blockley and Alan Dugdale. Unhappy at not being in the first team, he was in trouble with Cantwell in the February and placed on the transfer list for critical comments to the press but his performance levels never dropped. With four games remaining and City desperate for points he was recalled to play as an extra defender at Everton, City lost 3-0 but Maurice impressed enough to displace Curtis for the three vital remaining games. Three draws left City having to wait for Leicester to finish their programme but the true grit of Maurice was seen in the final momentous game against Liverpool at Highfield Road. City, with Maurice driving them on, gave everything in a thrilling game but with 30 minutes remaining he committed a late tackle on Alun Evans and after a flurry of fists the referee sent the pair off. City survived to draw 0-0, a point which ultimately kept them up at Leicester’s expense.

Maurice (right) signed up to CCFPA by the Association’s late committee member Bob Bromage

Maurice spent that summer on the transfer list but despite lots of interest he was still at the club when the new season started. The team started well but injuries meant a recall for him in midfield in and the team were unbeaten in five, including the famous 3-1 win at Derby. The changing of the guard was coming however in the shape of another blood and thunder centre-half, Roy Barry. A 0-0 draw at Burnley saw Barry start for the first time with Maurice in midfield and George came off the bench for his final appearance for the club – the only time the awesome trio appeared together.

Roy remembers Maurice fondly: ‘He made me very welcome when I came down from Scotland. I was living in a hotel and he took me home for a meal with Cath and his family. He knew his days were numbered with my arrival but he was so kind. During the next few months Maurice, Ernie Hunt and myself got on like a house on fire and were nicknamed the Three Amigos and we had so much fun.’ Maurice was never on the losing side in his nine league games that season and made his final bow for the club, alongside Roy, at Anfield in an FA Cup replay. It ended in a 3-0 defeat and after a handful more reserve games he was on his way to Charlton on a free transfer. He only played eight games for the Valiants but helped steer them away from relegation from Division Two before hanging his boots up at the end of the season.

Within a year he was appointed manager of Fourth Division Doncaster Rovers and spent three and half seasons at Belle Vue the highlight of which was a creditable draw at Anfield in the FA Cup. He became Jack Charlton’s assistant at Sheffield Wednesday in 1977 and stayed at Hillsborough for six years before coaching at Rotherham and being chief scout at Newcastle. He later linked up with Jack again from 1986 to 1995 as assistant manager with the Republic of Ireland and as a honorary Irishman helped Jack take the team to the World Cup finals for the first time in 1994.

Maurice was a member of the Former Player’s Association but illness prevented him for attending any Legends Days. The Association send their condolences to his family which includes his grandson the former City player Robert Betts. My friend and fellow City historian David Brassington on hearing the news of Maurice’s death summed up everyone’s feelings: ‘If one player did more than any other to keep us up in that first season in Division One it was Maurice Setters’.

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Tony Waiters RIP (01/02/1937 -10/11/2020)

Tony Waiters in his playing days

It’s sad to report the death of former City coach Tony Waiters, aged 83 this week. Tony had only a brief time at Highfield Road as Director of Coaching under Noel Cantwell in 1971-72 and left the club in March 1972 when Cantwell was sacked.

Waiters made his name as a goalkeeper at Blackpool in the 1960s, playing over 280 games for the Seasiders and winning five caps for England. The form of Gordon Banks probably robbed him of more caps.

Derrick Robbins, Tony Waiters & Edie Plumley 1972

After retiring in 1967 he went into coaching and impressed as an FA regional coach and youth development coach at Liverpool. In 1970 he took over as first team coach at Burnley but injuries forced him out of retirement and back between the sticks. In December 1971 he joined City as Director of Coaching, replacing Bill Asprey, but his timing was wrong – within three months Cantwell was sacked and Tony resigned in protest.

He went on to manage Plymouth Argyle for five years, winning promotion from Division Three with the help of three former City players, Ernie Machin, Billy Rafferty and Colin Randell. In 1977 he moved to Canada to coach Vancouver Whitecaps to the 1979 NASL Championship and later coached Canada to fourth place in the 1984 Olympic Games and to the 1986 World Cup finals where his team held France to a goal-less draw.

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Lol Harvey RIP (25/07/1934 – 25/04/2020)

A young Lol 1951-52

Its very sad to report the death of former Coventry City player Lawrence (Lol) Harvey at the age 85. Lol was a one-club player who spent 12 years at Highfield Road and made 148 senior appearances for the club despite an injury affected career.

Born and raised in Heanor, Derbyshire and one of five boys, Lol was spotted playing schoolboy football by scout and former City player Harry Holmes. Harry Storer, the manager at the time, knew the county well and recruited many outstanding young players from the area – long-serving player and trainer Peter Hill also came from Heanor. Lol arrived in Coventry as a 15-year-old with his best mate Frank Austin who hailed from the next village. The pair were soon appearing for the youth team, then playing under the pseudonym of Modern Machines in local leagues alongside other talented youngsters such as Reg Matthews, Ronnie Waldock and Trevor Lewis. Soon he was in the ‘A’ team in the United Counties League playing against much more experienced and physical players.

In October 1951 Lol, a right-half back in those days, was called up for his reserves debut at Brentford and played alongside the veteran captain George Mason and goalkeeper Alf Wood in a 0-0 draw. Seven days later with the club in an injury crisis, in what must be something of a record, he was promoted to the first team, again at Brentford’s Griffin Park. He became the youngest City debutant at 17 years 101 days and in the Brentford team that day was a certain Jimmy Hill. Brentford won 1-0 with an early goal but the Coventry Telegraph praised the Derbyshire youngster: ‘he gave a grand display at right-half and was watched by his mother and father who travelled down from Heanor. and also his Coventry ‘landlord’ who has kept an affectionate eye upon him since he came as a very tender youth to join the groundstaff. Their pleasure at his success was matched by that of the City players and manager. All were agreed that he had acquitted himself with considerable credit.. and never looked out of his class.’

Seven days later Lol was retained in the first team for his home debut, a 1-2 defeat to Doncaster which left City in the bottom two of Division Two and he was featured in the programme. The Coventry Telegraph reported that: ‘Young Harvey again showed up well and always tried to get his forwards moving with neat ground passes. Lol’s third and final first team game that season was at Everton on the following Saturday and ‘the youngster tackled as well as anybody in defence, and showed spirit – although he was a little over zealous on occasions’. City, with two players virtually as passengers for much of the game, were beaten 4-1. Lol was back in the reserves the following week and City’s season went from bad to worse and saw them relegated to Division Three after nine seasons in the second tier.

Lol in action at Highfield Road 1955

Lol went back to the reserves but in the season following relegation he played 20 games and over the next four seasons he was in and out of the first team and built up a reputation as a whole-hearted player with a bite in the tackle. In December 1954 he scored his first senior goal, the first in a 4-0 FA Cup win over Scunthorpe. In 1955 Jesse Carver arrived from Italy’s Serie A as manager and Carver took to the industrious Harvey and Lol was a virtual ever present in Jesse’s attacking team. Tragedy struck however in early 1956 when playing for the reserves at Plymouth he suffered a serious knee injury, probably one referred to today as a cruciate ligament, and doctors told him he would never play again. He required a major operation and he was told there was no more than 50-50 chance of it succeeding. Lol, softly spoken and deaf in one ear, replied: ‘If you can give me 50 per cent chance, I will give you the other half’.

He recovered – the specialist said it was just as much due to his determination as to anything else – but he was left with a 16-inch scar down his leg. Lol, a true fighter, was out of action for over a year but returned to play his part in the club’s promotion from the Fourth Division. Billy Frith brought Lol back into first team action when he returned for his second spell as manager in 1957 and later that season he converted him to full-back. He played 41 games in the promotion season – his best season in terms of appearances despite later admitting that he basically played on one leg. More knee injuries hampered his 1959-60 season and he played only two games. Then, after 148 games for the club, he suffered another injury in a 1-4 defeat at Barnsley on the opening day of 1960-61. He recovered sufficiently to play a few reserve games but on the Saturday before Christmas against QPR reserves at Highfield Road his knee went again. By January 1961 a Harley Street specialist was adamant that Lol, despite his desire to carry on, would suffer irreparable damage if he continued playing. His son Neil told me that the decision left his Dad heartbroken: ‘he was devastated at the time, he had a wife and three children to support and was used to living in a house supplied by the club. He had no trade and had to find a home. It taught him a massive lesson and when as a young teenager I was offered schoolboy terms by City he refused to let me do it. He told me that I needed a trade because football was such a precarious career and that if I was good enough then I would be good enough to go to football when my apprenticeship was over. I didn’t appreciate it at the time but certainly do now.’

I spoke to Dietmar Bruck who was an apprentice at the club in the early 1960s and his memory is of the card school in the player’s lounge after training each day. Lol, Frank Austin, Peter Hill and Reg Matthews (who, although playing for Chelsea by then, was still training with City during the week) would have their lunch then settle down for an afternoon of cards. Another former player Mick Kearns was sad to hear of Lol’s passing: ‘he was a lovely man who always had a smile on his face and will be sorely missed by all who knew him. His cruciate ligament injury would have ended most player’s careers but he fought his way back but sadly was never quite the same player’.

Lol & Polly Waldock (and their sons) at Legends Day 2013

Manager Billy Frith persuaded him to stay at the club assisting Paddy Ryan with the Bantam Fighting Fund pools set-up. In early 1962 Lol decided to leave the club and he joined Haddon and Abbotts, a small local engineering company, and later he moved to Massey Ferguson where he spent 32 happy years alongside other ex-City mates like Alf Wood, Brian Nicholas and Ron Farmer. He loved Coventry and stayed in the city after retirement.

Since the Former Players Association was formed in 2007 I’ve got to know Lol and his family, wife Janet and son Neil well and he was an active participant in the association, assiduously attending home games at the Ricoh as well as Legends Days every year up until 2018 when his health started to fail. I remember him meeting up with former City man Ronnie ‘Polly’ Waldock at a Legends Day. The two, who both hailed from Heanor, had not seen each other for over 60 years and it was an emotional reunion. At home games the popular Lol could normally be found sitting with his good friend Brian Nicholas, ironically the man Billy Frith signed to replace him, as they discussed and argued about the pros and cons of the modern game and reminisced about the old days. Often they would be interrupted by autograph hunters but Lol always took time to sign and have a few words with the fans. Neil again: ‘Dad loved Coventry City from the day he arrived as a 15-year-old until the day he died. There were only ever two things in his life: Coventry City and his family’.

Like many ex-footballers Lol was struck down with dementia and just over a year ago he moved into Brandon Care Home where he passed away peacefully in his sleep last Saturday morning. With the current social distancing rules only his very close family will be able to attend the funeral but Neil is planning a celebration of Lol’s life when things hopefully return to some normality and I am sure this will be attended by his many friends from inside and outside the football world.

RIP Lol.

Ron Wylie RIP (06/08/1933 -14/04/2020)

Ron Wylie -Asst Mngr in the Sky Blue brown

Ron Wylie, City’s assistant manager to Gordon Milne in the 1970s, is better known for his playing exploits in Birmingham with both Villa and the Blues, but he was a major influence in arguably the Sky Blues’ most attractive side in their 34 years in the top flight.

Born in Glasgow in 1933, Ron moved south to join Notts County in 1949 after being spotted playing for Clydesdale Juniors where he won Scottish schoolboy caps. Initially an inside forward but later switched to wing-half, he made his debut in County’s Second Division side in 1951 and played almost 250 games for the club before an £8,000 move to Villa in 1958. County were on the way to a second successive relegation when he left and Villa were also on their way down to Division Two that season. Ron’s cultured play mixed with a strong determination was vital in Villa’s promotion the following season and they defeated two First Division sides on the way to an FA Cup semi final under Joe Mercer. In 1961 he was a member of the Villa team that won the newly inaugurated League Cup and won a runners-up medal in the same competition two years later. He was a regular in Villa’s team until 1965 when he dropped down a division with a move across the city to Blues. Many thought his best days were behind him but he captained Birmingham for four seasons and reached two further Cup semi finals before hanging his boots up at the age of 37.

He returned to Villa Park as a coach before Gordon Milne invited him to join him at Highfield Road as first team coach in 1975. In his six seasons with Gordon, the club, regular relegation battlers before then, were only once in danger of going down – in the infamous Bristol game in 1977 – and the pair produced a stunning response to the knockers the following season. Adopting a brave 4-2-4 formation the team scored 75 goals with the Ian Wallace/Mick Ferguson partnership causing havoc in the process. Ron was instrumental in bringing through some outstanding homegrown players such as Garry Thompson, Danny Thomas, Steve Whitton and Mark Hateley as the club’s financial situation precluded big money signings. In his final season at City the young team reached the League Cup semi final, losing to West Ham over two legs.

Gordon & Ron

After leaving City following Dave Sexton’s arrival, Ron coached in Cyprus and Hong Kong before landing the manager’s job at West Brom in 1982. He inherited Cyrille Regis and soon returned to Highfield Road to sign Garry Thompson from the cash-strapped Sky Blues. A year later, with Albion in danger of relegation, Ron was sacked but was only out of work for a short time before re-joining Villa as reserve team coach. In 1987 he left Villa Park again and continued scouting for various clubs but was tempted back to Villa again 1990 to work as Football in the Community officer.

Former City striker David Cross who played under Ron told me a funny story, ‘We played a charity game with the Tiswas lads once. Ron was under the impression that it was a serious game (every game was serious to him) and had never seen Tiswas on television and just didn’t get the humour on the day. The final straw for him was The Phantom Flan Flinger throwing a pie at one of the players as he was about to score. Ron walked off the pitch !’ David also said: ‘Ron was old school. He drove us hard and settled for nothing less than 100% and demanded the best. He suffered no fools but always had a twinkle in his eye when you got the inevitable bollocking.’

Garry Thompson tweeted: ‘Ron bullied me (in nicest way possible) to be better, to improve daily, I owe him, he coached me from 17 then took me to Albion, and was assistant manager when I signed for Villa. To say I owe him massively is an understatement, loved the old feller.’

City fan Ian Greaves who followed the Sky Blues home and away in the 1970s and 80s contacted me to say: ‘I have fond memories of Ron when he was assistant manager in the 1970s. He was always very aware of the time and effort the regular fans put in and on many occasions he rewarded us with complimentary tickets at away games. I encountered him when visiting a relative in Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield a few years ago. He was already showing signs of dementia then but we still managed to have a good chat about his days at City. Like many sufferers he seemed to have a better long term than short term memory.’

Peter Wyer RIP (10/02/1937 -13/11/2019)

Peter in mid 1950s Bantams

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 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 Wyer R.I.P. (at Legends Day 2017)

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.

Colin Collindridge RIP (15/11/1920 – 14/04/2019)

Colin in 1954-55

Former Coventry City winger Colin Collindridge sadly passed away two weeks ago, aged 98. By the time he arrived at Coventry in 1954 he was somewhat of a veteran and played only 35 games for the Bantams. Sadly City’s oldest former player and CCFPA’s oldest member didn’t quite manage the century.

Colin was born into a Barnsley mining family in 1920 and, as with a number of other players of the time, professional football provided a route out of the pits. After being spotted playing for local side Wombwell Athletic and signing briefly for Rotherham United in 1937 Colin made the significant step up to the big time with Sheffield United signing him in January 1939 months before the outbreak of World War Two. Colin couldn’t break into the first team in that last season before the hostilities as the Blades won promotion to Division One, pipping Coventry to the post.

A pacey and direct forward (mainly at outside left but sometimes as centre forward) Colin became a Bramall Lane regular in the first two seasons of unofficial wartime football before joining the war effort in the RAF. He had the unenviable and dangerous job of loading ammunitions on Wellington bombers around the country and his forthright and uncompromising views to the top brass he claimed prevented his progression through the ranks! During the war as he moved around the country he was also able to appear as a guest for the likes of Chesterfield, Notts County, Lincoln City and Oldham Athletic.

Sky Blue Colin

In 1945 the Blades took up where they had left off in 1939, winning the Football League North (in an intermediate season before league football recommenced in 1946). Colin, playing centre-forward, notched 12 goals in 19 league games and four FA Cup goals including a hat-trick against Stoke in front of a capacity 50,000 crowd at Bramall Lane.
Colin was a regular in the Blades side over the first four post-war seasons and top scorer in the first three, playing over 150 first team games and scoring 58 goals before being transferred to Nottingham Forest in August 1950. Colin was idolised at Bramall Lane (and that is probably where his footballing heart really lay).

When Colin joined Forest they were in the old Division Three South and in his first season his 16 goals and many assists helped them to promotion to Division Two and made him a favourite at the City Ground. In four seasons he made 156 first team appearances, scoring 47 goals and forged an effective left wing partnership with Tommy Capel as Forest came close to promotion to Division One.

In June 1954 Coventry manager Jack Fairbrother signed the pair for Coventry City, allegedly for a £20,000 fee despite both being well into their thirties. The pair made their debut in a 1-0 home win over Bournemouth in front of 19,000. Things started well as ‘the team that Jack built’ won six of their first seven games with the left-wing pair in starring roles but then star centre-forward Eddie Brown was sold to Birmingham and the wheels fell off, Fairbrother resigned, Colin got injured and City slid down the table. He returned from his injury after Christmas and made 24 appearances scoring three goals in a Bantams side that finished ninth in Division Three South.

Jesse Carver took over as manager in the summer of 1955 and the 34-year-old Collindridge struggled to get a place playing 11 games, scoring three goals. His final game for the Bantams was a 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace in March 1956 and in July of that year he joined Southern League Bath City. Later he gained management experience with Arnold St Mary’s in Nottingham from 1959 in a successful period for that club.

In retirement Colin lived with his wife in Newark near Nottingham and was visited by CCFPA committee member Mike Young who found him ‘sprightly, engaging, sociable and forthright in his advancing years’. Often difficult to ‘get a word in edgeways’ when Colin reminisced about his long life and playing career before memory lapses took a hold he would hold forth on City personalities of his day such as Tommy Capel, Martin McDonnell, Iain Jamieson, Jack Fairbrother, Noel Simpson and Charlie Elliott. Sadly his physical limitations meant he was never able to attend a game at the Ricoh.

CCFC 1954-55 (aug): Colin Collindridge’s debut v Bournemouth 21-08-1954 (Colin is far right in front row)

Colin Collindridge’s debut for Coventry v Bournemouth 21-08-1954 (Colin is far right in front row)
In recent times Colin has been a well loved resident of a Nottinghamshire Care Home where his fragile health was nursed until his death and we include a photo off him earlier this year sent to us by his good friend and former neighbour John Marum who has kept CCFPA in touch with Colin’s progress recently.

Colin will be deeply missed, a genuine one-off with an ebullient personality from a very different era in football’s history. RIP Colin!

Colin’s funeral will take place on Friday 10th May, 2:20pm at Wilford Hill Crematorium, Loughborough Road, Nottingham, NG2 7FE. Many thanks to Mike Young for his assistance in this tribute.

Graham Newton RIP (22 Dec. 1942 – 25 Feb. 2019)

It is sad to report the death of former Coventry City and Walsall player Graham Newton at the age of 76. He played a very small but important part in City’s history, playing just eight games that helped the club over the line to the 1963-64 Third Division championship. The Association sends its deepest condolences to Graham’s family and friends at this very sad time.

1964 promotion team with Newton second from left in middle row.

Graham

He appeared in two further games as City staggered to the end of the season before taking advantage of their rivals Crystal Palace and Watford losing on the final day, and beat Colchester 1-0 in front of 36,901, and clinched the title. Hudson was back from injury for the Colchester game and Graham watched from the sidelines as George scored the only goal.

In the early 1970s Graham was still playing non-league football in the West Midlands at clubs such as Hednesford, Worcester City and Stourbridge. He later returned to the USA, running very successful soccer schools.

In retirement he played golf enthusiastically and was captain at Patshull Park, his local golf club. I played with him on a number of occasions and he was great company as well as being very positive about life in general. He was a tireless fund raiser for the Teenage Cancer Trust, was a regular attendee at Former Players events at both Coventry and Walsall and was at the Jimmy Hill Celebration day at the Ricoh in December. He died whilst on holiday in Spain

Jim Brogan RIP (05 June 1944 -24 September 2018)

Jim Brogan in the Sky Blue

It’s sad to report the death this week of former Coventry City defender Jim Brogan at the age of 74. Jim spent only one season at Highfield Road (1975-76) but was fondly remembered by City fans from that era. He died in a Glasgow nursing home after a lengthy battle against dementia.

Jim is best remembered however for his 13 years at Celtic where Jim won just about every honour in the Scottish game including seven successive League championship medals, four full caps for his country and a runners up medal from the 1970 European Cup final . Glaswegian James Andrew Brogan was one of those players, common in his time but rare today, who spent long years in an “apprenticeship” with Celtic, before eventually having his spell in the sun, winning medals and Scotland caps.

He was from a “Celtic-minded” family. Elder brother Frank was already a first-team player with the club when Jim arrived, like his elder brother, from the prolific Celtic nursery, St Rochs Juniors, in 1962. Frank left Celtic for Ipswich Town in 1964 but before he left the Brogan brothers did twice play together in the first team, after Jim made his debut, against Falkirk in September, 1963. However, there was to be no quick breakthrough for Jim, who established himself as a regular in the reserves over the great early seasons of the Lisbon Lions. He understudied the great John Clark and got few chances to shine as success followed success for that great team. When Clark was injured in February, 1968 manager Jock Stein promoted Brogan, who never looked back, slotting in alongside Billy McNeill as effectively as Clark had done, and, with regular first-team games, the medals and honours arrived.

He won a league championship medal at the end of the 1967-68 season, and the following year, as Celtic won their second domestic treble, he was a mainstay of Stein’s team. In 1969-70, he was a member of the team which reached Celtic’s second European Cup Final, against Feyenoord, and the following season, by which time he had stepped back to left-back to replace Tommy Gemmell, such was his form. Recognised by many as one of Scottish football’s hardmen, Celtic fans called him ‘the Brogeyman’. In 1969 he had made the first of what would be two appearances for the Scottish League XI, against the English League, then, in April, 1971, he won his first cap against Portugal, in a Hampden friendly. The start of a short run of four successive games in the national squad covering that match and the home internationals.

If his international career was short, his Celtic one, after his long wait for recognition, proved longer and more distinguished. He was one of Stein’s most trusted players during the nine-in-a-row campaign, holding the fort as the Lions departed and helping to ease the path of such as Davie Hay, Danny McGrain, George Connelly and Kenny Dalglish from Quality Street Kids to Celtic icons.Celtic released Brogan at the end of the 1974-75 season and in his final appearance, against Rangers in the Glasgow Cup Final, Jock Stein handed him the captaincy. in his 341st first team appearance, a farewell, in front of 70,000 fans. Alas, there was to be no fairy-tale ending as the game finished Celtic 2 Rangers 2, with the trophy shared. He left Celtic with an impressive haul of seven league championship medals, four Scottish Cup-winner’s ones and three league cup winner’s medals.

In July 1975 City manager Gordon Milne persuaded the tough-tackling but elegant defender to try his hand in the English game. Jim and his wife Joyce bought a house in Kenilworth and he was anxious to prove himself in the English top-flight. City were in a period of change with financial pressures forcing the sale of key players such as Colin Stein, Willie Carr and Brian Alderson. Jim was not expected to be a first-team regular but to be a squad player and put some pressure on the first-choice defenders. Regular left-back Chris Cattlin was suspended from the first three league games and Jim made his debut in a stunning opening day 4-1 victory at Everton. Hat-trick man David Cross was City’s hero that day but Neville Foulger in the Coventry Telegraph was impressed by Brogan: ‘with performances like this he will soon be a firm favourite at Highfield Road with his confidence, enthusiasm, bravery, ability to organise things at the back and unerring accuracy in his distribution of the ball’.

His former teammate Dennis Mortimer remembers Jim: ‘He came down from Celtic and as you would imagine he had all the good attributes you would expect from someone who had grown up with Celtic. He had a first-class attitude and a great commitment and was just the sort of player the club needed to help the emerging youngsters.’  Jim already had successful businesses in Glasgow when he came to Coventry and was rumoured to be wealthy from off-field interests. Former teammate David Cross was a close friend of Jim and remembers his first day’s training at Ryton: ‘he arrived driving a Rolls Royce and this was in the days when footballers didn’t get massive wages. That certainly caused a stir amongst the boys’. Cross was stunned by the news of his death: ‘Jim was a real gentleman and we got on well. When I lost my place in the team Jim used to give me heart to hearts and encourage me to work hard and win my place back. He always set a great example to the younger players, training hard and doing things professionally’.

That season City enjoyed their best start ever in Division 1 and were third in the table after four games with Brogan impressive. His good form continued and he was an ever present until early February with Cattlin confined to the reserves. A hamstring injury interrupted Jim’s run of 33 games and Cattlin regained his place. Early the following season Milne signed a new left-back, Bobby McDonald from Aston Villa and Jim’s days in a sky blue shirt were over. He left Coventry in March 1977 and briefly played for Ayr United before retiring to concentrate on business interests in Scotland.

David Cross stayed in touch with Jim after they both left Coventry and met up in Glasgow with Cross’s West Brom teammate the ex-Ranger Willie Johnston. David takes up the story: ‘Jim and Willie knew each other from Old Firm clashes and got on well but we didn’t know whether to go drinking in a Celtic pub or a Rangers pub’. Jim’s wife Joyce came from County Donegal in Ireland and they spent a lot of time there in his latter years. It was in Donegal that he stayed near Sky Blue fan Jim Douglas who has fond memories of time spent with Jim. One evening Brogan arrived at Jim’s house with all his Celtic medals. Jim began to show signs of dementia several years ago, but he bravely battled his worsening condition, showing the same bravery that had seen him dubbed “Crazy Horse” by the Celtic faithful. He leaves behind Joyce, four children and three grandchildren.

Roger Patrick ‘Ernie’ Hunt (17.3.1943 – 20.6.2018)

Ernie Hunt in the Sky Blue

The death of former Coventry City player Ernie Hunt means that in the space of two years we have lost two of the most talented players of the club’s early years in the First Division. First it was Ian Gibson – ‘Gibbo’ passed away in 2016 – now his partner in crime, Ernie. He was at the club for six years and made 173 appearances for the Sky Blues, scoring 51 goals including ‘that’ free-kick against Everton in 1970.

Ernie arrived a Highfield Road on the same day as Chris Cattlin on transfer deadline day in March 1968. He had excelled for Wolves the previous season as they had finished runners-up to the Sky Blues and won promotion to the top flight, but a big money (£80,000) move to Everton hadn’t worked out and Noel Cantwell, viewing him as a potential saviour for a team looking certain to an immediate return to Division Two paid £65,000 for him. The two new signings made their debut against champions Manchester United the following day and helped the Sky Blues to a famous victory over the Reds. A few weeks later, on the final nail-biting day of that momentous season, it was impish, bow-legged Ernie who took the ball into the corners in the final minutes to waste time and protect a point at Southampton’s Dell knowing that it would be enough to avoid relegation.

He will for ever be remembered for the donkey-kick double act with Willie Carr in October 1970 that helped City again beat the reigning champions, Everton this time, a goal that deservedly won the BBC Goal of the Season but was banned by FIFA the following summer. However my favourite memory is of his hat-trick against West Brom in September 1968. The season hadn’t started well for City and Ernie’s buddy ‘Gibbo’ had been out injured and rumours swirled that Cantwell wanted to unload the precocious Scot. On top of that Ernie had been dropped to the bench three days earlier. Gibson and Hunt were recalled and ‘Gibbo’ put on a master-class with three assists for Ernie’s hat-trick in the 4-2 victory.

‘Hunty’ as he was known by his team-mates quickly settled in Coventry and was swiftly introduced to the city’s drinking holes and nightspots – in those days footballers were far less disciplined than today’s abstemious players. Ernie’s exploits feature large in the stories of the club’s summer tours of that era to the West Indies and the USA.

In the Cantwell era (1967-72), when the emphasis was very much on defence, Hunt could be relied upon to provide the attacking flair, often ploughing a lone furrow up front. His seemingly wide chest was capable of killing any pass launched at him and immediately drawing admiration for his ball-control. During that period he could always be relied upon to entertain the crowd, either with his audacious skills or a contretemps with a referee, usually with a smile. His playing colleagues will tell you that he wasn’t keen on training and liked to lighten the mood at Ryton by wearing fancy dress, anything from a gorilla mask to ladies wigs. Cantwell’s team finished sixth in 1969-70 and Ernie, playing more as a creator and provider on the right, chipped in with nine goals including the winner as City won at Highbury for the first time. The team qualified for the UEFA Fairs Cup and although the Sky Blues fell at the second hurdle it was Ernie who scored City’s goal in the 6-1 debacle in Munich just weeks after the famous donkey-kick goal. He finished as leading scorer that season with 13 goals and again the following season with the same number. Ernie appeared to be out of Cantwell’s plans in the winter of 1971-72 but following the manager’s sacking in early March he was recalled by caretaker boss Bob Dennison and scored some vital goals to ease relegation worries.
Following the arrival of Joe Mercer and Gordon Milne Ernie’s days were numbered and he played a handful of games before going on loan to Doncaster and in December 1973 he left for Second Division Bristol City. Sadly his fitness and form deteriorated but not before he helped Bristol to a shock FA Cup victory at Elland Road. After less than 20 games for the Ashton Gate side he was out of league football and playing for non-league Atherstone.

Born in war-time Swindon, the son of Swindon speedway rider Ernie Hunt, he was christened Roger Patrick. However growing up he was known as ‘Little Ernie’ and the name stuck although some say he adopted the name Ernie to avoid confusion with the legendary Liverpool striker with the same name. A prodigious schoolboy footballer, he was Swindon Town’s youngest ever player when he made his debut six months after his 16th birthday in a Third Division game at Grimsby alongside two players, David ‘Bronco’ Layne and Jimmy Gauld, later implicated in football betting scandals. After three goals from 16 games in his first season he was an ever-present the following campaign as Bert Head’s young team which included Mike Summerbee, Don Rogers and Bobby Woodruff started to attract interest from bigger clubs. In 1962-63 the Robins won promotion to Division Two for the first time and Ernie was top scorer with 27 goals. His form was recognised by England boss Alf Ramsey who gave him three Under 23 caps but never promotion to the full squad. He topped Swindon’s scoring lists the following season but the team were relegated in 1964-65 and Ernie was snapped up by Wolves for £40,000. In two seasons at Molineux he netted 35 goals in 82 games and was top scorer in the 1966-67 promotion season, although he in three games against the Sky Blues he was well shackled by Dave Clements and failed to find the net.

In 1967-68 season he achieved what must be unique – three visits to Craven Cottage with different teams. On the opening day he appeared there for Wolves then, weeks later, joined Everton and played there for the Toffees. Finally in April he turned out for the Sky Blues there after signing from Everton.

Life after football wasn’t kind to Ernie. His marriage broke up and he flitted between various jobs including window cleaning (he fell off a ladder and broke eight ribs) and running a pub (‘it was like giving a match to an arsonist’ he told me). In the early 1980s he was hard up and sold his stories of match-fixing to a Sunday newspaper. He alleged shenanigans in vital City relegation games at Southampton and Wolves in the early seasons in Division One and involving Leicester City’s games in 1969. Back then, at his pub, the Full Pitcher in Ledbury, he told me with an impish grin, in his broad West Country accent, about the Wolves game. Ernie knew most of the Wolves players from his time at the club and allegedly offered them a financial inducement to go easy in what was a vital game for the Sky Blues at Molineux. City led through a stunning Hunt (who else?) goal until twenty minutes from time when Wolves won a free-kick thirty yards out. Wolves players were taking their time deciding who was going to take the kick when from nowhere Peter Knowles raced up and hit a thunderbolt shot past Bill Glazier and into the top of the net. According to Ernie the Wolves players had not told Knowles about the ‘deal’. Many of his humorous stories appear in his excellent biography, ‘Joker in the Pack’ by Chris Westcott, published in 2004.

Ernie was a regular at Legends Days for a number of years and famously one year was getting such a great ovation from the fans that he held up the start of the second half, resulting in a ban on future perimeter parades by the former players. It was clear however in his last few visits that his health was failing, physically and mentally and after the death of his second wife a few years ago he entered a care facility near his Gloucester home.

He is survived by two daughters, Nikki and Sallyann, and a stepdaughter Simone.

His former playing colleague Chris Cattlin, who arrived at Highfield Road on the same day, was shocked by the news of Ernie’s passing.

“I became very good friends with Hunty over the years,” said Cattlin, “My memories of Ernie are that he was a tremendous player and tremendous professional footballer. He played the game with a smile on his face. He was a character but through the laughter and the joking he was a proper man, and certainly a proper footballer. Whenever I think of him I get a smile on my face. He was a great footballer and a great geezer.”

RIP Ernie!

It is sad to report the passing of former Coventry City player Ken McPherson (1927-2018). Ken, who was 90 years old, was the second oldest former CCFC player and one of the last links with the 1950s. A big, strong centre-forward in the traditional English mould, Ken made 90 appearances for the club between 1955-58, scoring 40 goals.

Born in West Hartlepool in the North East, Ken played his early football for Horden Colliery Welfare and Siemens FC after being a paratrooper in the last days of the war. After a brief spell with his local team Hartlepool United as an amateur he signed for Notts County in the summer of 1950 and became the understudy to the legendary Tommy Lawton at Meadow Lane. He made his debut for the Magpies alongside Lawton at Bury in a Second Division game in September 1950 and played a further four games that season. Two games followed in 1951-52 but in December 1952 he was called up to play against Blackburn and netted four goals in a 5-0 win alongside a young Ron Wylie, later to be assistant manager at Coventry.

Suddenly Ken was first choice and he grabbed his opportunity with both hands , netting 14 goals in 23 games. His goals earned him a £15,000 move (big money in those days) to First Division Middlesbrough. Things didn’t work well at Boro and the team were relegated in his first season. In December 1955 after 33 games and 15 goals in 2 ½ seasons Boro agreed to let him leave. He had been vying with a young Brian Clough for the number nine shirt when City came in for him and relished the move to the Midlands.

In the 1955-56 season City, then playing in Third Division South, were managed by Jesse Carver who was something of a football purist and liked his teams to play football on the ground. His philosophy worked at home, the team were unbeaten in 11 league games, but on the road the team couldn’t pick up a victory. Carver was finally persuaded to sign a big, bustling centre-forward in the shape of McPherson. Ken went straight into the side and scored on his debut, a 3-0 home win over Newport. His arrival sparked a run of five straight wins, two of them away, and pushed City into the top five.

Carver however resigned after Christmas to return to Italy and City’s form stuttered. Ken netted 13 goals in 25 games as City finished eighth, a long way from promotion. With new boss Harry Warren in charge Ken was top scorer in 1956-57 with 23 goals in a poor City team but the following season the goals dried up and he lost his place to Ray Straw. In the summer of 1958 he moved to Third Division Newport County after 40 goals in 90 games for the Bantams and soon rediscovered his goal touch. This was the most settled spell in Ken’s career with 57 goals in 142 games for the South Wales club including a couple of goals against City.

Ken spent the summer of 1961 playing for the New York Hakoah-Americans before joining Swindon at the start of the 1961-62 season. At Swindon he successfully converted to play at centre-half and in 1962-63 he was in the Swindon side that won promotion to Division Two alongside future City player Ernie Hunt. The following season he was voted Swindon’s first Player of the Season. He hung his boots up in 1965 and became a progess chaser at Austin Morris Coventry Engines (part of the British Leyland group) then, after the plant closed, worked a hospital porter until finally retiring in Nottingham where he spent the rest of his life.

Ken attacks Southampton’s goal at Highfield Road (August 1956)

Cyrille in the Sky Blue

If George Curtis was the Sky Blue player of the 60s and Tommy Hutchison the player of the 70s, then Cyrille Regis was a strong contender for the City player of the 1980s. Cyrille was a talismatic centre-forward who was adored by Coventry City fans of all ages during his seven years at Highfield Road and was a key player in the Sky Blues’ 1987 FA Cup triumph. His death this week at just three weeks short of his 60th birthday has shocked the football world but especially the fans of his two favourite clubs, West Bromwich Albion and Coventry City.

Eighteen goals that season and the same number the following season when, with Ron Atkinson in charge, the Baggies finished third in Division One saw Cyrille gain international recognition. In his seven years at the Hawthorns he built a formidable reputation as a goalscorer winning four England caps and narrowly missed going to the 1982 World Cup finals. The Sky Blues crossed paths with Big C several times in that period and two games are not fondly remembered by City fans. In October 1978 Atkinson’s rampaging Albion side took a more than useful City team apart at the Hawthorns, winning 7-1 with Cyrille scoring twice. Then, in 1982, Dave Sexton’s young City side travelled to the Hawthorns for an FA Cup sixth round tie and Cyrille scored the first goal – one of his screamers – in the 2-0 win. That year he was voted second in the PFA Player of the Year award behind Kevin Keegan. His haul of five England caps was poor reward for years of brilliance and he would have won more but for the outstanding form of Trevor Francis and Paul Mariner and later Gary Lineker, and if he had played for more fashionable clubs.

Cyrille described City’s 1987 FA Cup win as the greatest football day of his career and his role in that famous team was vital. He scored in the 3-0 win over Bolton in round three and then in the sixth round he set City on the way to a famous victory by scoring at the Kop end against Sheffield Wedneday at Hillsborough. Lloyd McGrath and Dave Bennett did the spade work in the centre circle and a one-two with Benno saw Cyrille take off like a greyhound with the Wednesday defence trailing in his wake. As Martin Hodge the Owls goalkeeper came out Cyrille, from the edge of the penalty area, let fly and the ball rocketed into the net.

Ron Atkinson, by now in charge at Aston Villa, realised that Cyrille had more to offer and signed him. The move gave him a new lease of life and he was a first team regular. Then in May 1992 Cyrille scored a goal against City at Villa Park that, but for Notts County’s late winner, would have sent his old club down. After two years at Villa he joined Wolves on a free transfer and later played briefly for Wycombe Wanderers and Chester. He then took up a coaching role at West Brom but quickly recognised that coaching wasn’t for him and moved to become a very successful player’s agent. In this role he mentored some big names in the game, passing on sensible advice to young players making their way in the game. In 2008 he was awarded the MBE for his services to the game and for his voluntary work.

Cyrille Regis R.I.P.

When the Former Players Association was formed eleven years ago Cyrille was one of the first to join, enthusiastic about meeting up with former colleagues, and he has been a great supporter attending most Legends Days. I often bumped into him in the Legends Lounge and was always struck by his warmth and kindness and his special presence. He never said a bad word about anyone and would engage positively with everyone he came into contact with. When he started talking, quietly mostly, about the game and players he was compelling and you hung on his every word. For his young clients his words and wise advice must have been invaluable and inspiring. Since becoming a born-again Christian following the tragic death of Laurie Cunningham in 1989, religion had played an important role in his life.

Allan Harris RIP  (28-12-1942 – 23/11/2017)

Allan in the Sky Blue 1965

It’s sad to report the death of former City defender Allan Harris who passed away last week at the age of 74.

There are not many former Coventry City players whose CV includes coaching one of the top club sides in the world and managing a national team but Allan Harris did both. The modest former City, Chelsea and QPR full-back was coach of Malaysia’s national football team and in the late 1980s was assistant to his former Chelsea team-mate Terry Venables at Barcelona.

Although born in Northampton during World War Two, his family came from East London and grew up in Hackney along with his younger brother, Ron “Chopper” Harris. He made an early mark as a schoolboy as a full-back and both boys joined Chelsea. Allan won England schoolboy caps and then progressed to the national Youth team, playing alongside Martin Peters. He was a member of an outstanding Chelsea Youth teams that won back to back FA Youth Cups in 1960 and 1961.

At Stamford Bridge he got a first team chance at the age of 18, making his debut in Chelsea’s first ever League Cup game, a 4-2 win over Workington. He kept his place and was on the winning side in his first six games during which the Blues netted 27 goals. It was a golden period at the Bridge with ‘Ted Drake’s Ducklings’ as the press called them, scoring goals for fun. The side included an 20-year old Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Tambling, Terry Venables and Peter Bonetti. John Sillett was also at the club, as well as his brother Peter and competition was tough at full back.

In 1961-62 with Greaves sold to AC Milan the Pensioners struggled and Drake’s departure opened the door for Tommy Docherty to become manager. ‘The Doc’ couldn’t stop them being relegated and Allan was now playing in Division Two with his appearances were restricted by the form of Eddie McCreadie. The team bounced back at the first attempt but Allan was no longer a regular and in November 1964, after making 80 league and cup appearances, manager Docherty accepted Jimmy Hill’s offer of £35,000 for Allan.

Allan in support of the legendary George Curtis

A number of years ago he told me: “I didn’t really want to leave Chelsea or London but when I saw the set up that Jimmy Hill and Derrick Robins had created at Coventry I was very quickly sold on the club.”

He made his Sky Blues debut in a 1-0 defeat at Carrow Road but got a shock a week later as City, without the injured George Curtis, were hammered 5-3 at home by Rotherham. Allan however quickly settled into the Sky Blues team becoming the first-choice left-back and impressing the fans with his stylish play. In 1965-66 he played 40 league games and eight cup games, netting his only goal in a League Cup victory at Leyton Orient.

Towards the end of the season he told Jimmy Hill that he and his wife had struggled to settle in the Midlands and he was keen to move back to the capital. He made his 69th and final appearance in a City shirt in the penultimate game at Huddersfield when City won 2-0 to keep their thin chances of promotion alive. Before the final game of the season he was transferred back to Chelsea (with JH netting a profit of £10,000). The Blues had an injury crisis ahead of their Fairs Cup semi final with Barcelona and four days after appearing at Huddersfield he played in the first leg of the semi final as Chelsea won 2-0, and two weeks after that he was in the team at the Nou Camp as Barca trounced the Blues 5-0.

His second spell at the Bridge was frustrating and he made only 20 or so appearances, the last of which was at Wembley, alongside brother Ron, as Chelsea lost the FA Cup final to Tottenham. He joined QPR in 1967 where, in his first season, he was a member of Rangers’ Division 2 promotion team under Alec Stock. He left QPR in 1971 and after brief spells at Plymouth, Cambridge United, Hayes and St Patricks Athletic Allan decided to move into management. In 1976 his ex-Chelsea teammate Terry Venables became manager at Crystal Palace and Harris joined him as a coach. Two promotions in three seasons made Venables and Harris hot property and in 1980 Allan followed Terry to QPR.

At Loftus Road the pairs’ reputation was enhanced by an FA Cup final appearance in 1982 (they lost after a replay to Spurs) and promotion to Division 1 the following year. In May 1984 Venables received a huge offer to manage Barcelona and Allan was Terry’s right hand man as they helped Barca win their first Spanish league title for 11 years. The following season they were surprisingly beaten by Steaua Bucharest in the European Cup final and in 1986 when Venables resigned Allan followed him to Tottenham.

In 1989 he left Spurs to manage Spanish club Espanol. Later spells managing club sides in Kuwait, Egypt and Turkey enabled him to achieve his ambitions and see the world. His last post in England was a spell as number two at Reading in 1997 and between 2000-04 he held the top job in Malaysia and was highly rated in South East Asia.

He retired to his home in Epsom, Surrey but in recent years has been suffering from Alzheimer’s and in a care home. In 2003 he told me: “I had a short but very enjoyable stay at Coventry. The fans were great to me and I have great memories of a club going places in the 1960s. I had no doubt that the club would reach the top division and it was no surprise that they stayed there so long.”

Jack Lovering (10/12/1922 – 21/09/2017)

It’s sad to report the death of former Coventry City player John Lovering. Known in football circles as Jack, he was a half-back who played only six first team games for the club but was a regular in the London Combination reserve team and was under-study to the great George Mason in the years immediately after World War Two. At the time of his death, at 94, he was the second oldest living former player and he was the last surviving City player from the 1940s

Born in Nuneaton in 1922, one of seven children, Johnny, as he was known by his family, left school before the war and worked at the brickworks near his home in Bermuda before moving to work down the mine at the Griff Clara pit. He played a good standard of local football for Nuneaton Griff and Holbrook Old Boys FC before becoming a junior at Highfield Road. In 1945 manager Harry Storer moved to Birmingham and lured Jack to St Andrews. Things didn’t work out however and he was soon back at Coventry. By the time league football re-commenced in 1946 Jack was a professional with the club and listed in the Coventry Telegraph as 5 foot 8 inches tall, weighing 9 stone 13 lbs. His elder brother Bill was also playing for the ‘A’ team at the time. In the second home game of the season manager Dick Bayliss gave him his debut in the Second Division. With George Mason injured Jack played at left-half in a 1-1 draw with Barnsley.

The Coventry Telegraph match report of the game by Nemo makes interesting reading: ‘I must admit I went to the match fearing the possibilities of the worst for the defensive left flank – (Stan) Kelley and (Jack) Lovering – looked shaky on paper… Those fears were not founded. Lovering, by coming in for Crawley, who moved to take over from the injured George Mason, made the rocket ascent from the ‘A’ team through the reserves to the Second Division side and all in the space of a week. Considering he is not ready for league football just yet, Lovering did quite well, and behind him the little more experienced Kelley showed considerable improvement on last Monday’s appearance.’

Jack didn’t get another chance in the first team until January 1948 when, under new manager Billy Frith, he played in a 2-2 draw at Leicester and then played a further four games, three draws and a 1-0 home defeat to Southampton. His final appearance was in a 1-1 home draw with Nottingham Forest in March 1948. Then it was back to the reserve side until he was released by the club in May 1949.

He joined Bedworth Town that summer but was soon turning out for Atherstone in the Birmingham Combination. In 1951 he joined Nuneaton Borough and helped them to runners-up of the same league. In two seasons at Manor Park he made 45 league and 12 Cup appearances and played alongside many old faces from Coventry City such as George Mason, Don Dearson, Norman Smith and Eric Betts. He retired from the game in 1953 following another spell at Atherstone and some games for Bermuda.

After football he worked at Jaguar and was a test driver for them before retiring to Hinckley in the 1980s. He had a spell living in Majorca but returned to the UK. He was married to his wife Christine for 66 years before she passed away four years ago and his son Martin lives in Nuneaton. Jack suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in his later years but was a member of the Former Players Association and attended an early Legends Day.

Ray Paul (1923- 15/04/2017)

Ray at Nuneaton

CCFPA is very sorry to hear the news that Ray Paul CCFC’s earliest surviving player has passed away on Saturday 15th April.  Our sympathies go to Ray’s family and friends.

The then 93 year old Ray (who had been then only recently been tracked down by CCFPA chairman Jim Brown) paid us an emotional visit in February 2016 for our Legends Day 2016 celebrations. Along with 40 other former CCFC ‘legends’ he shared our pleasure in watching the Sky Blues demolish Bury 6-0!  He was then officially ‘signed up’ by CCFPA’s Membership Sec. Sarah-Jane Morris. Sadly we cannot find a good photo of Ray in action for Coventry City, so ones from his time at near neighbours Nuneaton Town must suffice.

Apparently, Ray was an outstanding all round sportsman who, at the age of 16, was offered trials for the England Rugby team but his father would not let him attend. He was also a talented gymnast, keen swimmer and squash player who at the age of 50 finished 4th in a national squash competition.

Ray played centre forward in his football days and was son of Nuneaton Town trainer George Paul. He went on to become a ‘Borough Legend’ becoming a striking sensation at Nuneaton scoring 42 goals in the 1941-42 season and 119 goals in just 83 appearances for the Borough by the end of WW2.

Ray turned out for Coventry City as a guest player in the wartime Football League North.  He first turned out for the ‘Bantams’ (as CCFC were then known) towards the end of the war,  debuting in a 4-1 defeat at W.B.A. in September 1944. Ray scored 8 goals in his total of ten CCFC appearances in 1944-45.

From March 1945 he also guested in a further six games for Nottingham Forest before returning to Manor Park in time for the 1945-46 season (initially as a guest). Though injuries took their toll in his subsequent spell at Nuneaton he nevertheless managed to net 54 times in his 56 games! Ray finished his playing career at Atherstone Town in 1948.

Roy Proverbs (08/07/1932 – 15/02/2017)

Roy in 1956-57

Its sad to report the death of former Coventry City and Gillingham player Roy Proverbs who passed away on 15th February aged 84. Born in the Black Country at Wednesbury on 8th July 1932, Roy attended Wood Green Junior and Kings Hill Senior Schools in the town. he was a talented schoolboy footballer, playing for his school team and selected for the town’s schools team two years running.

Brian Hill (31/07/1941 – 26/10/2016)

Brian Hill was a footballer from a bygone era – a modest, loyal, hard-working, self effacing man dedicated to his sport. He passed away aged 75 after a long fight with Alzheimer’s. Between 1958 and 1970 he made 286 appearances for Coventry City, playing in every outfield position and appearing in five different divisions of the League as well as playing European football in that memorable 1970-71 season.

He was never a spectacular player but always got through a prodigious amount of work and, though often under-appreciated by the fans, he was a key man in Jimmy Hill’s team of the 1960s. Until 16-year-olds Gary McSheffrey, Ben Mackey and Jonson Clark-Harris came on to the first-team scene as substitutes Brian was Coventry City’s youngest ever player. He held the record for 40 years since his goalscoring debut against Gillingham in 1958 and remains to this day the youngest ever starter for the club as well as the youngest goal-scorer. He was still three months short of his 17th birthday when he made his debut in what was City’s last ever game in the old Division Three South.

The old South and North sections were reorganised into the new Divisions Three and Four in the summer of 1958 and a poor City side had failed to finish in the top half of the table, which would have qualified them to be in Division Three. It had been a miserable season – a 13-game run without a win from Boxing Day to mid-March had consigned them to the new basement division – and manager Billy Frith, who had taken over a shambles the previous September, was already planning for the new league by blooding youngsters.

Brian had been impressive in the FA Youth Cup playing at centre-forward and scoring four goals in three ties that season. Looking back Brian had only dim and distant memories. He told me some years ago: “I think I only got a game because the season was as good as over and it was a chance for the manager to look at some of the kids, I had barely played for the reserves before and it was a big surprise to play for the first-team.”

Born in Bedworth, Brian was a prolific sportsman at Nicholas Chamberlain School, representing Warwickshire Schools at football and cricket. After leaving school in 1956 Brian went to work at the Jaguar factory but after a few months he was invited to trials with City and was offered an apprentice contract. In April 1958, with main strikers Ray Straw and Jimmy Rogers injured, Frith decided to play Brian at inside-right and his namesake Ray at centre-forward in the final game on a warm early summer’s evening in Kent. Ray was six years older than Brian and had played ten games since joining from Redditch Town the previous November. With Peter Hill at inside-left City played three Hills in the side for the first time.

Brian had a dream start to his career when, with only seven minutes on the clock he scored. Nemo in the Coventry Evening Telegraph described it in glowing terms: “He took just seven minutes to score, and what a peach of a goal it was. The ball came down the middle. Brian took it in his stride and drove it grass-high into the corner with the aplomb of a veteran.”  City were well on top for the first half an hour, playing, according to the match report, some of their best football for weeks but after the interval the home side picked up their game and they won the game 3-2.

For the next four seasons Brian struggled on as an average inside or outside left but played fewer than 40 first-team games. In November 1961 he was at inside left in the side beaten by Kings Lynn in that infamous FA Cup tie that heralded the departure of Frith and the arrival of Jimmy Hill as manager. Jimmy watched that game incognito in the stands and later in his autobiography wrote: “Against Northampton… I picked my first league 11, dropping Brian Hill from the No. 9 position, in which he had played against Kings Lynn, and telling him that when he came back into the side it would be to stay, but positively not as a striker’. This is one of the first examples of Jimmy’s uncanny ability to identify the best position for players – later examples were Dietmar Bruck, Mick Kearns and Dave Clements. Hill, recognising Brian’s strength as his major asset, converted him into a defensive half-back and he took to the new role like a duck to water. In the 1962-63 season he became a regular in the team playing 47 games, earning a reputation as a tough tackling man-marker, and he was even tipped for England under-23 honours in 1965.

Brian was first choice at either wing-half or full-back until 1967 except when his niggling hamstring injuries kept him on the sidelines but it seemed whenever he returned to the side their fortunes picked up. If there was a key man to be marked, Brian usually got the job – he had some memorable tussles with Manchester United’s Dennis Law and Tottenham’s Jimmy Greaves and usually came out on top. Fan David Walker remembers Brian with fondness and especially the Manchester United FA Cup tie in 1963 when Brian marked Law, at the time the most expensive footballer in British football and the deadliest of strikers. “Brian was one of the most under-rated players we ever had. My assessment of Brian was that often you hardly knew he was on the pitch, but his opposite number would hardly get a look in all match, such was his efficiency as a defender. Perhaps the overriding memory was the famous cup tie against Manchester United in 1963. We may have lost, but standing there, on the terraces, I remember that at the end of the match, as the players came off, Denis Law, who had had a very quiet game, picked up a handful of mu at Brian. Frustration coming out perhaps.”

After promotion in 1967 Hill did not look out of his depth in the First Division and had a dramatic moment at Fulham when he came off the substitute’s bench to score his first league goal for over four years and earn City a valuable point. In his last two years he was restricted to 13 appearances and normally called upon to do specific marking jobs. He was only on the losing side twice during that period and there were some memorable marking jobs that he carried out. In March 1970 he put a dent in Everton’s championship hopes with his ‘job’ on Alan Ball in the 0-0 draw at Goodison and in one of his final games at Anfield later that year he was lauded for his performance in another 0-0 that earned the Sky Blues’ first ever point at the ground. In the same month he was on the winning side as City beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in the home second leg of their Fairs Cup tie.

The club laid on a deserved testimonial game for him in 1969 with Brian Clough’s Derby County providing the opposition in a 1-1 draw. His final game was on Boxing Day 1970 in a 1-1 home draw with West Brom when he conceded the penalty that gave the Baggies a point. In March 1971 he went on loan to Bristol City, managed by Alan Dicks, his former assistant manager at Coventry, and helped them to avoid relegation to Division Three. Later that year he joined Fourth Division Torquay United for £5,000 but lived and trained in Coventry for two years making over 50 appearances for the Gulls.

Four City players played in all four divisions of the league during City’s rise from 1958 to 1967 – Hill, George Curtis, Ron Farmer and Mick Kearns – and Brian was the last of the famous four to leave the club. The quartet made over 1,500 appearances for the club between them and his departure brought the famous era of the club to an end. Ron Farmer, told me: “Brian was a quiet lad – I never saw him lose his temper on or off the pitch and I can’t remember him having a bad game. He was a great tackler and Jimmy always had him mark the opponents’ danger man. I’m very sad to hear of his death.”  Mick Kearns made his debut a few months before Brian and the pair played together many times. He talked affectionately about Brian: “Off the field he was the most unassuming man, there was no side to him and he never get ruffled. On the pitch he was a great athlete who always gave 100 per cent and would play whatever role he was asked to do’.”

Another friend and playing colleague was Bill Tedds who grew up with Brian in Bedworth and followed him to Highfield Road as an apprentice. “Brian and I were very close in our teens – we did everything together, even going on holiday with each other. He wasn’t the tallest player but he was as strong as an ox and ideally suited to be a defender. “He was fanatical about weight-lifting and I’m sure that was the cause of some of his muscle injuries. But for injuries I’m sure he would have won international honours for England.”

After two seasons at Torquay at the age of 31 Brian retired from the professional game and returned to the Midlands. He went to work at Jaguar and played briefly for Bedworth United, who were managed by his former City teammate Gerry Baker.He worked on the Jaguar production line for 18 years and then had ten years as a driver for HSBC Bank before retiring in 2003. He leaves his wife Margaret, a son, two daughters and six grandchildren who, in his retirement, he doted on. Brian’s funeral takes place on Tuesday, November 15 at 10.15 at All Saints Church in Bedworth, followed by a cremation. I am sure there will be a big turn out of friends and former colleagues for a great servant of Coventry City.

Peter Denton (01/03/1946 – 07/10/2016)

Peter Denton

Everyone at Coventry City and the Former Players Association were saddened to hear of the passing of Peter Denton last week. Peter joined CCFC straight from school in 1962 – soon after Jimmy Hill arrived as manager. A diminutive right winger with a great turn of speed and a deadly shot, Peter hailed from Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk and arrived in Coventry with his good friend Graham Saunders.

Peter was an apprentice on the groundstaff, cleaning boots, sweeping the terraces and getting ‘A’ and ‘B’ team football on a Saturday, normally against local works or village teams and playing home games at City’s training ground at Shilton. In his first season he played for the club’s youth team in the FA Youth Cup alongside Bobby Gould, Dennis Oakes and John Burckitt. Sadly the young Sky Blues got a 5-0 home thumping from Port Vale in the first round.

Fellow CCFPA member Dennis Oakes spoke fondly of Peter: “As I remember he and Graham went into digs with Alan Turner. Peter was a quiet lad and kept himself to himself. He kept his head down and was really the ideal young professional. They both joined as apprentices alongside myself, Bobby Gould, Dudley Roberts, Pat Morrissey, Dave and John Matthews. He was a lively right winger who had an eye for a goal. He never changed, was a gentleman at 18/19 years of age and remained so the last time we met.”

The following season (1963-64) there was a stronger youth team with Dudley Roberts, Pat Morrissey and local teenage prodigy John Docker joining Peter and Bobby in the team. In the first round City’s kids gave First Division West Brom a big shock, coming from 4-0 down, before losing 6-4 with Peter scoring one of the goals. His performances were good enough to earn him a professional contract on his 18th birthday in March 1964 and the following season he was a regular in the successful reserve team. In front of crowds averaging over 6,000 the Sky Blues’ reserves won promotion to Football Combination’s First Division, thrilling the fans with 96 goals in 34 games.

Winning a first team call-up was hard – the number seven shirt belonged to the consistent and influential Welsh winger Ronnie Rees. But in early October 1965 City played Stoke in a friendly game and, with Rees on international duty, Peter was given his chance and scored in a 5-1 victory over the First Division side. A month later, following the 6-1 League Cup defeat at West Brom, Jimmy Hill made changes including switching Rees to the left wing and gave Peter his chance against Ipswich at Highfield Road. It was one of the youngest forward lines in the club’s history – Denton (19), Dudley Roberts (20), Bobby Gould (19), Ernie Machin (21) and Rees (21). Within five minutes the pint-sized winger won a penalty and overall he made an impressive debut in the 3-1 victory with Roberts, Gould and Ronnie Farmer (penalty) scoring the goals.

Peter Denton at the Ricoh 2010

Peter kept his place for the next three games – a 1-0 win at Birmingham and draws against Leyton Orient and Middlesbrough before returning to reserve team duty. Later that season he was back in the team as City’s promotion push continued. He stood in for the injured Rees in a 4-1 FA Cup replay win over Crewe, starred in a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace and two weeks later scored his only senior goal in a 3-1 home win over Cardiff. It came after three minutes of the game when his fiercely driven cross from the by-line swerved freakishly and Dilwyn John in the Cardiff goal could only help the ball into the net. Ten minutes later it was 2-0 as Peter was tripped in the area & Farmer netted the penalty. A week later he played in the 2-2 home draw with Bolton but appeared on the losing side for the first time on Easter Saturday at Portsmouth. His final appearance was a 2-1 victory over Middlesbrough in the last home game of the season.

His form dropped in the 1966-67 Division Two championship season and with Rees and Dave Clements performing consistently well and another right-winger John Key in the squad, Peter had to be content with reserve team football. In August 1967 he played his last first team game in a 3-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest. In total he had made 11 first team appearances and scored one goal. In early 1968 he joined Luton Town but things didn’t work out for him at Kenilworth Road & he moved into non-league football playing for Canterbury City and Margate. He settled in the Luton area and worked for many years at Vauxhall Motors in the town while doing some part-time coaching. His son-in-law Wayne Shanley tells me that in the last ten years or so Peter has been a part-time waiter at the Green Man at Offley in Hertfordshire and latterly the Beefeater in Luton where he was very popular.

He leaves behind Margaret, his wife of 46 years, three daughters and three grandchilden. He remained a Sky Blues fan and always looked out for their results. He was a member of the Former Players Association and earlier this year travelled up to Jimmy Hill’s celebration service in the cathedral and attended Legends Day the following day.

John O’Rourke RIP (11/02/45 – 07/07/2016)

Everyone at Coventry City and the Former Players Association were saddened to hear of the passing of John O’Rourke last week.

Noel Cantwell signed John from Ipswich Town in November 1969 for £80,000, seeing him as the ideal strike partner for his star centre-forward Neil Martin. John had an excellent scoring record in the lower divisions before arriving at Highfield Road and although his scoring record didn’t match the heights he had achieved at Luton and Middlesbrough he is remembered for his efforts and goals in the 1969-70 season which saw the Sky Blues qualify for European football for the first time.

At the start of that momentous season the Sky Blues were the bookies’ favourites for relegation, having escaped by the skin of their teeth in the previous two campaigns. Manager Cantwell however was to prove the experts wrong. A five-game unbeaten start and away wins at Arsenal and Derby in early October pushed the team amazingly into the top six but three successive defeats and a dearth of goals in early November saw them slip back to 12^th place. Chairman Derrick Robins, afraid that his dream of seeing his team in Europe was slipping away, urged Cantwell to strengthen the team. In came centre-half Roy Barry, destined to become a Sky Blue legend, to replace the long-serving captain George Curtis, and two weeks later O’Rourke arrived from Ipswich. John’s debut, at home to Newcastle, saw him partnered with emergency striker Maurice Setters as Martin was injured, and the mini-slump was arrested by a late Ernie Hunt penalty. O’Rourke was paired with Martin in the next game, a 3-2 home win over Tottenham, and scored the second goal in a 3-2 victory which was more emphatic than the score suggests.

Martin and O’Rourke hit it off immediately and the team won eight out of nine league games with John netting a brace, both headers, in a thumping 3-0 home win over Manchester City as City’s unlikely challenge for top six place became a reality. Despite being under six foot tall he was superb in the air & many of his goals came from headers. John scored 11 goals in 20 league games that memorable season as the Sky Blues galloped towards a European place. As the season reached its climax Cantwell knew that two wins from their final three games (all away) would be enough to guarantee sixth place and European football. City travelled to Nottingham Forest and O’Rourke grabbed a hat-trick in the 4-1 victory. Three days later sixth place was confirmed with a 1-0 win at Molineux.

One of John’s treble at Forest

The following season another hat trick, at Trakia Plovdiv, launched the club’s European Fairs Cup campaign with a 4-1 win and he scored the winning goal in the home leg against the mighty Bayern Munich. John was a predatory striker and many of his goals were from close range but in the League Cup victory over West Ham he hit a screamer from 35 yards. However goals in the league were harder to come by and he managed only five in 28 games to add to the six in Cup-ties. In March 1971 his partner Neil Martin, who had also lost his goal touch, was sold to Nottingham Forest and by the end of the season John had been displaced by a strike force of Billy Rafferty and Ernie Hunt. At the start of 1971-72 season John was briefly back in favour but Cantwell had his eyes on Hull City’s Chris Chilton. Although John scored in his last league start in a City shirt, a classic 3-3 draw at Chelsea, Chilton signed the following week and soon afterwards John was on his way to Second Division QPR for £70,000. In total he made 66 appearances and scored 23 goals for Coventry.

John O’Rourke was born in Northampton in 1945 after his family were evacuated out of London during World War Two but they moved back to Dagenham after the war. As a schoolboy at Campbell School and Bifrons Secondary School in Barking, John was selected to play for Barking Schools and in 1960 was the star of the team that reached the quarter-finals of the English Schools Trophy. In the fifth round they defeated Hackney Schools who boasted future stars Rodney Marsh and Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris and in round six John scored the only goal in the defeat of Swindon before losing to Stockton. His schoolboy exploits earned him an England trial game which resulted in him winning a schoolboy ‘cap’ against Scotland at Aberdeen. In his teens he was on the books of both Arsenal and Chelsea and although he made one League Cup appearance for the Blues in September 1963 he was behind the likes of Peter Osgood, Barry Bridges and Bobby Tambling in the Chelsea pecking order and found it impossible to break into the league side.

In December 1963 he was released by Chelsea joining Luton Town and he made an instant impact at Kenilworth Road scoring 22 goals in 23 games including four in a 6-2 win at Brentford and both goals in Luton’s victory over Watford that ensured the Sky Blues won promotion that season. Sadly Luton were a team on the decline and the following season were relegated to Division Four with John, despite injuries, scoring 10 goals in 21 games. In 1965-66 he netted 32 goals and in the summer of 1966 a move to a higher status was on the cards. Middlesbrough, newly relegated to Division Three, signed John for £20,000 as a replacement for Ian Gibson, recently sold to the Sky Blues. John flourished in a powerful ‘Boro team and netted 30 goals including a hat-trick in the crucial game with Oxford that clinched promotion. Former ‘Boro skipper remembers his influence: ‘John was a great goalscorer. He wasn’t the sort who would run around all over the place, but he was very quick and had an eye for goal. In the box he was absolutely deadly, forming a great partnership with John Hickton and Arthur Horsfield.’ In the summer of 1967 Alf Ramsey selected John for the England Under 23 tour and in his only game he scored in a 3-0 victory over Turkey playing alongside future stars such as Allan Clarke, Ralph Coates and Colin Harvey.

John receives his CCFPA tie from the late Bob Bromage in 2011

In Division Two the following season he continued to score, averaging a goal every other game, before another move, to Ipswich Town for £30,000, in early 1968. He had a dream start at Portman Road, scoring six goals in his first four games and Bill McGarry’s team remained unbeaten for 15 games to clinch the Second Division title. The Tractor Boys did well in the First Division, finishing 12^th and John netted 16 goals but after McGarry left to manage Wolves there were problems. New manager Bobby Robson and John didn’t see eye to eye and John was transfer-listed and suspended by the club for allegedly refusing to train. The resolution was a move and when Cantwell offered £80,000 for O’Rourke Robson saw an opportunity to fund a rebuilding job on his squad. After leaving City he had an early rush of goals in a strong QPR side featuring Rodney Marsh and a young Gerry Francis but lost his place to Stan Bowles and in early 1974 he moved to Bournemouth. John struggled in a poor Bournemouth side that included Harry Redknapp and was relegated to Division Four. After 21 games in two seasons he was released and at the age of 29 his league career was over. He played for Johannesburg Rangers in South Africa briefly in 1975 before playing non-league football with Poole Town and later Weymouth and Dorchester Town. He settled on the South Coast and ran a newsagent’s in Highcliffe, Christchurch for several years before working at Bournemouth Airport.

In his twelve year professional career he made 366 appearances and scored 178 goals – an exceptional scoring record.

With thanks to Barking & District Historical Society and the English National Football Archive (www.enfa.co.uk)

Ian Gibson RIP (30/3/1943 – 25/5/2016)

Ian in 1967

For Coventry City supporters of a certain vintage, two players captured their hearts in the 1960s. George Hudson was as good a goalscorer that the club has had since the halcyon days of Clarrie Bourton while Ian Gibson or ‘Gibbo’ as the fans called him, was the supreme play-maker, a magician with the ball and undoubtedly one of the most talented players ever to wear a Coventry City shirt. Sadly Gibbo has passed away this week at the age of 73. With his shirt flapping outside his shorts and his unorthodox running style, Gibbo was City’s maverick and the supporters adored him. He frustrated both his managers at Highfield Road, almost fatally in the case of Jimmy Hill, but he was instrumental in promotion to Division One in 1967 and qualification for Europe in 1970.

Born in Newton Stewart in southern Scotland in 1943, Ian Stewart Gibson was a prodigy, and played at Wembley for Scotland Schoolboys against England in 1958 while on the books of local club Stranraer. In July 1958 he moved south to join Third Division Accrington Stanley – a 15-year old boy thrown into a high-testosterone dressing room – and he quickly grew up in a world of snooker halls and pubs. Within months he was given his league debut against Norwich City, a week before his 16th birthday, one of the youngest league debutants and three days later netted his first league goal. Bradford Park Avenue had spotted him and cash-strapped Accrington had to sell him to the Yorkshire club. In his second season at BPA they won promotion from Division Four under the tough Scots manager Jimmy Scoular – Gibbo was almost ever-present and netted seven goals. In March 1962 Second Division Middlesbrough, then managed by Bob Dennison, later to be chief scout at Highfield Road, paid a club record £20,000 for the diminutive Scot. He was an instant hit at Ayresome Park, netting twice on his home debut against Bristol Rovers. A virtual ever-present for the next four years, Gibbo made 184 appearances and scored 47 goals and won two Scottish under-23 caps alongside starlets such as Charlie Cooke, Neil Martin and Billy Bremner. Boro went close to promotion in 1963 but finished in mid-table in the two subsequent seasons and were relegated in 1966. That season, in their penultimate game Boro, desperate for points, lost 2-1 to the Sky Blues at Highfield Road and Gibbo scored and caught the eye of Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph: “Without the wiles of chunky Ian Gibson, their skipper – one of the best inside-forwards we have seen on the ground this term – they would have been sadly adrift. Time and time again, he was in the centre of the picture trying to rally his men.”

No doubt Hill was impressed that day. Jimmy had been under pressure after selling Hudson to Northampton in March 1966 with some fans blaming Hill for costing the club promotion. JH needed a marquee signing and despite interest from First Division clubs Gibbo chose City.  By Coventry’s standards the fee of £57500 was enormous and only possible because of the sale of Alan Harris to Chelsea. Within weeks, however, Hill and Gibson had a bust-up in the dressing room at Carlisle. Hill thought Gibson wasn’t pulling his weight and ignoring his instructions. The following day Gibbo demanded a move and he was put on the transfer list. Hill left him out of the team and stories linked the Scot with a move to First Division Newcastle and a swap deal with Alan Suddick was under serious consideration. In Gibbo’s absence City’s promotion chances stuttered and the team suffered an embarrassing home League Cup exit to lowly Brighton. Hill and Gibson settled their differences and the inside forward was recalled for a home game with Cardiff and given a freer role in the team.

Gibbo was unstoppable and he scored twice in a 3-2 victory. A week later he inspired a famous victory at Molineux and a third win in a row – 5-0 at home to league leaders Ipswich – saw them jump to second place in the table. Bobby Gould took the plaudits from the latter game with his hat-trick but Gibbo was the architect of the win and scored the goal of the night, chipping the ball over half a dozen defenders into the top corner. It was the start of an amazing run of 25 unbeaten games with Gibson’s scheming role one of the major reasons for the revival. The run took them to the Second Division championship with the crowning glory a 3-1 victory over Wolves, their biggest rivals, in front of a record 51,452 crowd at Highfield Road. City trailed at half-time but Gibbo took charge after the break. He set up Ernie Machin for the equaliser and then scored the audacious second goal when, despite being boxed in by defenders he skilfully pivoted and sent a curling shot past Phil Parkes in the Wolves goal. Ronnie Rees’ third goal near the end also had Gibbo’s fingerprints all over it as City won the game described by JH as ‘the Midlands match of the century’.

CCFPA Life President Joe Elliott presents Gibbo with his Association tie

The wee Scot was a marked man in the top division and injuries restricted his appearances in the first two seasons in the top flight but enough was seen of him to realise that, had he been fully fit, the club might not have struggled so badly. He was one of the traditional Scottish ball players who seemed capable of keeping possession of the ball for minutes on end as well as spraying 40-yard pinpoint passes to his team-mates. In another era he would have undoubtedly won full honours for Scotland but their was stiff competition from a host of midfield stars including Charlie Cooke, Jim Baxter and Billy Bremner. Noel Cantwell had taken over from JH but the signs were that the new boss was frustrated by the tiny Scot. At the start of the 1969-69 season Gibson’s time at Highfield Road looked to be over with Cantwell preferring Willie Carr to Gibbo who caused a stir when he suggested it might be in everyone’s interests if he moved on. But Gibson returned with a bang for the home game with West Brom, being the architect of the thrilling 4-2 victory, setting up all three Ernie Hunt goals. By the end the West End were chanting: “If Gibbo goes, so do we.” Cantwell afterwards raved about Gibson’s display, declaring it to be “as good an inside-forward performance as I have ever seen. No club in the country would want to sell a man playing like this.” His good form continued into the autumn before a crunching tackle from Ipswich’s Bill Baxter ended his season prematurely. In 1969-70, despite another knee problem in mid-season, he managed 30 appearances and was a strong influence in the City side that qualified for Europe. He had slowed down a shade and relied on Carr to do his running but his football brain was as fertile as ever and his telepathic understanding with Hunt extended to time-wasting tactics which saw the cheeky pair taking the ball into the corners and retaining possession.

In the summer of 1970 he was surprisingly sold to Second Division Cardiff City for £35000 where he hooked up with his former Bradford manager Jimmy Scoular. The feeling in Coventry was that Cantwell was fed up with his off-field antics.  His first season at Ninian Park was a dream, the team led Division Two for a long period – they finished third and missed out on promotion – and reached the European Cup Winners Cup quarter-finals where they faced Real Madrid. A 1-0 victory at Ninian Park was overturned by Real with a 2-0 second leg victory but Gibbo always talked about the experience of playing in the Bernabeu. Two seasons at Cardiff was followed by a year at Bournemouth but injuries had taken their toll on his legs, specifically his knees, and at the age of only 30 his league career ended. Gibbo loved the game, however, and played briefly in South Africa for Highlands Park before less salubrious teams such as Gateshead United and Whitby Town.

In 1983 he was spotted in the Falkands after the war, as a labourer, and had spells on the North Sea oil-rigs. In later years he was a regular at Ibrox to watch his beloved Rangers but travelled from his home in Redcar to Coventry on several occasions to attend Former Players Association functions. In 2007 he attended a 40th anniversary reunion of the 1967 team and he was at his impish, mischievous best, cracking the jokes and having great fun with his former mates. When Jimmy Hill entered the room he spotted the Scot, made a bee-line for him and the two hugged like long lost brothers. Jimmy has gone, now Gibbo has passed – my boyhood heroes are disappearing fast.

Jack Boxley RIP (1931-2006)It is sad to report the death this week of former Coventry City left winger Jack Boxley at the age of 84. He had been suffering, like many former footballers, from dementia.Jack made his name at Bristol City and was a member of their Third Division South championship side in 1954-55 before a 1957 move to Coventry for whom he made 94 appearances and scored 18 goals.Cradley-born Jack caught several league clubs’ attention playing for Stourbridge in the Birmingham League as a 19-year old and Bristol City had to pay £2,000, a large fee for a non-league player, to aquire him in October 1950. Within a week Jack made his debut in a 2-1 home win over Newport County alongside former Coventry centre-forward George Lowrie. In 1951-52 he overcame a serious leg injury and between 1950 and 1956 made 200 starts for the Robins, netting 34 goals, and was a major contributor to many of centre-forward John Atyeo’s 100-plus goals. The 1954-55 championship side racked up 70 points (when there were two points for a win) and 101 league goals and Boxley rightly became a legend in Bristol. Atyeo and Boxley were close friends and best men at each other’s weddings.In 1956-57 Jack lost his first team place at Ashton Gate and in December 1956 City manager Harry Warren, using the money raised by the sale of Reg Matthews to Chelsea, signed Jack and his Bristol teammate Jimmy Rogers, a goalscoring inside-forward. In an inauspicious first game against Crystal Palace at Highfield Road the floodlights failed and the game was abandoned after 51 minutes at 0-0. Seven days later Boxley scored on his full debut as City won their first away game of the season 3-2 at Southend.But the club was in a mess with large debts, falling crowds and their lowest league position since the 1920s. Boxley started on the left wing and scored four goals in his first five games but was soon switched inside to accommodate home-grown starlet Ray Sambrook. In 1957-58 City’s problems came to a head – Warren was sacked and Billy Frith returned as manager but was unable to stop the club finishing in the lower half of the division which meant they would be placed in the new Fourth Division.

Jack played a small part in the 1958-59 promotion season, making 15 appearances and scoring one goal before losing his place to Alan ‘Digger’ Daley. Back in Division Three, City made a strong promotion challenge in 1959-60 and in late February, laying third in the table, they faced second placed Bury at Highfield Road. It was a day for drama, with a big crowd (over 21,000) there to see it happen. In Bristol the drama was unfolding. Jack, who still lived and trained in Bristol, was travelling up to Coventry on the morning of the match when his car broke down. He never made the match and Coventry, with no readymade stand-in to take his place, had to pull young full-back Brian Shepherd from the ‘A’ team playing locally that morning. City played like a team with a vital part missing and lost 1-0 and it was the beginning of a slump that ended their promotion hopes. Jack only made two more appearances for City and rejoined his beloved Robins the following August.

His return to Ashton Gate was not a great success. He made only 13 appearances but although he failed to score a league goal he did manage Bristol’s first-ever League Cup goal in a 1-1 draw with Aldershot. He was released by the Robins the following summer and played for Chippenham Town in the Western League before hanging up his boots. He married Patricia and brought up a family in Long Ashton and in 2014 was voted into the Bristol City Hall of Fame and was a regular at Ashton Gate for many years.

Ken Satchwell (1940-2016)

Ken in 1959-60

Ken Satchwell, was a very popular player in the late 1950s and early sixties and scored 24 goals in 75 appearances for the club. Ken passed away on Sunday night after a serious illness just a week after his 76th birthday. He was a Ricoh regular until recently and a popular supporter of the Former Players Association. Older City fans will remember Ken scoring four goals in a 5-3 home win over Wrexham on Christmas Day 1959 – the last time City played a league game on the 25th December. The following day in the return at the Racecourse Ground Ken scored another two goals in a 3-1 win to notch a Christmas double for the Bantams.

Born in Birmingham in 1940, Ken was prodigious schoolboy player with Erdington Boys and played as an amateur for both Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers, playing regularly and scoring prolifically for the Villa youth team. In 1956 he played alongside Ron Atkinson as Villa beat City 4-0 in the FA Youth Cup. When the time came for professional contracts Villa were reluctant and Ken started playing for works side SU Carburettors and scored over 100 goals in the Birmingham Works League. With the top clubs’ scouts circling Ken signed amateur forms with City and Wolves. When the Football League pointed out that he could only sign for one club he plumped for City.He was an amateur when he made his debut on the left wing at Oldham in a Division Four game in August 1958. He played 15 games in City’s promotion-winning team that season and scored one goal, a 90^th minute headed winner in a top of the table clash with Millwall in October. The following season Ken, although still a raw 19-year old, became a regular, playing alongside journeyman striker Ray Straw as City came close to a second successive promotion. Straw netted 20 goals and Ken 15, in 28 games, earning the nickname of Satch the Snatch.

His feat of scoring four goals against Wrexham on Christmas Day was described by Nemo: ‘The star performance was undoubtedly that of 19 years old Satchwell, the boy that has played mostly on the wing but who insists that centre-forward is his ideal position. His eye for goal, quickness to move into the open space and his finishing ability give more promise of feats to come – and his improvement over the past couple of months has been little short of astonishing.’ After Jimmy Hill took over in November 1961 Ken struggled to get a game but did score a brace in a good 3-2 victory at Peterborough. The arrival of Terry Bly and Hugh Barr spelt the end of Ken’s City career and his final appearance was in a 5-1 League Cup defeat at Portsmouth.

A few years ago Ken spoke to me about his time under JH: ‘I was injured at the time and missed the Kings Lynn game. I was on the treatment table at Highfield Road being treated by trainer Wilf Copping when someone walked in and told us Billy Frith had been sacked and Jimmy Hill was taking over. Wilf was sacked too and had to clear all his gear out there and then. I never really got on with Jimmy and the club put me up for sale. Derby and Barnsley wanted me to sign but I didn’t want to move from Birmingham so I joined Nuneaton Borough, who offered to pay my benefit.’

Ken scored prolifically for Borough and helped them to the Southern League Championship in his first season. His feats attracted league scouts again and Walsall paid £1,200 for his signature in January 1965. In three seasons for the Saddlers he scored eight goals in 63 games, playing on the right wing before a slipped disc forced him to retire, although he did play briefly for non-league Wellington Town and Stourbridge. After hanging up his boots he found employment at British Leyland as a machine tool operator, moving later to Land Rover at Solihull. He lived in retirement at Tamworth.

Ray Pointer (1936-2016)

Ray Pointer, made his name as a top international player before arriving at Highfield Road in 1965 but played a small but important role in Jimmy Hill’s Sky Blue revolution, scoring 13 goals in 32 games. He passed away in a Blackpool hospital at the age of 79. Prior to the First Division days it was unusual for Coventry City to sign international players, especially England internationals. In December 1965 however Jimmy Hill signed Ray Pointer, the ‘blond bombshell’ who had terrorised First Division defences with Burnley less than five years previously and won three England caps in 1961.

Born in Cramlington in the North East in 1936, he signed for Burnley in 1956 after previously having trials with Blackpool. In his first full season Ray scored 27 league goals – the best haul by a Burnley player in 30 years and was rewarded with an England under-23 cap in Milan and his two goals helped England to a 3-0 win. He was building a reputation as a fast, brave and deadly centre-forward who would run all day in the cause of the club.

Burnley were one of the top sides in the country at that time with players such as Jimmy McIlroy, John Connelly and Jimmy Adamson and in 1959-60 they lifted the League Championship, pipping Wolves in a dramatic final game at Maine Road. Ray played in every game and notched 23 goals. Another 26 goals followed the next season and in October 1961 his displays finally earned him a full England cap. He scored on his international debut, a 4-1 victory in a World Cup qualifying game with Luxembourg and won two further caps that autumn against Wales and Portugal. Despite scoring again versus Portugal he was dropped and was surprisingly not included in the 1962 World Cup party.

That season Burnley were probably at their peak and for a long time they were in contention for the League and Cup double. They eventually lost in the FA Cup final to Tottenham and were pipped for the league title by Alf Ramsey’s Ipswich Town. Days after losing at Wembley Burnley played at Highfield Road in a game commemorating the opening of the new Cathedral. It was my first visit to the ground and as a star-struck nine-year old Pointer was impressive. When he scored two goals to help his team to a 4-2 win he cemented his place amongst my heroes. Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph described Pointer’s first goal: ‘..he hit a dipping drive which went in off the crossbar for a superb effort which even (Arthur) Lightening applauded as he retrieved the ball.’

In 1963 Ray suffered a chipped ankle and lost his place to Andy Lochhead and in 1965 he left Turf Moor for Second Division Bury for £8,000. He rediscovered his form at Gigg Lane, alongside a youngster called Colin Bell and scored 17 goals in 19 games including five in a 6-1 win over Rotherham. His form persuaded Jimmy Hill to splash £20,000 on the blond striker – a move which caused a rumpus amongst Bury’s supporters. City’s promotion push was stuttering through lack of goals with George Hudson losing form, Ken Hale looking a spent force and Bobby Gould still too raw. Pointer’s arrival had the desired effect, he scored on his debut, a 1-1 draw at Norwich and on New Years Day he hit a hat-trick in a 5-1 victory over Preston.

Nemo wrote: ‘It is a long time since I can recall a Highfield Road crowd acclaiming an individual performance as they did Ray pointer’s first-half hat-trick against Preston. …Hill’s swoop for Pointer has proved the shot in the arm so badly needed.’ His form, 11 goals in 19 games, convinced Hill that the fan’s idol Hudson was dispensable, and ‘The Hud’ was controversially sold to Northampton. Ray however did not feature in Hill’s long term plans and after promotion was missed by a whisker in 1966 he invested £55,000 on Ian Gibson and Pointer’s days were numbered. With Bobby Gould emerging as a top striker, Ray played just seven early-season games in the promotion season and his final game was a shock home League Cup loss to Brighton. Ray was kicking his heels in the reserves and City rejected a £15,000 offer for him from Oldham and it was no surprise when in January 1967 he was part of an exchange deal with Portsmouth that brought midfielder Brian Lewis to Highfield Road.

Soon after joining Pompey he was converted to a midfield player and went on to play 165 games, scoring 31 goals in seven seasons at Fratton Park. At the age of 37 he played for non-league Waterlooville before hanging up his boots. He took up coaching, first at Blackpool under his old Burnley boss Harry Potts, then back at Burnley and later at Bury under former Burnley legends Martin Dobson & Frank Casper. He later ran a shop in Blackpool but spent his last years in a care home, sadly another victim of Alzheimer’s Disease which so many former footballers seem to succumb to.

 

Don Howe (1935-2015)

Don Howe, whose death at the age of 80 was reported this week, played a small part in the history of Coventry City, steering a poor team to First Division safety in the last season before the advent of the Premier League in 1992.

Wolverhampton-born Don had an outstanding playing career as a full-back with West Bromwich Albion and later Arsenal, making over 500 appearances and winning 23 caps for his country. A broken leg ended his career prematurely and he became a member of the Gunners’ coaching staff. Under Bertie Mee Don developed a reputation as one of England’s finest coaches and played a key role in the 1971 Double success. He left Highbury in the afterglow of that achievement to become manager at the Hawthorns but only succeeded in taking his former club down to Division Two. He returned to Highbury as coach under Terry Neill as Arsenal reached three successive FA Cup finals in the late 1970s and successfully combined this role with being assistant to England managers Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson before becoming Arsenal manager for two years in the mid-1980s.

In 1987 he became assistant to Bobby Gould at Wimbledon and helped the Dons to pull off their shock victory over Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final. There followed a two-year spell as manager of QPR before the Sky Blues persuaded him to come to Coventry as assistant to Terry Butcher in November 1991. Two months later after a bad run of results and contract wranglings Butcher was sacked and Don took over the reins on the understanding that the kitty was empty and there was no money to spend.

Howe, despite inheriting a squad that included Stewart Robson, Kevin Gallacher and a young Peter Ndlovu, couldn’t avert an FA Cup replay defeat at Cambridge, courtesy of a goal from their powerful striker, Dion Dublin, but took action to stiffen City’s defence. This he was only able to do by depleting the team’s attacking strength. Drab, dour football was the consequence, and although only one game in nine was lost, the run included four goal-less draws and saw only four goals scored. The slow accumulation of points was enough to keep the threat of relegation at bay until mid-March, when City were overtaken by Sheffield United, Southampton and Tottenham, each of whom had put on a surge.

Successive defeats by Tottenham and Arsenal meant that City would have to scrap for everything to survive. Deflected goals then cost them the points against both Notts County and Everton. On Easter Monday Lloyd McGrath was sent off in the televised clash with champions elect Leeds for deliberate handball, although TV replays suggested the ball had struck his knee and not his hand, and City lost again.

One of the worst Coventry City sides in their 34-year top flight stay could afford to lose only so long as others beneath them were also losing. But Luton were stringing together a winning run, and beat Aston Villa in their penultimate game. It was just as well that City recorded their first home win since November, against doomed West Ham, for that set up a climactic final day at Villa Park. By that time Notts County and West Ham were already relegated, leaving Luton, who were two points behind City, to travel to Notts County. With the Sky Blues having a superior goal-difference, a draw was all they needed to survive.

Within twenty-one seconds City’s hopes of even a point looked thin, as their former hero Cyrille Regis put Villa ahead. News that Luton were winning at Meadow Lane, coupled with a second Villa goal, scored by Dwight Yorke, put City in the bottom three for the first time all season. The fans were almost resigned to relegation. Salvation came, not through a City fight-back, but in the shape of Loughborough University student Rob Matthews, who scored twice for Notts County to send Luton down.

Within days City announced that Don would be joint manager with Bobby Gould, recently sacked by West Brom. The idea was that Howe would retain responsibility for coaching and tactics and that the duo could repeat their success at Wimbledon. But his record and style – not to mention his decision to sign Les Sealey (who had bad-mouthed the club when leaving in 1983) on loan – had not endeared him to City fans. Howe, who had been suffering some heart problems, decided that the daily trip from his Hertfordshire home was too much, stepped down, and allowed Gould to recruit axed Bolton boss Phil Neal as his assistant.

After leaving Coventry he was a member of the England set up under Terry Venables before his final job in 1997, back at Arsenal, as youth team coach before retiring in 2003. He continued to pass on his advice to aspiring young coaches.

Don was unquestionably an outstanding club and national coach and respected by the top people in the game but he failed to achieve success as a club manager. In many ways he was similar to Dave Sexton, always happier in a tracksuit coaching than behind a desk or fielding questions at a press conference. After the passing of Jimmy Hill last week it is another great loss to English football.

Jimmy Hill (22/07/28 – 19/12/2015)

Jimmy Hill CCFC Manager 1961-67

Jimmy Hill was a man of many talents and Coventry City and the City of Coventry benefited enormously from his time as manager and later chairman of the football club. In the 1960s I was one of the hordes of Coventry and Warwickshire boys who followed our very own Pied Piper down a golden path to success. The five and a half years of his time as manager, from December 1961 to May 1967, remains the most exciting and momentous era in the history of the club. Nothing before or since, with the brief exception of the few weeks around Wembley 1987, can compare to those marvellous days which came to be known as the ‘Sky Blue Era’. In a unique partnership with the go-ahead chairman Derrick Robins, he transformed Coventry City from an ailing Third Division side in a run-down stadium into the most progressive club in England that would grace the top flight for 34 years.

Born in Balham, South London on 22 July 1928 Jimmy was first spotted by Reading manager Ted Drake whilst playing for his regiment whilst doing National Service in 1948. He never made the Reading first team and in 1949 after being released he joined Brentford where he soon got a first team chance as a centre-forward. Converted to a wing-half he spent three years at Griffin Park making 87 appearances before making the short journey to Fulham. He spent nine happy years at Craven Cottage, mainly at inside-forward, before a knee injury ended his career and was a wholehearted and enthusiastic member of the team that almost reached Wembley in 1958 and won promotion to Division One in 1959. During his time there he became the chairman of the Professional Footballers Association and was instrumental in the abolition of the maximum wage for players in 1961, upsetting many stick-in-the mud club chairmen along the way. The first major beneficiary of his union success was his Fulham team-mate and England captain Johnny Haynes, who became England’s first £100-a-week player.

It was a chance meeting with Derrick Robins at the 1961 Lord’s Taveners’ Ball in London which opened up the Coventry managerial opportunity for Jimmy. The two hit it off and Jimmy was offered the City manager’s job but only if he had complete control – the first City manager to have such power. A 2-1 home FA Cup defeat by non-league Kings Lynn was the catalyst for change, although he had been offered the post a week earlier.

His first match in charge was a 1-0 home win over Northampton and although the team won four of his first five games in charge, by the end of the season City were in the bottom half of the Third Division with gates under 6,000. Coventry’s younger fans would however remember his first Christmas in charge – he introduced a massively popular pop and crisps fuelled autograph session with the players. Jimmy knew how to nurture the next generation of fans and that simple act is still remembered by a generation of Sky Blue supporters.

Hill started making changes from the moment he walked into the club. He revolutionised the players’ training, he removed the ban on players talking to the media and he sacked the complete back-room staff including loyal servants such as Alf Wood and Ted Roberts. Foreign clubs were invited to Highfield Road for floodlight friendlies, a fund-raising pool was launched and ground improvements planned. The club was never out of the limelight and his innovations were admired nationwide. He introduced the Sky Blue train, Radio Sky Blue, pre-match entertainment, the Ryton training ground and the Sky Blue song as well as developing the ground into a modern, well-equipped stadium. Not everyone welcomed his innovations however and his critics said he was a gimmick merchant and riding on a horse in full hunting regalia around Highfield Road before a testimonial match played into the critic’s hands.

Two of his many great attributes however were his ability to deal in the transfer market and the strength of his convictions and he was never afraid to make what were, at the time, unpopular decisions and see them through. The sale of 29-goal top scorer Terry Bly in 1963 was a case in point. The fans were in uproar when he was sold but within weeks it proved to be an inspired decision as Bly’s career tailed off and his replacement, George Hudson, became the most idolized player in the club’s history. Three years later there was further hullabaloo when Hudson was sold – hundreds of fans shunned City’s big Cup match at Everton in protest and travelled to Northampton to see ‘The Hud’ make his debut. A year later when promotion was secured to Division One, Hill’s judgement was vindicated.

In the close season of 1962 Jimmy was given £30,000 to strengthen the team. He largely kept faith with the defence he had inherited, built around the man-mountain captain George Curtis, and used the money to buy a brand new forward line including a club record £12,000 on centre-forward Bly. He introduced a continental-style all-Sky Blue kit which soon got the local press calling the team the ‘Sky Blues’ and Jimmy, along with director John Camkin wrote the words to a club song to the tune of the Eton Boating Song. On the pitch the club reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup after an unforgettable victory over Sunderland at Highfield Road when an estimated 50,000 fans watched as City pulled of a giant-killing act with two late goals. The Cup run put the club back into the national limelight and although they missed out on promotion from Division Three they had almost doubled the average league crowd to 17,000 with massive away followings that were the envy of the top clubs in the land.

More changes came in 1963 with the sloping pitch levelled and work commencing on the ‘Sky Blue Stand’ to replace the rickety 1910 stand. A dazzling start to the 1963-64 season saw the team race away at the top – they were nine points clear on January 3rd – only to suffer a slump in the New Year. It was a great test of Jimmy’s ability to motivate his players and he faced criticism from some fans. The nine-point lead was whittled away and their two closest rivals overtook them. Hill made two key strategic short-term signings and the collapse was arrested. A win on the final day over Colchester in front of almost 37,000 clinched the Third Division title.

The 1964-65 season started with five straight victories and the fans dreamed of successive promotions but it turned out to be a season of consolidation in Division Two. Jimmy didn’t rest on his laurels however and splashed out a world record £35,000 fee for goalkeeper Bill Glazier and a similar sum for Chelsea full-back Allan Harris. The team however was still dominated by players who had cost little or nothing including Curtis, Ronnie Rees, Ernie Machin, Dietmar Bruck, Mick Kearns and Brian Hill. The team made a serious challenge for promotion in 1965-66 but missed out by one point. The fans believed Hill’s decision to sell their idol George Hudson in March had cost the club promotion and although Hudson’s career went on a downward trajectory, many never forgave him for the act. ‘JH’ was confident that local boy Bobby Gould would score the goals but the fans needed a new hero & the club transfer record was smashed to bring Scottish midfielder Ian Gibson to Coventry.

Neither ‘Gibbo’ nor the team set the world on fire in the early months of 1966-67 and it seemed that Hill had made a major error in the transfer market. After a League Cup exit to lowly Brighton and with ‘Gibbo’ looking set to leave, JH was under pressure. Jimmy and his star player buried the hatchet and suddenly the team’s form clicked. A run of 25 unbeaten games saw the Sky Blues win the Second Division title with the highlight being a victory over their closest rivals Wolves at Highfield Road in front of a record crowd of over 51,000. At the end of the match Jimmy conducted the thousands of fans on the pitch to a moving rendition of the Sky Blue Song. The crowds were flocking to Highfield Road to see the Sky Blue miracle and the club had the highest attendances of any Midland club with an average of over 28,000.

Jimmy oversaw more ground improvements that summer including the construction of the West Stand in twelve weeks, but behind the scenes a major story was brewing. Jimmy resigned on the eve of the club’s debut in the First Division, to become Head of Sport for London Weekend Television. The news was a bombshell to both the supporters and players alike but his mind was made up. He later revealed that if Derrick Robins had met his request for a ten-year contract he would have stayed. After the impact he had on the club, many feel that it was a tragedy that Jimmy never took the opportunity to test his abilities at the highest level. Whether he would have been a success or not will never be known.

Jimmy was a natural on television and virtually invented the TV pundit role working alongside Brian Moore on ‘The Big Match’. In 1973 he switched channels and joined the BBC and became the presenter of ‘Match of the Day. His authoritative voice, insightful comments and sometimes controversial views not to mention his football knowledge made him a national treasure although ‘the chin’, as he was known, was often caricatured.

In 1975 he returned to Coventry City as their first paid managing director but times had changed and the club had serious financial difficulties. Although he turned things around not all of his ideas went down well with the supporters. In 1981 in an effort to combat hooliganism he spearheaded the club’s move to make Highfield Road all-seated and then watched as crowds plummeted with fans put off by the sterile feel of the stadium, higher prices and inconvenient ticket arrangements.

An investment in North American football was unsuccessful and the club’s and his personal investment was lost. In 1983 he stepped down as chairman of the club but stayed involved in football with stints as chairman of Charlton Athletic and Fulham, helping both clubs through difficult times. In 2011, in what would be his last public appearance, he unveiled his own statue at the Ricoh Arena. Sadly Alzheimer’s Disease had taken hold and Jimmy spent his last days in a care home.

Throughout his whole multi-faceted career Jimmy Hill was always committed to innovation in every aspect of the game, and at all times believed supporters came first. His influence lives on at Coventry City and throughout the wider football world. He was a true legend.

Márton Fülöp (03/05/1983 – 12/11/2015)

CCFPA is very sad to pass on the news that former Sky Blue Hungarian goalkeeper Márton Fülöp lost his battle with cancer at the tragically early age of 32. Márton who was capped 24 times for his country (and would have won more but for the form of Gabor Kiraly) was at the Ricoh in the 2005-06 season.

The Budapest-born goalkeeper joined Tottenham Hotspur in summer 2004 as a 21 year old after a couple of years with his first club, MTK Hungaria. However, before making a first team appearance for Spurs was sent out on loan first to Chesterfield at the back end of the 2004-05 season and then to the Sky Blues (from October 2005) after Stephen Bywater was recalled by West Ham. City were in the bottom three in the Championship when he arrived but he kept a clean sheet on his debut, a 1-0 home win over Luton. Dennis Wise is credited for City’s remarkable turnaround that season but Fulop has to take a lot of credit too. He gave the defence great confidence and he was only on the losing side twice in 18 games at the Ricoh as the new stadium became a fortress for the only time. City finished eighth that season – their best finish in eleven seasons in the Championship. With CCFC, Márton made 31 league and 2 F.A.Cup appearances for (now CCFPA member) Micky Adams’ Championship team before returning to Spurs at the end of the season. A loan spell with Roy Keane’s Sunderland in 2006 followed before he earned a transfer to the Stadium of Light in January 2007 where he made over 40 appearances, playing sporadically for the Wearsiders over the next four seasons, interspersed with loans at Leicester, Stoke and Manchester City.

The other light blues, Manchester City signed Márton on an emergency loan in April 2010 before signing a two-year deal with Ipswich in 2010 where he rejoined a past manager Roy Keane and made over 30 appearances being a regular in their Championship side. A one-year loan spell at the Hawthorns followed where he warmed the bench as back up for Ben Foster under Roy Hodgson for the 2011-12 season. His final move took him to Greek Superleague side Asteras Tripolis and he won a Greek Cup runner-up medal with them in 2013, before undergoing an apparently successful operation to have an malignant tumour on his arm removed.  Speaking after his surgery in June 2013, Márton had said: ”I am sure that after a few months I will be ready both physically and mentally to continue playing football”. Tragically this was not to be!

On hearing the news CCFC said ‘Everyone at CCFC are saddened to hear of the passing of our former goalkeeper Marton Fulop, at the age of 32. Our thoughts and condolences are with Marton’s family and friends at this difficult time’. All the members and staff at the Association would wish to add their condolences.

Ken Cornbill (1937 – 13/04/2015)

Ken in 1958-59

It is sad to report the death of former City player Ken Cornbill. Birmingham-born Ken passed away on 13th October, aged 78. He was on City’s books for 3-4 seasons in the 1950s and although he never appeared for the first team, was a regular for the reserves in that period. Ken, a speedy right-winger with a great cross, was signed from Boldmere St Michaels in 1958. He was released by City in 1960 and joined Lockheed Leamington. According to Leamington historian Paul Vanes he made a winning debut at Hednesford on December 3rd when the Brakes triumphed by the odd in five and he played at least 17 games scoring 4 goals that season. With another ex-City man Ernie Ward playing at the top of his form, Ken had to settle for a place in the Reserves. The following season he appeared at least 16 times and netted a solitary goal and as a boy Jim Brown remembers seeing him play at the Windmill Ground. In 1963 he joined Tamworth and it is believed he also played for Hednesford & Kidderminster. Away from football he had jobs selling cigarette machines to pubs and as a fork-lift driver in a carpet factory. In retirement he lived in Telford and attended City’s Legends Day in 2013.

Ernie Hannigan  (23/01/1943 – 21/05/2015)

Ernie Hannigan, who has died aged 72, was Noel Cantwell’s first signing as the Coventry City manager in November 1967. He was a key figure in the Sky Blues survival in that momentous first season in Division One but struggled to win a place in the team thereafter.

Born in Glasgow during wartime Ernie’s teenage talent on the football pitch was spotted by Queen of the South when Ernie was playing for Celtic’s nursery club, St Roch’s in Glasgow. He signed for the Dumfries club as an 18-year old & quickly became a regular. Soon after his arrival in 1961 the club signed centre-forward Neil Martin from Alloa Athletic & Ernie became the provider of many of Neil’s goals as the team won promotion to Scottish Division One. In 1964, after 147 games for the Doonhamers, Ernie joined Second Division Preston North End for £15,000 & had three good seasons at Deepdale playing 108 games and scoring 31 goals including a hat-trick in a 9-0 thumping of Cardiff in 1966. That season he came on to Cantwell’s radar when North End had a good FA Cup run with Ernie scoring the winner in a Fifth round tie with Tottenham & giving Cantwell’s team, Manchester United, a shock in the sixth round, holding them to a draw at Deepdale before losing the replay. Hannigan was one of Preston’s stars & although Cantwell wasn’t playing he probably watched the tie.

Noel Cantwell had taken over from Jimmy Hill as City manager at the end of October 1967 & chairman Derrick Robins had promised the new manager funds to strengthen the side which was struggling in the top flight. Ernie’s arrival from Preston for a fee of £55,000 (just short of the club’s record fee at the time) was followed the same week by Gerry Baker & Maurice Setters. At the time Ernie was described as a goal-scoring winger and ‘one of the trickiest wingers in Division Two’. A fast-raiding right winger with excellent ball control and a vicious shot, he had a interesting running style with his chest puffed out making him look larger than his 5 foot 8 inch frame. Hannigan’s debut was a depressing 0-3 home defeat to Fulham which pushed the Sky Blues to the foot of the table, but a week later at Elland Road Hannigan scored his first goal, a spectacular volley, to earn City a suprising but valuable point in a 1-1 draw. Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph described the goal as: ‘only a half-chance executed with power & grace. He moved into Leeds’ box for a (Ronnie) Rees pass and, in one movement, controlled the ball, turned, and hit it on the volley leaving (Gary) Sprake powerless.’

After only a handful of games however Ernie was involved in a bad car crash and for a few days his playing career looked in jeopardy but it turned out to be bad bruising & he was sidelined for just three games. In 26 League & Cup games that season he scored six vital goals including the winner in the first and only away win at West Brom, and a searing shot which proved to be the winner over Chelsea at home. In that Chelsea game he was reunited with Neil Martin who had been signed from Sunderland & the club named an all-Scottish forward line for the first time with Baker, Willie Carr & Ian Gibson making up the front line. In the final game of that season with City needing a point at Southampton to avoid the drop he was one of the eleven heroes who chased & harried all afternoon to secure safety with a 0-0 draw. He could however be frustrating, able to dribble past defenders, seemingly at will & then pass the ball to an opponent. On more than one occasion Nemo described him as a ‘bewildering player’.

His former team-mates Willie Carr & Dietmar Bruck have fond memories of Ernie & both remember the night of a Soccer Ball at the Hotel Leofric when Ernie, slightly worse for drink, decided to get a taxi to Glasgow. The taxi-driver took him to his mother’s house, he had a cup of tea, then got the taxi-driver to take him back to Coventry. Willie knew of Ernie from his Glasgow days: ‘He played with my older brother in Glasgow schools football & immediately made friends with me when he came from Preston. He was the life & soul of the party, a very funny man who could make the whole dressing room laugh’. Dietmar remembers playing against Ernie before he came to City & admits he was a fast & skilful winger who could beat most full-backs – but honours were even between them! He remembered City’s game at the Hawthorns in 1968 when Ernie scored the only goal: ‘Before the match, while we were having lunch, Derrick Robins came in & offered us all £100 a match each if we could stay up. With sixteen games to go that meant potentially £1600, a massive amount of money in those days. The incentive worked that day! John Tudor played at centre-half & didn’t give Jeff Astle a kick and Gibbo put Ernie away with a fabulous pass & he scored the winner’.

After three games of the 1968-69 season Hannigan was dropped and made available for transfer and thereafter was never a first choice player. He made 15 starts that season and only seven the next season, as Cantwell’s team headed for Europe. He had a brief loan period with Torquay United and was recalled to first team action in early 1970 for impressive performances against Arsenal (2-0) and West Ham (2-1). In the latter game he tied Bobby Moore up in knots with his direct running style but two weeks later his City career was over and he was left at home as the team flew off to the USA for a tour. In total he made 54 appearances for the club and scored seven goals. That summer he moved back to Scotland and spent one season at Morton, then had one game the following summer with New York Cosmos, before a brief spell in South Africa & rounding his British career off in 1972 at Queen of the South and Raith Rovers.

He emigrated to Australia around 1973 and after a short stay in Sydney moved to Perth to play for Stirling City. His skill won him many admirers in Western Australian football and he made the first of twelve appearances for the State in May 1974 against touring Scottish side Aberdeen at Perry Lakes Stadium. In 2012 he was made a member of the Western Australia Football Hall of Fame and a local internet site describes him as: ‘one of the best outside-rights Western Australian fans had seen during the mid-to-late seventies’. At the induction ceremony, an old friend of Ernie’s from Glasgow, Sir Alex Ferguson sent a moving message about their friendship.

Off the field Ernie became a successful businessman, setting up an industrial building cleaning business in Perth and it is believed he contracted asbestosis during this time. In 2010 he returned to Coventry for a reunion of former players & although he was a lifelong Celtic fan he kept abreast of City’s fortunes from Australia. His health deteriorated over the last few months & he died peacefully.

Trevor Lewis (06/01/1921 – 12/04/2015)

Two weeks after the death of his great friend, Ken Jones, another former Coventry City player, Trevor Lewis has passed away, aged 94.Welshman Trevor was born in Bedwelty, near Blackwood in South Wales, the eldest of 12 children. As a teenager he moved to Birmingham for work & early in the war was joined by several members of his family in Shirley. Trevor joined the Fleet Air Arm in late 1941 & was at sea, mainly on the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, seeing service in the Mediterranean & the Pacific during the hostilities. He was awarded a number of medals including the Burma Star.

1951-52 squad with Trevor second from right in middle row

It was almost another two years before his next opportunity – in the 1951-52 relegation season. Then he played three early season games before his last appearance in September 1952 in a 1-1 draw with Northampton. In January 1953, now aged 31, having played just 11 games in five years, he signed for Gillingham, another Third Division side. At Priestfield he went straight into the first team, playing 17 games that season. The following campaign he played seven games, including a return to Highfield Road where the Gills held City to a 1-1 draw, and scored in first league goal in a 3-3 draw at Torquay. In 1954-55 he played just two games as his professional career came to an end. In his final game he netted the team’s goal in a 1-1 draw with Exeter.

It is sad to report the death of former Coventry City player Ken Jones, aged 89. Ken, a right-back, joined City from Llanelli AFC in 1949 and played 88 games for the club between 1951-56. He later played for Lockheed Leamington and Rugby Town. With the help of his daughter Jayne Prosser I have been able to get a better idea of Ken’s life.

Born in the Welsh steel and tin town of Llanelli during the depression in 1926, young Ken was always destined to work in one of the numerous works around the industrial town.Aged 15, he left school and went to work in the tin plating works but within a year suffered a serious industrial accident that strangely signposted a football career. He was working close to the acid baths used in the tin plating process and accidentally slipped into one of baths, finding himself up to his waist in corrosive acid. A colleague immediately pulled him out and immersed him in cold water.

When they got the teenager to hospital they cut his skin off ‘like nylon stockings’. His injuries caused him to spend over a year in hospital and as part of his recuperation he was encouraged to kick a football to strengthen his legs. His hospital stay meant his call-up to the services in 1944 was delayed and when he finally joined the Army he was able to impress his regiment with his football talent, helping his squad to win a Lichfield League championship. His army service saw him sent to Norway and he was involved in the liberation of the country. After leaving the services he returned to work in the tin factory and played regularly for Llanelli AFC in the Welsh League.

He came to the attention of the senior Welsh league clubs and Swansea beat off the challenge of Cardiff and Newport to sign him on amateur terms but Llanelli, who had ambitions to become a Southern League side persuaded him to sign professional forms with them and he continued his development. By 1949, Ken’s reputation was growing and eventually West Ham and Coventry were serious about their intentions. City’s South Wales scout, former player Ernie Curtis, recommended him to City manager Harry Storer and Ken’s preference was for City because the booming car industry of Coventry offered a back-up in case things didn’t work out in his football career.

On October 29. 1949 Storer missed City’s league game at Blackburn to watch Jones at Llanelly and was so impressed he signed him after the game. His old contracts record that Ken was paid £7 per week and £6 in the summer with a £2 bonus if he played for the first team. In the close season he would take casual work for a Coventry builder Ted Smart to supplement his income. Ken had to be content with reserve team football for almost two years but in September 1951 he got his chance in a Second Division game at Barnsley. The Bantams lost 1-0 but Nemo, writing in the Coventry Telegraph noted his debut: “Jones…had no reason to feel he had let the side down. He improved with every minute of the game, and, if he can tidy up his work in the air, his value will increase considerably.”

His next chance came the following March when he deputised for flu victim Dick Mason in a 3-1 home defeat to Leicester. City were having a tough time and were relegated to Division Three that season but Ken was improving slowly in the ‘stiffs’. After just one first team game the following season, Ken became a regular at right-back in 1953-54. His performances were outstanding and according to a press cutting he was ‘the most improved player at the club that season’, with ‘his standard of play surprising even his friends’. City finished 14th in Division Three South but improved the following season to ninth despite lots of boardroom wranglings and changes in management.

Steve ‘Kalamazoo’ Mokone RIP (23/03/32-20/03/2015)

‘Kala’ in Bantam’s kit 1956

Sadly, whilst there were fun & games at the Ricoh and in the casino on March 21st 2015, news came through that Steve ‘Kalamazoo’ Mokone had died in Washington DC, four days short of his 83rd birthday.

Mokone was not only the first black South African to play first-class football in England but also the first to play outside his native country. Although he only played a handful of games for Coventry City his story is an amazing one that has been the subject of two books and a film!

Older fans will remember the buzz in the mid 1950s when Mokone arrived at Highfield Road. He hailed from Doornfontein and played for Durban Bush Bucks FC, also appearing for the Natal Province XI and the South African Bantu XI- the highest honour at the time for a non-European in the country.

He apparently wrote to City for a trial after seeing their name in his local newspaper and Charlie Buchan, the legendary Sunderland, Arsenal and England player, put up £100 for his fare. It took the South African authorities almost a year to issue Steve with his passport. At the time South Africa were under an apartheid regime and any black person wanting to travel overseas was considered a threat. When the passport was finally issued he was told, “Stay out of politics, or else.” Mokone was not overtly political but he knew some senior ANC figures, including Dr William Nkomo, a close associate of Nelson Mandela. He gave up his job as a clerk in a Pretoria Government office & left his wife and six month old son to come to Coventry for an extended trial in August 1956.

Steve wearing his CCFPA tie in 2011

‘Kalamazoo’, as he was nicknamed, impressed City’s coach, the legendary George Raynor, who had led Sweden to great feats on the world stage. Steve had wonderful dribbling skills and devastating pace and his touch and trickery was something rarely seen in English Division Three. He took some time to adapt to English pitches – he had never played on grass before – but scored in a practice match at Highfield Road a day after arriving & two weeks later scored the winning goal on his Reserve team debut at St Andrews. Meanwhile he was given part-time work in the offices of City director Phil Mead & lodging with two other City players, Roy Proverbs & Alf Bentley. Former City player Lol Harvey remembers him well: ‘We called him Kal & he was a lovely man, always happy with a big smile & everybody who met him liked him. I played in his debut in the reserves at St Andrews & he didn’t have any shin pads. We told him he was mad playing without them but he insisted they would hamper his style & wanted to play with his socks rolled down’.

His first-team debut came on 13 October 1956 at Highfield Road against Millwall. Playing at outside left, Mokone was in dazzling form & Nemo wrote in the Coventry Telegraph: ‘Mokone’s form was a revelation…. he created opening after opening only for his colleagues to fritter them away. He showed excellent ball control and positional sense, and was always ready to shoot first time.’ The match report said that Mokone’s selection had added 5,000 to the gate & he set up City’s goal in a 1-2 defeat.

Two days later he set up two goals in a 3-2 Floodlit friendly victory over Nottingham Forest & the following morning signed a professional contract. Against Brighton a week later he came up against Jim Langley, the best left-back in the division who would play for England within eighteen months, and Kal found the full-back ‘too much for him’. His first goal came in a 4-1 home win over Gillingham a week later but Nemo’s report was not as flattering: ‘foot-fluttering over the ball may look very good to the spectators, but not always to his colleagues who have run into position for a quick pass or centre’. With friendly matches virtually every week that autumn, Mokone struggled to keep up his form & he was disappointing in a defeat at Swindon. After four league games & three friendlies he was rested.

November 1956 was a traumatic month for the club, even by City’s standards. Coach Raynor left ‘by mutual consent’ as manager Harry Warren sought to turn the team’s poor form around. His replacement was former England & Arsenal hard-man Wilf Copping, who had a reputation for being a tough taskmaster on the training ground. Then, the club’s England goalkeeper Reg Matthews was sold to Chelsea for a record fee of £22,000.
Lol Harvey remembers how, after training at Highfield Road, Mokone would lay bets with Matthews, that he could score penalties against him, and usually won handsomely. He also recalls a practice match between the first team & the reserves at Highfield Road when Mokone took a penalty & started his run up from the halfway line!
Mokone was back in the reserves, scoring goals & doubling attendances for reserve games but was unhappy, In early January 1957 the Coventry Telegraph reported that he had asked for a transfer saying that ‘ he had not been given the chances for the training he expected’ and that ‘the club does not seem to be interested in developing me’. The club refuted his allegations but agreed to waive his contract & gave him a ‘free’ transfer. He continued to play for the club’s reserves & A team & in February netted four goals in three reserve games prompting a call-up for the first-team’s floodlit friendly with Akademisk Boldklub of Copenhagen. He scored the only goal against the Danes and according to Nemo: ‘it was his colourful dashes down the wing which drew most of the applause’. Later that month he played in a Benefit match against an All-Star Managers XI. Sadly that would be his last first-team game & at the end of the season he left the club but not before a gracious farewell message for the fans: ‘I am deeply grateful to them for all their support & encouragement, which has meant so much to me. I shall take with me many happy memories of the Coventry people.’

Steve joined Dutch club Heracles of Almelo, a small town near the German border. In the 1957-58 season he helped them win the championship of Division 3 B and was voted player of the season by the fans. He played for Heracles for two seasons becoming a local legend, even appearing in a friendly game against Santos of Brazil for whom Pele appeared. His time at Almelo was recounted in detail in De Zwarte Meteoor (The Black Meteor) written by Dutch football journalist Tom Egbers in the late 1990s and the book was later made into a film. There is a street named after Mokone in Almelo and one of the stands in Heracles’s Polman Stadion is dedicated to him.

In 1959 he tried his luck in the Football League again and joined Cardiff City, then a Second Division side. He played only two games for the Welsh side, including a 3-2 win over Liverpool when he scored the opening goal. The club tried to force him to play through an ankle injury and Mokone refused; he was not selected for the first team again.

Next stop was Barcelona who loaned him out to Marseille. He never appeared for either club but in the south of France he ran a small factory manufacturing ‘Mokone’ football boots. In 1961 in a spell with Barnsley, he made a solitary appearance.

He married South African Joyce Maaga in 1961 and after a year in Rhodesia they moved to Italy where he had a brief period with Torino. In one match he scored four goals against Verona and was hailed as the new Eusebio (then the top African player in the world).

At the time the Italian football writer Beppe Branco wrote: ‘If Pele of Brazil is the Rolls-Royce of soccer players, Stanley Matthews of England the Mercedes-Benz and Alfredo di Stéfano of Argentina and Spain the Cadillac of soccer players, then Kala of South Africa, lithe and lean, is surely the Maserati.’

After a brief spell in Australia in 1964 playing for Sunshine George Cross in Melbourne, he moved to the USA and became a mature student in Washington, ultimately gaining three degrees and qualifying as a Doctor of Psychology. His marriage was in trouble however and there was a custody battle over the daughter of the marriage, Thandi. Three violent assaults took place. First, Steve was attacked by three unknown assailants. Next, his wife’s lawyer was attacked with acid. Then Joyce herself was similarly attacked. Mokone was arrested and despite maintaining his innocence was jailed for 12 years. Later Tom Egbers would discover evidence that made the verdicts questionable and that South African authorities had asked the American CIA to bring Mokone, who had been increasingly political with the anti-apartheid movement in the US, to heel. Egbers would later write a second book, Twaalf Gestolen Jaren (Twelve Stolen Years), which, like the first book, was only released in Dutch.

After leaving prison in 1990 – where he ran the library and the football team – he took up his psychology again before retiring some years later with heart trouble. In 2003 he became the second South African sportsman to be recognised as a member of the Order of Ikhamanga, for exceptional achievement in the field of soccer and an outstanding contribution to the development of non-racial sport. He joined the Former Players Association (CCFPA) a few years ago & enjoyed hearing news of his former colleagues, especially Lol Harvey, George Curtis & Roy Proverbs.

Ironically CCFPA’s Mike Young had only just put Steve in touch with a Ed Aarons, a Guardian journalist who was preparing a book on the contribution and history of Black African footballers to the game.

Mokone had a brief but memorable time at Highfield Road. His fall from grace at Coventry coincided with George Raynor’s departure from the club & one is left wondering what might have happened if Raynor had stayed & coached what was undoubtedly a great talent. That someone with Kalamazoo’s talent couldn’t get into a poor City side that struggled to avoid re-election that season almost sixty years ago is a mystery.

Three men who played key roles in Jimmy Hill’s Sky Blue revolution in the 1960s have sadly passed away in the space of seven days or so at the turn of the year – former players Peter Hill, aged 83, and Ken Hale, 75, and Alan Leather, aged 83

Peter Hill RIP (08/08/1931-08/01/2015) “Sky Blue through and through”

Although Peter Hill was born and brought up in the Derbyshire village of Heanor he made his home in Coventry and gave his heart to Coventry City. Arriving in the city in 1947 as a 16-year old, he had a 16-year playing career with the club, followed by five years as the club trainer under Jimmy Hill. Later in life he returned to the club for a number of years as the kit-man at Ryton.

Educated at Heanor Grammar School, Peter was one of many Derbyshire youngsters brought to Highfield Road in the years following the war. His performances for Ilkeston team Rutland United caught the attention of several league clubs and Peter’s father urged him to reject Derby County and sign for Coventry. He cut his teeth with City’s nursery club Modern Machine Tools FC alongside many other talented teenagers and played in the Coventry Works League.

Lol Harvey, another son of Heanor, and four years younger than Peter, was a pal of Peter’s younger brother Eric, and speaks highly of Peter. “Growing up he was a natural sportsman and could have had a career in cricket he was that good. He was a very skilful footballer; in those days inside-forwards were expected to get up and down the pitch and needed lots of stamina, Peter had the skill and the stamina and scored more than his fair share of goals.”

His senior career started when legendary manager Harry Storer, recently back in the chair at Highfield Road after three years in charge at St Andrew’s, handed Peter his debut as a 17-year old at Sheffield Wednesday in a Second Division game in February 1949. Playing at inside-right, he was the club’s youngest debutant at the time, aged 17 years and 181 days. He was truly a boy amongst men in a side with an average age of over 30 with team-mates such as Alf Wood, George Mason and Ted Roberts, all who had played for the club before the war. City lost 2-1 to Wednesday that day but the match report in the Coventry Telegraph was complimentary about him: “Even under the trying conditions prevailing the five-man attack into which the 17-year old Peter Hill fitted so promisingly …. were much too good for the Sheffield defenders.

“Many of the 608 inhabitants of the Derbyshire village of Heanor turned out to see Hill fulfil the highest expectations at inside-right. He had a real hand in City’s goal and his display all-through was another encouraging feature of his team’s display. He fitted in so well that in not a single instance did he fail as a necessary adjunct to the City’s scheme.” He played two more games that season, a 0-0 draw at Chesterfield probably watched by another big contingency from Heanor, and a home debut in a 1-1 draw with QPR. In the latter game Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph wrote: “Young Peter Hill was playing with the coolness of a veteran”

In between times he was honing his skills in the Football Combination with the reserves alongside players like Jack Evans, Iain Jamieson, Peter Taylor and Trevor Lewis as well as carrying out the mundane jobs that fell to apprentices in those days, such as cleaning boots and sweeping the terraces. Peter was a slight teenager – the City squad list that season showed him standing just 5 foot 5 ½ inches and weighing 9 stone 1lb. The following season, 1949-50, he played five first team games and scored his first goals, netting in consecutive games against Preston and Swansea, but in 1950-51 he was restricted to just one game because of the outstanding form of Welsh international Bryn Allen and Peter’s obligatory two-year spell in the Royal Artillery doing his National Service.

In 1951-52 City were relegated and Peter returned from the Army in the October and played five games before becoming a regular in Division Three South the following campaign. In September 1952 he scored his first hat-trick in a 3-0 home win over Leyton Orient, including two rare headed goals, and around this time it was common knowledge that Arsenal were interested in signing him. The years from 1952 to 1958 were dark days for the club with managers coming and going, boardroom disagreements and financial crises and Peter was the one constant through the period. Playing at either inside-right or left, he was never a prolific scorer but scored his fair share of goals and reached double figures on three occasions. During his time as a first-team player there were three other Hills at the club which often was a cause of confusion for the press-box.

Once, at Gillingham in 1958, three Hills played in the same team, Peter, Brian, a 16-year old debutant who scored, and Ray, a little-used forward. Peter and Brian both netted to increase the confusion. Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph commented: “Yes, there’s gold in them thar Hills!” Earlier Peter also played alongside Jimmy Hill, not the man later to become City’s manager, but a fellow product of Modern Machine Tools. The goals kept on flowing and he netted another hat-trick in a 6-0 victory over Aldershot in 1957-58. In 1958, after City were relegated to Division Four, manager Billy Frith switched Peter to the right-wing where his speed was put to best advantage – he was a natural on the wing and gave many full-backs a nightmare time

Injuries restricted him to 25 league appearances in 1958-59 but he was the creator of chances for the prolific scorers Ray Straw and George Stewart as the Bantams sealed promotion back to Division Three as runners-up. Ankle and knee injuries kept him out of the promotion run-in and would hamper his later career. Lol Harvey remembers Straw telling Peter that season: “Get that ball into the near post and I will score.” His crossing was a feature of his game. His 11 years service at the club was rewarded in 1958 with a testimonial and his former manager Storer brought his Derby County side to Highfield Road for the occasion.

Peter returned to the side to aid City’s attempt at a second successive promotion and scored a stunning goal from the right wing in the promotion battle with Norwich in April 1960, watched by almost 28,000 at Highfield Road, but they just missed out on promotion to Division Two. That season he also pitted his wits against First Division opposition as City became the first non-First Division side to lift the Southern Floodlit Cup (a pre-League Cup competition), beating top flight sides Fulham and West Ham on the way. The match report from the Fulham victory describes Peter as “outshining England captain Johnny Haynes” and in the final he came up against a young Bobby Moore.

The 1960-61 season was his last as a regular and he had his best scoring record with 12 league goals in a struggling City team. Injuries kept his first team appearances down in 1961-62 but in November 1961 he was a member of the City team humbled by Southern League King’s Lynn in the FA Cup, an event that sparked the arrival of Jimmy Hill as manager. His widow Barbara told me that he knew after the King’s Lynn game that it was time to pack in and Peter made one final senior appearance, at home to QPR in March 1962, before hanging up his boots at the premature age of 30.

A succession of bad knee injuries had taken their toll on him but Jimmy asked him to stay on and be the first-team trainer. He became the man with the ‘magic sponge’ and was the first man on the scene to tend the serious injuries of Ernie Machin, Bill Glazier and George Curtis Peter played 309 senior games for the club, the third highest by a City player at the time, and still the 14th highest of all-time. His 78 senior goals is second only to Ray Straw in the post-war period, and the fifth highest in the club’s history. After leaving the club in 1967 he went to work at the Morris factory at Courthouse Green alongside former City team-mate Harry Barratt but continued to be a regular at Highfield Road games with Barbara.

In 1988 manager John Sillett asked him to return and be the club’s kit man. He became a key man at the club, especially on match-days, responsible for ensuring that everything went like clockwork behind the scenes. Steve Ogrizovic has fond memories of Peter’s spell in the role: “Pete was very popular, down to earth and helped the club’s management keep players feet on the ground. Because he had played and been involved in football most of his life he knew what was required of his job and he could talk for hours about the old days – he must have described every one of his 78 goals!”

Peter finally retired around 1996 but not before he had groomed the current kit-man Andy Harvey as his replacement. Andy describes Peter as “very quick witted and at times he could appear to be cantankerous but underneath he was a loving man who loved watching and talking about football. He was totally dedicated to Coventry City.” I met Peter about 15 years ago and loved time in his company. He could talk about football for hours on end and had lovely stories of the characters from the game in the 1950s and 60s. He never had a bad word to say about anyone and was a lovely man. Lol Harvey, his teammate in the 1950s, sums up Peter as: “a terrific man, always helpful and a great man for getting you out of trouble on the pitch. A true gentleman.”

Ken Hale RIP  (18/09/1939-05/01/2015)

Ken was born at Blyth in Northumberland in September 1939 and joined Everton as an apprentice on leaving school in 1955. His stay on Merseyside was short and he soon returned home when Newcastle, the club he had supported as a boy, wanted to sign him. A talented goal-scoring inside-forward, Ken made his first-team debut at White Hart Lane as an 18-year old at Christmas 1957.

He combined his football career with an apprenticeship as an electrician with the National Coal board. Competition for places at St James’ Park was tough, however, and in four seasons he made only eight appearances in First Division games, scoring two goals. It was only in 1961-62, after Newcastle had been relegated to Division Two, that Ken got a longer run in the first team scoring seven goals in 11 games playing alongside such luminaries as Ivor Allchurch and Ken Leek. Joe Harvey took over as manager of Newcastle in 1962 and although Ken had scored six goals in 11 games (including two past former City keeper Arthur Lightening making his debut for Middlesbrough) Harvey was happy to let him join the Sky Blues for £10,000 just before Christmas. In total he scored 16 goals in 35 games for the Magpies.

When he arrived at Highfield Road one City player already knew Ken well – Mick Kearns had played in the same British Army representative side doing their National Service. Ken and Mick went on a tour of the Far East with the Army and Ken played for a very strong Army XI against City in early 1962. Blond-haired Ken made his bow for City at Notts County on 15 December 1962, replacing Hugh Barr in a 1-1 draw, but his appearances were restricted by an Achilles injury in that weather-battered season that saw the Sky Blues reach the FA Cup sixth round.

On his home debut the following week he scored City’s second goal against Colchester but the game was abandoned at half-time because of fog and the goal didn’t count. He scored his first ‘official’ goal in the home win over Barnsley (‘a booming shot’ according to Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph) and hit the late equaliser (a ‘screamer’) in the 1-1 draw at Portsmouth in the fourth round.The following season Hale was first-choice at inside-forward and netted 16 league goals, 13 of them before the turn of the year, as City marched to the Third Division title. His understanding with winger Willie Humphries and centre-forward George Hudson seemed telepathic at times and he was undoubtedly one of the best players in the division that season.

Ken did not look out of place in Division Two and netted nine goals in 32 games as City consolidated their position in the higher league and in January 1965 he was the architect of their remarkable 5-4 victory over Newcastle, the then league leaders. He scored a penalty and had a hand in most of the goals against his favourite team. In 1965-66 his form dipped and along with Ernie Machin he became a target of unwarranted barracking from some sections of the Highfield Road crowd.

Jimmy Hill stood by him, however, and Ken returned to the side and scored a ‘stunning’ goal against West Brom in the League Cup. The arrival of Ray Pointer signalled the end of his Coventry career and on transfer deadline day in March 1966 (the same day George Hudson was sold to Northampton) Ken joined Oxford United for £8,000, after 111 appearances and 33 goals. In three seasons at the Manor Ground Ken made 72 appearances and scored 13 goals, played alongside Ron Atkinson and was in the U’s 1967-68 Third Division championship side.

He joined Darlington in May 1968 and made almost 200 appearances for the Quakers over five seasons before joining Halifax as a player-coach. In 1974 he was appointed manager of Hartlepool where he stayed for two and a half years. After retiring from football Ken and his wife Joan bought a newsagent’s business in Sunderland and later he went to work as an administrator in the NHS. They had two sons and a daughter with eight grandchildren. Ken was tragically struck down with Alzheimer’s a number of years ago and died peacefully aged 75 on Monday 5th January 2015.

Alan Leather RIP  (1932-02/01/2015)

Jimmy Hill brought Alan to CCFC to be club secretary in October 1966 and he stayed in the role for two years.

He played as an amateur for Enfield and Tufnell Park in the 1950s before becoming a football administrator first with the South East Counties League, and later as assistant secretary with Tottenham Hotspur during their golden period of the early 60s. In 1966 he was seconded to the World Cup organisation and was liaison officer to the successful England team

He replaced Paul Oliver as secretary at Highfield Road and during his time with the Sky Blues he saw the side win promotion to Division One as well as overseeing the building of two new stands and an increase in season-ticket sales from 5,500 to 11,000. After the Main Stand burned down in March 1968, Alan rallied the troops and somehow got the ground in a fit state for the visit of Manchester United ten days later dealing with all of the ticketing and other challenges with a cool head. The game – in front of a 47,111 crowd, City’s second biggest crowd of all-time –f went like clockwork thanks to Alan’s administrative skills.

He never really settled in the Midlands, however, and in 1968 the club released him and soon afterwards he became secretary at Crystal Palace with whom he had a long and successful career. He was the honorary secretary of the Football Secretaries and Managers Association, a fore-runner of the modern day League Manager’s Association, of which he remained an enthusiastic member until his death aged 83 in January 2015.

Billy Gray RIP (03/12/1931 – 18/07/2014)

The Association is very sorry to report the passing of former Bantams defender Bill(y) Gray last week.

Although born in Scotland in 1931 Bill’s family moved to Coventry in his early years and he was first noticed at Binley Youth Club in 1944 before graduating in 1946 to Morris Motors Ltd (Modern Machine Tools) which became effectively CCFC’s nursery side. Billy was spotted playing football there and became one of Harry Storer’s early signings in 1948, joining a host of other talented youngsters at Highfield Road. A skilful wing-half, Billy got his chance in October 1951 as a stand-in for the injured Don Dorman but after just two appearances was back in the reserves. In 1954 he joined Southern League Kettering Town but was soon back in the city playing for his beloved Morris Motors.

Bill lived in the North East and joined the Association in December 2011 attending the following year’s Legends day celebrations. The  Association sends sincere condolences to all Billy’s family and friends and will pass on funeral details as soon as we receive them.

Bill Farmer RIP (24/11/1927 – 02/07/2014)

The Association was sad to hear that former CCFC reserve goalkeeper (albeit for a brief time) Bill Farmer passed away last Wednesday in Corby, age 87. CCFPA would like to send its condolences to Bill’s friends and family, especially to Bill’s younger brother CCFC Legend (and Association member) Ron Farmer.

Born in Guernsey along with Ron, the brothers were one of the few professional footballers to have come out of the Channel Islands. Bill cut his footballing teeth there with both St Martin’s FC and St Aubin’s FC. He then spent three seasons at Nottingham Forest, along with Ron, eventually making 58 first team appearances between the sticks between 1953-56. He had signed for non-league Brush Sports in Loughborough when Oldham Athletic came in for him in summer 1957 but he only had five first team outings for the Boundary Park club by the time he joined Worcester City for the 1958-59 season.

In the meantime in November 1958 brother Ron had been signed up from Forest by Bantam’s manager Billy Frith. Billy was persuaded to take a look at Bill as potential additional goalkeeping cover for the awesome Arthur Lightening and therefore brought him to Highfield Road in August 1959. In the event Bill only made a handful of reserve appearances for CCFC and he soon moved on to Corby Town where he retired in 1960. Ron, of course, became a crucial part of Jimmy Hill’s transformation of the Club from the Bantams into the Sky Blues as they stormed the English league ladder during the nineteen sixties. Ron helped the Club out of the old Division Four in 1958-59 and continued to make his mark, building a reputation as a ‘penalty king’ right through to making his Division One debut in August 1967. In total he made well over 300 appearances for the Club before moving on to Notts.County in 1967, later returning to Highfield Road in a coaching capacity.  Ron (at 78) still remains a very active member of the Association and we extend our sincere sympathies to him for his loss.

Don Bennett RIP (18/12/1933 – 12/06/2014)

Don Bennett, who died in June, grew up in an era when outstanding sportsmen could play more than one sport at the top levels. The Association was very sad to hear the news.

A prodigious cricketer in his youth in West London Don joined the Lords groundstaff on leaving school and at the age of 16 made his first-class debut for Middlesex. He went on to make almost 400 appearances for the county over 18 seasons as a right-handed middle order batsman and medium fast bowler. Football was his second love and he spent eight winters as a regular in Arsenal’s reserve team as a full back or left winger before Billy Frith signed him for Coventry City in 1959. He made his City debut on the wing in a 4-0 home win over Bournemouth but soon moved back to become first-choice right-back as City went close to promotion in his first season. Don always started the season late owing to his cricket commitments and was never photographed in the pre-season team picture but apart from the first half dozen or so games of the season he was a regular until early 1962, making 77 appearances. After Jimmy Hill became manager in late 1961 Don lost his place & was released the following summer enabling him to concentrate on his cricket. In the 1960s he regularly supported Coventry players’ testimonials by bringing a Middlesex team to the Wellesbourne 6-a-side tournament. After retiring from cricket in 1968 he became a coach, and was responsible for a very successful Middlesex first XI until 1997, later becoming the club President.

Don did not become a member of the Association. We send our sincere condolences to Don’s family and friends.

Gordon Nutt RIP (08/11/1932 – 26/02/2014)

It is sad to report the death this week of former Coventry City player Gordon Nutt. Gordon, a home-grown player, played 82 games for the club between 1951-54, scoring 11 goals. Sadly he was one of the many good young players sold by the club to balance the finances in that era.

Born in Birmingham on 8 November 1932 Gordon was the eldest of five children & grew up in South Yardley. He starred as a schoolboy footballer & represented Birmingham Schools. After leaving school he joined CoventryCity as a 16-year old apprentice and quickly became a regular in the Modern Machines team, which was actually the club’s ‘A’ team. Gordon was a skilful right-winger who loved to take on his full-back and have a crack at goal. He was one of a number of outstanding youngsters being groomed by the club for the future. His team-mates like Reg Matthews, Frank Austin, Lol Harvey, Peter and Jimmy Hill and Ray Sambrook could have formed the nucleus of the club for ten years but sadly the majority were later sold to bigger clubs.

The club’s regular right-winger was the veteran Leslie ‘Plum’ Warner and Gordon’s first-team chances looked slim. However at Christmas 1951 with Warner injured Gordon was given his first team debut and scored in a 1-2 home defeat to Blackburn. In the Pink match report Nemo described Nutt as ‘the pick of the home forwards’ and ‘gave the English international full-back (Bill) Eckersley quite a busy afternoon’. He obviously impressed the manager too because he retained his place & played a key role in City’s 4-1 FA Cup third round win over Leicester in mid-January. City lost at First Division Burnley in round four & Gordon was back to the reserves after six first team games. With Gordon called up for his National Service with the Army. There he befriended the future Manchester United & England centre-forward Tommy Taylor and represented the Army at football. Army duties however restricted his appearances for City and his opportunities were few and far between. City were relegated to Division Three in 1952 and the veteran Warner retained his place on the wing until early 1953 when Gordon was promoted again & quickly made the number 7 shirt his own. In 1953-54 Gordon scored one of the fastest goals in the club’s history when in a 2-0 home win over Walsall he netted after just 30 seconds.

He was a virtual ever-present for the next eighteen months & became a very popular player with the fans. City however failed to bounce back into Division Two & with gates falling economies were forced on successive of managers. The bright young players seen as the club’s future had to be sold to prop up the club. Gordon was one of the first to leave in December 1954, signing for First Division Cardiff for £18,000. In the summer of 1955 he was selected in the FA touring party to the West Indies and played alongside future City manager Jimmy Hill & future England manager Bobby Robson. He failed to fulfil his potential at NinianPark however and after 17 games (and three goals) he was on the move again. In September 1955, after impressing for Cardiff reserves against Arsenal the Gunners boss Tom Whittaker decided to sign him and Mike Tiddy for a combined fee of £20,000.

Within hours of signing Gordon made his Arsenal debut in a 1-3 defeat at Sunderland but a week later scored the winning goal in a 1-0 home victory over Aston Villa. Over the next five years he made 51 appearances including the famous 4-5 defeat by Manchester United just a few days before the 1958 Munich disaster when he faced his old army friend Tommy Taylor. Gordon played alongside many Arsenal greats including Jack Kelsey, David Herd, Cliff Holton, Tommy Docherty & Dave Bowen.

After leaving Arsenal in 1960 he had a season at Southend (18 games – 2 goals) followed by a year in Holland with PSV Eindhoven before returning to England to play non-league football with Hereford United, Rugby Town & Bexley United. In 1965 he emigrated to Australia and after briefly playing for Sydney Croatia & Manly FC he set up a successful film lighting company in Sydney. Nutt & his family moved to Tasmania in 1991 and he was president & head coach of the Tasmanian Soccer Schools for a decade, passing on his wealth of experience and skill to players and coaches across the state. He also used his contacts with English football to send talented Tasmanians for trials with Arsenal and other clubs.

He returned to Coventry in 2008 for the first time for many years and attended the Legends Day where despite suffering from dementia he enjoyed the company of many old colleagues. I have fond memories of his joy at being reunited with former City colleagues Charlie Timmins, Barry Hawkings & Lol Harvey. Described by everyone who met him as a true gentleman, Gordon is survived by his wife Jennifer and son Asher. He also has two surviving sisters, one of whom Shirley Shakespeare still lives in Birmingham and helped me with information about Gordon. His funeral took place in Cygnet, Tasmania yesterday (28/02/2014).

Tony Hateley RIP (13.6.1941 – 1.2.2014)

Tony Hateley who passed away last weekend was from the old school of centre-forwards in the mould of Tommy Lawton & famed for his heading ability. He played for seven Football league sides, including two spells at NottsCounty & his transfers generated fees of £400,000, then a British record. He only spent one year at Highfield Road but left his mark on the club’s history.

Born in Derby he attended NormantonJuniorSchool where he towered above his class-mates. His height helped him win the Derbyshire Schools High jump title & become a formidable centre-half in schools football. Joining NottsCounty as a 17-year old apprentice he was converted to a centre-forward after netting five goals in a reserve game and soon after scored on his first team debut. Towards the end of the 1959-60 season he became the regular centre-forward and eight goals in ten games helped clinch County’s promotion to Division Three.

In the higher division he excelled & netted 70 goals over the next three seasons but scored only twice in six games against Coventry. His tussles against the City captain George Curtis were legendary & generally George came off on top except for a 2-0 defeat at Meadow Lane when ‘Big-Tone’ scored both goals. In 1962-63 he was paired up-front with another young striker, Jeff Astle and between them they netted 30 goals in the final 25 games. A move to a higher level was inevitable & in the summer of 1963 First Division Aston Villa, managed by Joe Mercer, paid £22,000 for his signature. Ironically his replacement at County was Terry Bly, jettisoned by Jimmy Hill to make way for George Hudson. Bly turned out to be a flop & County were relegated that season.

At Villa Park Tony was an immediate hit, returning to Nottingham to score a debut winner at Forest & netting 19 goals in a poor Villa team in his first season. In 1964-65 he & Curtis came face to face again as SecondDivisionCity travelled to Villa Park for a Third round FA Cup tie. Villa were again struggling in the league & 20,000 City fans made the short trip anticipating a Sky Blue victory. Hateley had other ideas & scored two goals in the 3-0 victory. The following season he was amongst the goals again & netted four second half goals as Villa came from 5-1 down at Tottenham to draw 5-5. Tony’s 86 goals were the main reason for Villa staying in the First Division for those three seasons & it was no surprise when they were relegated the year after he left.

In 1966 Chelsea manager Tommy Docherty paid a club record £100,000 to sign him as a replacement for Peter Osgood who had broken his leg. Osgood’s stylish play suited Chelsea’s skilful passing game & Hateley struggled to adapt his game where he wanted the crosses and long balls for his deadly forehead. As a result he scored only six league goals but did score the winning goal (what else but a header) as Chelsea beat Leeds in the FA Cup semi final at Villa Park. At Wembley a Dave Mackay inspired Spurs were too good for Chelsea & Tony had to be content with a loser’s medal.

After just one season he was on the move again as Liverpool manager Bill Shankly paid a club record £96,000 for the big man. Shankly didn’t make the same mistake as Docherty and adapted Liverpool’s game to accommodate  Hateley and wingers Ian Callaghan & Peter Thompson gave him such good service that he scored 28 goals. Shankly’s one-liners are legendary but one, possibly apocryphal, is when Docherty defended Hateley with the line: ‘You have to admit Bill he was good in the air’. Shankly supposedly replied: ‘Aye, so was Douglas Bader & he had wooden legs’.

Whilst the Kop loved his towering headers, Shankly ultimately decided that Hateley wasn’t for Liverpool and when Noel Cantwell was rebuffed in his efforts to buy Newcastle’s Wyn Davies he paid £80,000 for Tony. His one -year stay at City started badly; the day he signed his wife was involved in a car crash that left her uninjured but shaken up & his arrival was delayed. He wasn’t fully match fit & took seven games to score his first goal, a trademark header in the last minute to rescue a League Cup tie against Swindon. The fans waited patiently to see if Hateley would mesh well with City’s other centre-forward, Neil Martin, who had been dogged by injuries, in a twin strike force. The two got their chance at Stoke’s Victoria Ground in early November in a thrilling 3-0 victory. Tony scored two first half goals including a stunning header described by Derek Henderson thus: ‘Hateley’s …. opener projected the ball with such force from Machin’s diagonal cross that even a man of (Gordon) Banks’ calibre was left helpless’. That game apart the partnership failed to gel & by ChristmasCity languished in the bottom two. An ankle injury kept Tony out for six weeks & in his absenceCity’s form improved dramatically. Once he was fit he couldn’t get into the side & played just one more game in a Sky Blue shirt. In August 1969 he joined SecondDivisionBirminghamCity for £72,500 with City grateful to only lose a small amount after a less than productive five goals in 20 games. He stayed just over a year at St Andrews, before moving back to NottsCounty, now in Division Four, for £20,000. The prodigal son had returned to Meadow Lane and over 21,000, more than double the average crowd, watched his debut. His scoring touch returned and he netted 23 goals as County won the Fourth Division title.

In 1972 he joined Oldham Athletic, his final English club although he did sign for Boston Minutemen in 1974 but managed just three games before his knees gave in & he was forced to retire. He did play some non-league football until 1979 but was unsuccessful in finding a coaching job & became a sales rep for a brewery firm. He settled on Merseyside & worked for the Everton lottery as well as watching with pleasure as his son Mark came through the Sky Blues ranks to play over 100 games & go on to play for England in the late 1980s. Later Mark’s son, Tom,  became a professional footballer and was in the Tranmere squad that played at Sixfields earlier this season.

Tony suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease later in life possibly not helped by heading all those sodden leather balls in the 1960s. His career record was as follows:

Notts County 139 games (79 goals); Aston Villa 148 (86); Chelsea  33 (9);  Coventry City 20 (5); Birmingham City  30 (6);  Notts. County 86 (46) and Oldham  5 games   1 goal

Albert McCann RIP (01/11/1941 – 09/01/2014)

Former Coventry City player Albert McCann sadly passed away last week. Albert, or Albie as he was known by his colleagues, played the majority of his career at Portsmouth but spent the 1961-62 season with Coventry City.

Gerry Baker RIP (11/04/38 – 24/08/2013)

Last Saturday evening I received the sad news that former City player Gerry Baker had passed away earlier that day at the age of 75. It seems only five minutes since I laughed and joked with him at the last Legends Day in March when he was full of beans and posed for pictures with his fellow ex-City great Scots such as Stein, Carr, Hutchison & Wallace.

Gerry was born on 11 April 1938 in New Rochelle in New York State, where his English father ( a sailor) and Scottish mother had settled, but after a year in the States, the family moved to his father’s native Liverpool, so that he could assist the war effort by joining the Merchant Navy. During their time on Merseyside, his younger brother Joe was born and the two brothers both had outstanding football careers. Gerry & Joe both won international caps for the countries of their birth despite their broad Scottish accents.

A few weeks after Joe’s birth, the family were evacuated to Scotland and the football mad brothers were brought up in Motherwell, playing football first for his school sides of Park Primary and St. Joseph’s Secondary, as well as Craigneuk Boys Club.

Gerry’s skills soon brought him to the attention of local side Larkhall Thistle, and after only six games, the 15 year old headed south to join Chelsea where he starred in their youth, third and reserve teams (scoring four goals in six starts), before making one appearance for the Chelsea first team, against Luton Town in a Southern Floodlight Cup match in September 1956. He returned to Scotland later that year suffering from homesickness, and was quickly snapped up by his home town team of Motherwell.

Gerry’s first team chances were limited at Motherwell and he was regularly played at outside left, which was not his favoured position. A move to St. Mirren in early 1959 kick-started his career and he scored on his debut in a 2-1 win over a Hibs side which contained his brother Joe. He also helped the Saints to the Scottish Cup final, scoring seven goals en route, and then netted the third goal in the clubs 3-1 final win over Aberdeen at Hampden.

The following season, Gerry made history by scoring an incredible ten goals in a Scottish Cup tie against Glasgow University, which St Mirren won 15-0. (Unbelievably brother Joe scored nine against Peebles Rovers for Hibs a year later.)

 In 1960 Gerry caught the eye of Manchester City who paid £30,000 for his signature and he crossed the border again, playing alongside the great Denis Law, but once more did not settle in the south and a year later he was on the move to Hibernian. He was a regular scorer for Hibs for two seasons & once again attracted the English scouts. In November 1963 former Newcastle legend Jackie Milburn paid £25,000 to sign Gerry for Ipswich Town. He was unable to stop Ipswich being relegated from Division One that season but was a regular at Portman Road for four seasons scoring 58 goals in 135 games.

Noel Cantwell signed Gerry for the Sky Blues two weeks after taking over from Jimmy Hill as City’s manager in October 1967, paying Ipswich £25,000. He made his debut in a disastrous 0-3 home defeat to Fulham which sent the team to the foot of the table. Fellow Scot Ernie Hannigan made his debut the same day. Gerry netted his first goal for City in a 1-1 home draw with West Ham on a snow-bound pitch with his speed unnerving the normally calm Bobby Moore.

Gerry was small for a striker but he was good in the air. His real strength however was in his speed and finishing. He scored further goals at home to Liverpool, Newcastle and Charlton but his most memorable goal came in a 2-1 home win over Chelsea in February 1968. The previous week City had won their first away game of the season and only their second league win since September & the first of many great escapes was underway. Cantwell had signed centre-forward Neil Martin and he made his debut in an all Scottish forward line of: Hannigan, Baker, Martin, Ian Gibson & Willie Carr (Baker always considered himself a Scot despite his US passport). City trailed the high-flying Londoners 1-0 at half time but Gerry headed an equaliser before Hannigan clinched a vital win with a searing shot.

Gerry played 22 games that season, scoring five goals & helping the Sky Blues avoid the drop. The following season he lost his place to Ernie Hunt and made only 11 appearances scoring a solitary goal, against Newcastle at home. That season he did however make himself available for the U.S.A. team as it began qualifying matches for the 1970 World Cup. His first cap came in a 4–2 World Cup qualifying defeat to Canada on 17 October 1968.

Over the next month, Gerry started six games with the U.S.A. and scored twice in a 6–2 victory over Bermuda. His seventh & last cap came in a 1–0 loss to Haiti which put the U.S.A. out of contention for a spot in the finals.

His final first team game for Coventry came in September 1969 when deputising for the injured Hunt he won one of two penalties in a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace. The following month he joined Brentford on loan where he scored two goals in eight games before being released by the Sky Blues at the end of the season. In total he played 34 games and scored six goals.

Gerry then signed as a player-manager with Southern League Margate, but was limited by several injuries, first a dislocated shoulder in August 1970, then broken ribs in the November. Despite these injuries, Gerry played a total of 48 games (16 goals) before leaving the club in September 1971. He joined Nuneaton Borough and played 30 games (9 goals) under David Pleat for one season, followed by spells with Bedworth United, Worcester City & Racing Warwick.

Brother Joe, who won eight caps for England in the early 60s, passed away 10 years ago.

After retiring from professional football Gerry worked for Jaguar Cars in Coventry, and took up golf. His late wife Ann was a champion sprinter in her heyday, and daughters, Karen and Lorraine, were both international athletes. Lorraine represented Great Britain in the 1984 and 1992 Olympics, finishing fifth in the 800 metres in 1984. Gerry & Ann returned to live in Scotland some years ago & Ann passed away last year after a long illness. Gerry’s funeral took place in Motherwell yesterday (30th August) .

Geoff Strong R.I.P. (19/09/1937 -17/06/2013)

The former Coventry City defender Geoff Strong died on 17 June 2013 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. Geoff was one of the country’s top players in the 1960s and but for his versatility in numerous positions he would have probably won international honours. His time at Coventry was quite brief – from 1970-72 – but his experience & defensive ability was instrumental in the Sky Blues’ outstanding defensive record in 1970-71.

Born in Kirkheaton in Northumberland in 1937, Geoff’s first club was Stanley United where his goalscoring ability was spotted by Arsenal.  National service delayed his league debut until he was 23 years old but over four years he was a regular goal scorer in an unimpressive Gunners side. In 1963-64 he scored 31 goals and formed a formidable partnership with Joe Baker, the pair netting 62 goals between them. Arsenal were going through a period of transition and were not in the hunt for honours. Geoff was ambitious and in 1964 sought a transfer. Liverpool manager Bill Shankly paid £40,000 to take him to Anfield and after just 16 appearances in a red shirt Geoff, deputising in midfield for the injured Gordon Milne, won an FA Cup winners’ medal as Liverpool beat Leeds United 2-1 at Wembley.

A year later Geoff was a member of the League Championship winning side but missed out on a European Cup Winners Cup final through injury sustained in the semifinal against Celtic when, despite limping with his injury, he scored a stunning headed goal to win the tie. Over six seasons at Anfield he played almost 200 games and in virtually every position before finally settling at left back. In 1970 after a shock FA Cup defeat to Watford Shankly rang the changes & Strong found himself out of favour.

Noel Cantwell signed him for a £30,000 fee as a replacement for the injured Roy Barry who was expected to miss most of the season following his broken leg. Strong made an inauspicious debut in central defence at Nottingham Forest in a 0-2 defeat but quickly developed a good understanding with Jeff Blockley. City had qualified for Europe by virtue of finishing in sixth place the previous season & it was always going to be difficult to improve on that achievement. The defence however was the strong part of the team, conceding just 38 league goals, a club record which still stands. Geoff played 40 games that season including three of the club’s European games and the 6-1 defeat to Bayern Munich. However after the disastrous FA Cup defeat at Rochdale he was one of a number of senior players who  were dropped by Cantwell. He later returned to the side at left-back. In 1971-72 with Roy Barry fit again & young defenders Bobby Parker & Jimmy Holmes emerging, Geoff’s first team opportunities were limited & his solitary appearance was in a 0-4 defeat at Manchester City. At the end of 1971-72, aged 35, he decided to retire.

Post-football he became a successful businessman from his base in Southport, running a hotel furnishing business & later co-owning a pub with his former Liverpool team-mate Ian Callaghan. As Alzheimer’s took its toll in recent years Geoff was in a care home in Southport but still managed the occasional trip to Anfield. In a poll to find 100 players who shook the Kop, Geoff was voted in at number 98.

Jimmy Knox RIP (26 /11/1935-24/12/2012)

It is with deep regret to announce the death at the age of 77 of former Coventry City player and member of CCFPA, Jimmy Knox. Coventry took a chance when they signed Jimmy Knox a young inside-forward from Raith Rovers in 1957 but he failed to make the grade in league football and played just two games in one of the most depressing seasons of City’s history.

He left the club to join Rugby Town in 1958 and had a successful playing career in non-league football with Rugby, Lockheed Leamington, Corby Town and Banbury Spencer. In his first season at the Windmill Ground (1964-65) he captained the Brakes to the Midland League title. Jimmy was even more famous in non-league circles for his management feats with AP Leamington in the 1970s and VS Rugby in the 1980s. He took Leamington into the Southern League Premier (1976) and then in 1978 into the inaugural Alliance Premier League (now the Conference) as well as five appearances in the FA Cup First round. Moving to Rugby in 1980 he repeated his success, leading the club to two promotions to the Southern League Premier Division as well as victory in the FA Vase (1983) and the FA Cup Second Round in 1988.

Jimmy’s younger brother Archie was assistant to Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford and Rangers and briefly at Highfield Road under Eric Black in 2004.

Dave Sexton O.B.E. RIP (06/04/1930-25/11/2012)

Dave Sexton, who passed away last Sunday aged 82, will be remembered as one of the outstanding manager-coaches of his generation. Prior to coming toCoventryCityas manager in 1981 he had built a first-class reputation as one of the country’s top managers with Chelsea, QPR and Manchester United. In his two-year stay at the club he helped the development of a golden generation of City players and left the club a fine legacy.

Born in Islington,North London, the son of Archie Sexton, a middleweight boxer of the 1930s, his playing career started at Newmarket Town and progressed via ChelmsfordCity, LutonTown, West Ham, Leyton Orient and Brighton to Crystal Palacewhere a knee injury ended his playing career. He was a good lower division player whose only honour was a Third Division championship medal with Brighton in 1958. His best period as a player was probably at Upton Park where he was a member of a group who immersed themselves in football coaching and tactics. The group, fathered by Ron Greenwood, included Noel Cantwell, John Bond, Malcolm Allison and Frank O’Farrell, would spend hours analyzing the game at a café opposite the Boleyn Ground. All were destined to become top managers.

In 1965 after a coaching job under Tommy Docherty  at Chelsea he landed his first manager’s job, at Leyton Orient but lasted less than a year. Successful coaching at Fulham and Arsenal (where he was promoted to assistant manager under Bertie Mee) enhanced his reputation in the capital and when Chelsea sacked Docherty in October 1967 he was handed the Stamford Bridge job.  He inherited a strong but under-performing squad but with some shrewd signings (David Webb for £25,000 and Ian Hutchinson for £5,000) he built one of Chelsea’s finest teams. He won plaudits for his mixture of neat passing and attacking flair (with players like Peter Osgood, Charlie Cooke and Alan Hudson) backed up with steely ball-winners (like Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris and Webb). For a time Chelsea were the most attractive side in the country. In 1970 Chelsea finished third in the league and won an epic, engrossing and ill-tempered FA Cup final against Leeds United, after a replay which was watched by 28 million people on television. In February of that year they gave a dazzling display at Highfield Road, beating one of the best City teams of all-time, 3-0. A year later Sexton led the team to victory in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final against Real Madrid, once more after a replay.

After losing the 1972 League Cup final to Stoke City,Chelsea went into decline, hampered by the cost of their ill-conceived ground developments and wranglings between Sexton and some players. He was sacked by Chelsea in 1974 but within weeks he was appointed manager at Queens Park Rangers. Espousing his football philosophy he developed a side that was unlucky not to win the League Championship in 1976 – they were pipped by a point by Liverpool on the final day.   He got the best out of talented players such as Gerry Francis, Don Masson and Stan Bowles with an exciting attacking brand of football. Dave was a keen fan of Dutch total-football and would often fly to Holland at his own expense to watch games and learn.

In 1977 he resigned from QPR and was on the verge of rejoining Arsenal as coach when Manchester United persuaded him to replace Docherty again. He lacked the charisma required for the Old Trafford job and despite an FA Cup final appearance in 1979 and League runners-up the following year he failed to end United’s long wait for the championship and was castigated for some questionable signings including Gary Birtles. In 1981 he was sacked by United, despite the Reds winning their last seven games of the season. Jimmy Hill persuaded him to come to Coventryto take over from Gordon Milne who moved upstairs.

His first game in charge for the Sky Blues was against United and he tactically out-thought his successor, Ron Atkinson, to give City a 2-1 win. During his time at Highfield Road City’s style became more cultured but it rarely set the world alight, although in Sexton’s defence he was never given the freedom to spend like other City managers. His first season in charge went well until Christmas then City picked up just three points in twelve games including a 5-1 home defeat to NottsCounty. However, just as things were at their blackest, and fans wondered where the next league win was going to come from, City mounted a tremendous revival. Buoyed by Sexton’s inspired signing of his former QPR lieutenant Gerry Francis, the young team went on a run of thirteen games with only one defeat, including a never-to-be-forgotten 5-5 draw at the Dell, and a 6-1 win over Sunderland, that took them well clear of relegation. Players such as Steve Whitton, Mark Hateley, Danny Thomas, Steve Jacobs and Gary Gillespie blossomed under Dave’s mentoring. Garry Thompson describes Dave as being ahead of his time:  ‘He had a massive influence on the team and individuals. He made me a much better player by concentrating on the smallest parts of my game as well as encouraging me to watch the best players in my position – he had us watching videos of the best players in the world in the early 80s. After I left City it was like going back into the dark ages.’

In his second season with gates falling under 10,000 he had to survive with a squad of 14-15 players. After Thompson was sold over his head in February 1983 the team’s form fell away disastrously and 13 games without a win took them to the brink of relegation. They survived by the skin of their teeth but Sexton was sacrificed for the return of Bobby Gould much to the disgust of his young players. Whilst at Coventry he also managed the England Under-21 side to victory in the 1982 European Championship and continued in that role for several years, winning the trophy again in 1984, as well as being assistant manager of the England team under Bobby Robson. His depth of knowledge and the respect he was held in within the English game was such that he was utilized by a succession of England managers including Terry Venables, Glen Hoddle, Kevin Keegan and he was still heavily involved with Sven Goran Ericsson’s scouting network into his 70s. He played a leading role in the setting up of the FA’s School of Excellence but never managed at club level after leaving Coventry. Away from football he was a fascinating character, relishing other aspects of life, taking an Open University degree in philosophy during his fifties, appreciating modern poetry and art, and being receptive to new ideas. His love of sport even extended to American Football and I am told had a fascination for the tactics and plays. He continued to live inKenilworth where, in 2008, a building was named in his honour. Sadly in latter years dementia took its toll. Dave Sexton was an unassuming and highly intelligent man, always placing the greatest emphasis on technique and progressive football rather than the long ball and a big boot. He never sacrificed those principles.

Iain Jamieson RIP (14/10/1928-19/10/2012)

Iain in his playing days

Iain Jamieson, who recently died in Scotland aged, 84, juggled careers in football and business, achieving great success in both fields. He is unique in having been a Coventry City player as well as a director and, for one momentous year, chairman of the club. Simultaneously he rose through the ranks of textile company Courtaulds to become one of its managing directors.

The Dumbarton-born son of a Glasgow shipyard electrician, his talents on the pitch were first evident at Dumbarton Academy where he also excelled in the classroom. In 1946 Iain won a place at Aberdeen University to read modern languages and had ambitions of becoming a school-teacher. He was approached by Aberdeen FC and agreed to play as a part-time professional to help fund his studies. He played just one first-team game for the Dons before he received his National Service call-up papers and was whisked off to Dover to do his Army ‘square-bashing’.

It was during his time in the services that he flourished as a footballer, playing in Army teams with stars of the age such as Ivor Allchurch, Bobby Johnstone and Harold Hassall. During that period he witnessed a horrifying incident when two of his fellow players were killed in a lightning strike. The tragedy, in April 1948, happened during a re-play of the Army Cup Final at the military barracks at Aldershot. Reports at the time described all the players being thrown to the ground by the force and witnesses speculated that the lightning bolt had hit the referee’s whistle.

Having been posted to Uttoxeter his performances for the Army XI attracted the attention of several league clubs and Coventry City’s manager Harry Storer was impressed by the young Jamieson. When Iain’s National Service was completed he decided to take up Storer’s offer of a full-time contract. Many years later he said: ‘I really liked the atmosphere of theMidlands, especiallyCoventrywhich to me was a lively go-ahead industrial area and a good stopping off place when my football career ended’.

As it transpired Iain made the right choice. He quickly settled down in Coventryand soon became established as a firm crowd favourite. His debut was against Leeds United at Highfield Roadon15 January 1949 and Iain, playing at inside-right, scored in a 4-1 victory. Over the next five seasons Iain, whilst a regular for the reserves, was unable to become a first-team regular and played only 37 first team games. After switching position to wing half in 1953 he became a regular in the first team and played alongside some famous City players of that era including Reg Matthews, Roy Kirk, Peter Taylor and (CCFPA Members) Peter Hill and later George Curtis. On a number of occasions he captained the side

One of his playing colleagues of that time, (CCFPA Member) Lol Harvey, remembers Iain well: ‘He was a talented player, good on the ball and very fast. He was a clever man and the banter in the dressing room between him and his good friend Eddy Brown was amusing to us working-class boys. Iain was a great help to me and the younger boys at the club and nothing was ever too much trouble to him.’

Iain was determined however to secure a future beyond football, and he decided to further his academic studies and attended Coventry College whilst pursuing his career on the pitch. In 1955, the same year that he married Harry Storer’s daughter Ann, he joined Courtaulds as a sales executive while still playing for Coventry. In 1958 his professional football career ended when he left City after 184 appearances and 6 goals, although he went on to spend a spell as player-manager, on a part-time basis, for Southern League side Rugby Town. In his business career he was quickly on the promotion ladder rising swiftly through the ranks to become the general manager of Courtaulds commercial division,

In 1973, following the retirement of Derrick Robins, Iain was invited to join the board at Coventry City and served alongside Joe Mercer and Jimmy Hill. After Hill’s departure in 1983, he was appointed club chairman. It was a difficult time for the club with severe financial problems following the introduction of the all-seater stadium in 1981 and losses from the investments in the NASL at Detroit and Washington and virtually the whole first team squad out of contract. Iain’s first job was to sack Dave Sexton as manager and recruit Cov kid (and CCFPA member) Bobby Gould as his replacement.

Bobby remembers Iain with great affection: ‘At the time he illegally tapped me up to become City’s manager – something he was very uncomfortable about. I was manager at Bristol Rovers at the time and we had a clandestine meeting in a field near Banbury at which we agreed terms. We only worked together for a year until John Poynton bought the club, but he was incredibly supportive to me.  I had watched him play from theHighfield Road terraces and admired his elegance as a footballer. He understood football, something rare in football boardrooms and he was very kind to me in a stressful year at Coventry. There was never any histrionics from Iain and he was a true gentleman who was a great representative of Coventry City Football Club.’

In his year as chairman he is credited with re-establishing strong links with the fans and the people of Coventryafter a period during which many believed that those links had been severely stretched. He left the City board in 1984 and continued his career in the textile industry until retiring in 1989. He ended his working life as managing director of Sperrin Group, sports clothing.  His job had taken him across Europe, to Australia and the United States and travel remained a key interest for him in retirement when he visited family inCanada and Australia. A Rotarian and keen follower of current affairs, his lifetime love of sport was undimmed and also extended to golf which, at one time, he played off a handicap of six.

Married three times, to Ann Storer, Ann Hansen and Jane Shaw, he spent his last few years in Dumfries and Galloway, latterly in Kirkcudbright, where he is remembered as a good humoured and engaging conversationalist.

Stan Smith R.I.P.  (24/02/1925 – 06/10/2012)

It is sad to report the death of former Coventry City player Stan Smith who passed away last Saturday at the age of 87.

Born in Coventryon 24 February 1925 Stan attended South Street School and Cheylesmore School and was a talented rugby player as well as excelling at the round ball game. In 1942, aged 17, whilst playing for Nuffield Mechanisation, he was spotted by a Coventry City scout and invited to play a couple of wartime games for the club. With many first team players in the armed forces the club often played promising youngsters from local football and Stan did not disappoint, playing right half in home victories over Walsall & Northampton Town.

Stan’s cousin, Rob Smith, told Jim Brown about Stan’s wartime experience. Stan joined the Navy in 1943 and trained as a telegraphist or ‘spark’. He was on board the American-built aircraft carrier HMS Nabob on escort duties in the North Atlantic escorting troop and cargo convoys. After further duties in the North Sea supporting coastal attacks on Norway, HMS Nabob was assigned to find and sink the German super battleship Tirpitz (Operation Goodwood). On August 22nd 1944 while returning from a strike on Tirpitz, HMS Nabob was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Barents Sea and sustained heavy damaged with 21 killed and many injured. In spite of a further attack by the same U-boat she managed to steam into Scapa Flow under her own power, however the ship was judged not worth repairing and was decommissioned.

Stan then joined HMS Hunter and took part in the reoccupation of Malaya and Singapore from the Japanese. In particular she provided air support in the Andaman Sea hunting the cruiser Haguro, one of the last surviving major Japanese warships, which was eventually sunk off Sumatra trying to return to Singapore.  HMS Hunter entered Singapore harbour on September 10th 1945 and Stan fondly told the story that he was the telegraphist who took the message that the Japanese had surrendered and was given the honour of personally informing the captain.

On demob from the Navy Stan signed professional forms with City but could not break into the first team owing to the form of right-half Jack Snape. Then on 10 September 1947 he got his first team debut in a 1-3 defeat at West Bromand made 27 first team appearances in Billy Frith’s Second Division side that season, either at right or left-half. During that time he faced some of the top players of the era including Len Shackleton and Jackie Milburn (Newcastle) and Alf Ramsey (Southampton). His cousin Rob tells me that Stan told the story of his meeting with Shackleton, one of the most talented players of the period. ‘Shack’, who had been shadowed everywhere by Smith went up to Stan at the final whistle and said: ‘I’m going to have a bath now, are you going to follow me in there too?’

Stan only made four appearances the following season but was a regular in a strong reserve team until 1950 when he joined Swansea Town. He failed to win a place at Vetch Field and was soon reunited with his old City boss Billy Frith who was manager at Stafford Rangers. In early 1951 however he was back in the Coventry area and signing for Nuneaton Borough. Over the next four years he made around 150 appearances for Borough and he was captain of the side that pulled off a major FA Cup shock in 1953, defeating Third Division Watford 3-0. In the next round they held QPR to a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road but lost the replay 1-2 at Manor Park in front of 13,000 fans. Later that season Stan returned to Highfield Road as ‘Boro’ were guests in a floodlight friendly, losing 0-4. His final game for the ‘Boro’ was in 1955 when he suffered concussion in a game against Brierley Hill. It is believed he may have played for Bedworth Town after this time.

In later years Stan became an FA Coach and had success at Nuneaton, Coventry City (with the B & C teams) and coached on many FA courses. He also qualified as a physiotherapist and ran a practice from his home for many years as well as continuing his involvement with local football.  He leaves a widow Stella.

To see Stan interviewed a few years ago talking about war damage at Highfield Road and the goal machine that was Clarrie Bourton have a look at http://oldcoventryonfilm.vidmeup.com/view?q=50c47e044cc7d.flv

Ernie Machin R.I.P. (26/04/1944-22/07/2012)

The Association  is extremely sad to report the death of Coventry City legend Ernie Machin who passed away in Coventry last Sunday (22nd July 2012)  aged 68. Ernie made 289 appearances for the Sky Blues, scoring 39 goals and will be remembered for taking over the club captaincy from another legend George Curtis in 1967 when George suffered a broken leg.  His inspiring leadership on the pitch was a key factor in City surviving relegation in their first two seasons in the top flight.

Born in Walkden, Manchester on 26th  April 1944, Ernie had trials alongside Alan Ball at his local club Bolton but was not considered good enough. Instead he played for Nelson FC and was spotted by City’s North West scout Alf Walton in 1962. Walton called Jimmy Hill and said ‘you need to sign this boy up before others do’ and Hill hot-footed north to watch Machin and was besotted before half-time.

Hill recognised something special about Ernie. In his autobiography Hill describes watching the young Machin: ‘he looked extremely slow, but nevertheless when he was in possession of the ball he hardly wasted a pass. He didn’t seem to be an outstanding athlete, nor did he have the confidence or the luck to do something special …I said later that the real reason I took him on was because I liked the look in his eyes …. He had a bright eye and he said, ‘if you give me a chance, I won’t let you down’. Hill wasn’t going to pay  a huge fee for Ernie and offered the chairman of Nelson £50. To Hill’s amazement he agreed and ‘for decency’s sake he quickly added that if Ernie made the first team he would bump it up to £200.

His comment about his eyes was misinterpreted by many fans who called him ‘Jimmy’s blue-eyed boy’ especially when his form temporarily dipped after his return from injury. After a year in the reserves Ernie got his first team chance in April 1963 as City’s FA Cup heroes were ploughing through a fixture backlog owing to the Cup run and the worst winter of a generation. 18 year old Ernie deputised at inside-forward for a tired Jimmy Whitehouse and immediately impressed the Sky Blue faithful. He played alongside new signing, fellow Lancastrian George Hudson in a 2-0 win over Millwall.

Despite playing just six games the previous campaign Ernie was the first choice in the number 10 shirt from the start of the 1963-64 season and was outstanding as the team raced to the top of the Third Division and threatened to clinch promotion in a record time. Then in November in a home game with Watford he suffered a bad knee injury just days after England manager Alf Ramsey had told JH that Machin was on his radar for an under 23 call and missed the rest of City’s Third Division promotion campaign.

He ended up having several operations and it was eighteen months before he was fully recovered. He returned to play a pivotal role in the club’s charge to the Second Division title in 1967 and netted eleven goals including memorable late goals to get vital results againstNorwich, Preston and Carlisle not to mention the first of City’s goals in the famous 3-1 victory over Wolves watched by over 51,000 at Highfield Road.

When skipper George Curtis broke his leg in the club’s second game in Division One there was only one candidate for the captaincy and Ernie, converted to an attacking wing-half, was proud to lead the team out. He missed only three games in those first two years of struggle and older fans will remember his stunning goal in the 2-0 victory over European champions elect Manchester United in March 1968. His never-say-die attitude won him the respect of all his playing colleagues and the fans. He continued to be a regular, when fit, right up to the time of his departure in 1972 but a bad car accident put him out for three months in 1970 and his ‘dodgy’ knee continued to trouble him.

In 1972 he became the first English football player to successfully challenge a fine and suspension by the Football Association in the courts. He was sent off in a game at Newcastle for allegedly kicking an opponent, however TV evidence showed that he was innocent; nevertheless the FA noticed something else which he had done and upheld the disciplinary action on the basis of that without allowing him to present a defence. The courts ruled against the FA, and the PFA subsequently established the rights of players to legal representation in disciplinary cases.

In October 1972 Ernie was sold to Plymouth Argyle for £35,000 by new bosses Joe Mercer and Gordon Milne keen to raise money to buy Tommy Hutchison and Colin Stein. He had ten great years atHighfield Roadmaking 284 appearances and scoring 39 goals and but for injury would have reached the 400 mark. After eighteen happy months at Plymouthwhere he helped them to promotion and became a cult hero, he had two years at Brighton. In 1977 Jimmy Hill, by now the chairman atHighfield Road, persuaded Ernie to return to CoventryCityas youth team coach. It didn’t work out however and he left football and worked for Car Bodies and Massey Ferguson.

Ernie had suffered poor health for a number of years but he had attended a reunion of the 1967 promotion team in 2007 as well as the last two Legends’ Days organised by the Former Players Association. In 2008 he was one of thirty former players inducted into the club’s Legends Group for services to the football club.  The epithet Legend is a word used too often about mediocre players in the hyperbole-driven modern media however Ernie Machin was a true Coventry City Legend.

Associate member Dean Nelson has put together a video tribute on Ernie’s career which can be found at: http://oldcoventryonfilm.vidmeup.com/view?q=500ebe2b51f96.flv

Edwin ‘Eddy’ Brown RIP (28/02/1926-12/07/2012)

The Association is very sad to report the passing yesterday (12th July 2012) of Association member and popular centre forward for C.C.F.C. Eddy Brown.

Preston born Eddy died in a home-town nursing home after a short illness aged 86.  Almost lost to the Catholic Church (having trained with a view to taking Holy Orders) Eddy, instead, became a feared striker in a long career starting with P.N.E. in 1948 where he scored 6 times in 36 first team appearances before making an even bigger impact from September 1950 at his next club, Southampton, as a free scoring forward netting 32 times in 57 first team league games for the Saints.

However, he failed to settle at the Dell and Eddie was transferred to Highfield Road in March 1952 where he continued his free scoring ways, knocking in half a century of goals for the Bantams in only 85 first team League games (plus 1 goal in his 4 F.A.Cup matches) before being controversially sold to local rivals Birmingham in October1954 (precipitating the departure of City manager Jack Fairbrother).  A cultured and intelligent man Eddy spoke Latin and fluent French, loved quoting Shakespeare and became a teacher after hanging up his boots. Eddy was a real footballing ‘character’ who made his enjoyment of the game obvious on the field and was credited with inventing the ‘after goal celebration’ -his trademark (amongst other manifestations of exuberance) being shaking hands with the corner flag after scoring!

Eddy became a firm favourite at St.Andrews scoring 74 times in 158 league appearances (and 16 in 27 other games)before finishing his top class playing career with Leyton Orient from 1959 and then becoming player-manager of non league Scarborough from 1961-64. Eddy was also associated with Stourbridge, Bedworth Town and Wigan Athletic before finally retiring from the game in 1964. However, in more recent years Eddy invested much time and expertise assisting a local football team – Broughton Amateurs.

He will be greatly missed by many professionals and administrators in the football game as well as the many older fans who remember seeing him play such an all action and effective centre forward game. The Association sends its sincere condolences to Eddy’s wife, four children and the rest of his family.

Barry Lowes   R.I.P.   (16/03/1939 – 08/05/2012)

It is sad to report the death at the age of 73 of former CoventryCityplayer Barry Lowes. Barry was a speedy winger signed from Bury for £13,000 in March 1967.  He played just three games for the Sky Blues before being sold that summer toSwindonTown.

Barrow-born Barry showed his sporting prowess in his school years, representing Barrow Technical College at soccer, rugby, cricket and athletics.  After school he played football for Holker Central Old Boys and while his pace meant he had the opportunity to sign for Barrow RL, he stuck to football and caught the eye of Barrow manager Ron Staniforth, the former England full back, who signed him after a couple of trial games.

He made his debut for Barrow, then a Football League, in early 1960 and was soon a regular and his blistering pace caused problems for many a Fourth Division defence. In season 1960-61 he scored in seven consecutive league games and started attracting the interest of bigger clubs. In November 1961 he transferred to First Division Blackpool for  £5,500 fee but with stiff competition from Mandy Hill he failed to break into the first team.  He did however achieve a childhood dream of training with the legendary Stanley Matthews, who despite having left Blackpool still trained there. In the summer of 1962 he moved to Workington where he played under legendary manager Ken Furphy and 34 goals in 121 games convinced Bury to sign him in 1966.

Lowes had impressed Jimmy Hill in his two appearances against the Sky Blues that season – ‘one of the few wingers in the division to give Dietmar Bruck a hard time’. When John Key injured his ankle in March and looked to be out for the season Hill wanted a replacement and swooped on Gigg Laneto sign the Cumbrian.

Lowes admitted a couple of years ago that when he arrived City were playing so well that he couldn’t get into their groove quickly enough. He played quite well in his debut at Northampton but the following week against Bolton he had a stinker against Sid Farrimond, the one full-back who always gave him a really hard time. Hill wasn’t prepared to give him time and realised he had made a mistake quite quickly.

Disaster struck in his first game for Swindon against Brighton. He suffered a serious knee injury after a nasty challenge from a young full-back called George Dalton, later to become the Sky Blues trainer. The injury ended his career and he returned to Barrow to work as an electrician on the submarines in Barrow shipyard. He did turn out for Barrow in their early non-league years and still possessed a good turn of speed. In latter years sea fishing became his hobby. He passed away on 8 May after a short illness.

Jack Evans R.I.P. (11/03/1926- 15/04/2012)

It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of former Coventry City footballer Jack Evans.

Jack who was 86 a few weeks ago was on City’s books between 1942-52 and was a regular in the reserve team for several seasons and made eight first team appearances between 1949-51. After leaving City in 1952 he had a long and successful career in local non-league football, playing at a high standard until the age of 36. He died suddenly after being taken ill on the golf course at Maxstoke Park last Sunday morning.

Born in Coventry on 11 March 1926, Jack was just too young to be called up for World War 2 but did his National Service in the army just after hostilities ended and was an accomplished glider pilot. He was signed by City after he wrote in asking for a trial and impressed the management staff. He played centre-forward and wing-half for Modern Machines (City’s Youth team) and in April 1949 after some good performances for the reserves he got his first team chance when injury ruled out Ted Roberts. The opponents in a Second Division match were Fulham at Highfield Road and a few years ago he told Jim Brown this story.  He was getting changed in the dressing room before the kick-off and the tannoy announcer gave the team changes. He read out’ “Number 9 – Jack Evans” only to be greeted by a chorus of boos. Jack however had the last laugh, scoring the only goal of the game against the side who would be promoted later that month.

An interview with Jack done in 2004 (made available by Associate Member Dean Nelson) can be found at: http://oldcoventryonfilm.vidmeup.com/view?q=4f96f5fe7aeb6.flv

Nemo in the Coventry Evening Telegraph was complimentary about the new boy:  ‘Evans is the nearest thing to (Ted) Roberts on the City books. Lionhearted, not knowing what it is to be beaten, he did the job entrusted to him with real credit. It was a joy to observe his 100% enthusiasm and get a goal’.

The following week, with Roberts fit again, it was back to the ‘stiffs’ and it was the following season (1949-50) before he got another opportunity.  He made three appearances that season, two home 0-0 draws (v QPR andPreston) and a 0-1 defeat atCardiff. 1950-51 was a good season for Coventry City– they were in the Second Division promotion hunt until the last few weeks of the season, in fact they led the table at the turn of the year. Ted Roberts was a virtual ever-present but when he was injured Jack made four appearances without finding the net:- Leicester(h)  won 2-1; Preston (a) drew 1-1; Cardiff (a) lost 1-2; Cardiff (h) won 2-1; Manager Harry Storer signed ace scorer Tommy Briggs the following week and Jack’s first team days were over.

Jack also told Jim Brown about a friendly game he played in in 1950 against the Turkish side Galatasaray at Highfield Road. They were probably one of the first Turkish sides to visit Englandand, according to the Coventry Evening Telegraph report, they created a wonderful friendly atmosphere at Highfield Road by carrying the Union Jack on to the pitch and throwing bunches of flowers to the crowd.  A crowd of 9,350 saw City win 2-1 with goals from Jack and Noel Simpson. Jack told me that the Turks were extremely sporting on the pitch, and they picked City players up when they fell down. Then in the second half, when Ken Chisholm was floored, he was picked up, had his hand shaken and was embraced by the Galatasaray player!

Jack obviously realised he wasn’t going to be a top-class footballer and whilst on City’s books he worked at Daimler and trained to be a carpenter, playing football as a part-time professional. Later he worked at Rolls Royce at Anstey where he was also involved in union duties. He told Jim that in those days he could earn more as a skilled carpenter than playing football full-time.

In May 1952 he was released by City and joined Nuneaton Borough and the following season had short spells with them and also appeared for Bedworth and Rugby Town. He was back with Bedworth for the 1953-54 season but by March 1954 he was appearing for Banbury Spencer and was playing at outside right. In 1957 he joined Lockheed Leamington, where his former City colleague Les Latham was manager, and also a favourite grazing place for ex-City men. He played alongside several former City colleagues including Charlie Timmins, Ken Jones, Ken Brown and Mick Lane.

Moving back to wing-half he played his part in Lockheed’s golden era in the early 1960s and won championship medals in 1961-62 and 1962-63. In 1962 he returned to Highfield Road at centre-forward in the Brakes team that lifted the Birmingham Senior Cup by defeating Rugby Town 5-1 in what was Jim Brown’s first ever visit to Highfield Road.  Jack scored twice and winger Ernie Ward (a former City apprentice) scored a hat-trick. As a young boy Jim remember Jack leading the Brakes’ forward line and winning virtually every ball in the air with his bald head!

Jack hung up his boots in 1963 at the age of 37 and was assistant manager at Leamington for a time before being granted a testimonial against NottinghamForestin 1964 for his service to the club. Jack was a keen golfer and played regularly until his death. After growing up in Cheylesmore he lived in Duncroft Avenue, Coundon for many years. In 2007,  he attended the inaugural Legends Day but told me then that he was disillusioned by the modern game and had no interest in coming regularly to City games. According to his old friend John Green, who played with Jack in the Modern Machines team after the war, Jack didn’t even watch football on the television.

(Thanks to Paul O’Connor, Paul Vanes and John Green for their assistance to Jim Brown in preparing this obituary).

Harry Hart  R.I.P. (29/09/1926-11/02/2012)

We have to report the sad news that former Coventry City player Harry Hart who played briefly for Coventry City in the early 1950s passed away on 11 February in Morecambe aged 85.

Harry was born in Sheffield and started his professional career with Rotherham United. He was spotted whilst playing for Woodthorpe Youth Club. As a 16 year old, he played for Rotherham Reserves against Gainsborough Trinity and Neil Franklin (later to be one of the best England centre-halves of all-time) was one of the guest players for Gainsborough!

Harry Storer brought the inside-forward to Coventry in 1950 but competition for places was tough and Harry managed only ten first team games in his two seasons at Highfield Road. His debut was in a 2-1 win atGrimsby in March 1951 and he scored his only goal in the final game of that season in a 1-1 draw atLuton. His final game was in that home game with West Ham in February 1952 when a minute’s silence was observed for the late King George VI.

During his time at City he was a regular for the reserves and on 29 December 1951 at Filbert Street he scored a goal and was sent off in the 3-2 defeat. Harry had lost his hair by the time he was 19 and therefore looked older than he was. He complained that, because referees assumed he was older, they thought he should know better and sent him off!

He joined Grimsbyin 1952, and played under the legendary Bill Shankly. Later whilst still living in Nuneaton, he played non-league for Frickley Colliery and Stocksbridge Works. Post football, he worked at Dunlop and then Massey Ferguson on the furnaces (for 16 years). The likes of Reg Matthews, Dick Mason and Alf Wood were there with him.

One of  Harry’s former teammates at City, Lol Harvey, told Jim Brown a story about Harry. After one home defeat at Highfield Road Storer came into the dressing room and grabbed Hart by his football shirt collar and marched him out on to a mud heap of a pitch. When they got to the centre circle Storer turned to Hart and said, ‘Come on then Harry, show me the hole you’ve been hiding in all afternoon!’

Alf Setchell R.I.P. (29.10.1924- 11.2011)

We are sorry to report the recent death of  87 year old Alf Setchell,who had been one of Coventry City’s oldest surviving players, who succumbed to his injuries after being badly burned in a fire at his home in Holbrooks Lane in Coventry just over two weeks ago.  The Association sends sincere condolences to Alf’s family especially his son’s John and Alan.  Although not yet a member of the Association we had only just tracked him down when we heard the sad news.

Coventry kid Alf was on CCFC’s books in the period immediately after the Second World War after being spotted playing with Coventry Tile.  He was one of numerous good local players who filled in during the war for City when many of the first team squad were on active service in the hostilities.  He had made his debut as an eighteen year old in 1942 in a 1-0 home win over Walsall but his wartime service in the Royal Navy robbed him of what might have been a very successful football career. In addition to his 18 war-time appearances for City he also appeared as a guest in the war for Southport and Morton and possibly Rangers whilst on active service in the Navy.

He made 12 appearances on the left wing in the 1942-43 season playing alongside several City legends including George Mason, Alf Wood, Billy Frith and George Lowrie. City had a strong team – only three of his twelve games were lost – and Setchell managed one goal in a 2-0 win at Filbert Street. Another three appearances were made in 1943-44, with one goal in a 4-1 win at Notts County. After the war he was on City’s books until 1947 popping up in April 1946 and making three further appearances near the end of the transitional regional league season.

Alf must have been confident of being in the first team squad when the first post-war season kicked off in August 1946 but he never played for the first team again. However, he was a regular for the reserves in 1946-47 before joining Kidderminster Harriers, then a Southern League club. According to John, Kidderminster offered him more money than Coventry! Alf also appeared briefly for Hereford United, another Southern League side, before becoming part of a strong Bedworth Town team that won the Birmingham Combination in 1948-49 and 1949-50. The Bedworth team included several former City players including Stan Kelley (player-manager), Jack Evans and the late Norman Smith, with ex-City man Bob Ward as trainer.

Vernon Griffiths (1936-2011)

With sorrow the Association reports the death of former Coventry City player Vernon Griffiths who passed away on 27 April in Birmingham.  Born in 1936 Vernon’s talent was spotted at an early age and he was on West Brom’s books as an apprentice after leaving school. He was playing for Sheldon Town when City spotted him and signed him in 1954. After two seasons as a regular in the reserves Vernon, a lively wing-half was given his first-team chance in Billy Frith’s first game in charge in September 1957, a 3-1 win at Brentford. A week later, on his home debut, he scored his only goal, the winner against Colchester. He kept his place for twelve games in the dreadful 1957-58 season but after a run of defeats he lost his place to Iain Jamieson. Vernon showed some promise but found the competition from the likes of Iain Jamieson, Brian Nicholas and Ron Farmer too great. After appearing on the right-wing in the opening two games of the 1958-59 season he was back in the reserves. In 1959 he signed for Rugby Town. Lol Harvey remembers Vernon with affection: ‘He was a quick player and loved to attack. We met up at the Legends Day a couple of years ago and had a good chat about those days. I was really surprised to hear he had cancer and I feel very sad.’

The Association was represented at Vernon’s funeral which took place at Lodge Hill Cemetery, Selly Oak, Birmingham on Tuesday 10 May 2011.

Eric Dobbs RIP (1920-2011)

It is sad to report the death earlier this week of former Coventry City player Eric Dobbs who passed away months after his 90^th birthday. Eric, a full-back, played only five first team games just after the Second World War but played a good number of reserve games over three seasons in the days when the club had a professional squad of 30 or so players.

Eric was born in October 1920 in the rural Norfolk village of Hingham – in the Angel Inn pub, which his family ran. In 1926 the Dobbs family left Norfolk to come to Coventry -presumably to work in the booming industrial town. They lived in Aldermans Green but later moved to Bedlam Lane, Foleshill. Eric’s nephew Chris Wilson told Association chairman Jim Brown that their house would have been on the site of the Arena Park shopping centre, adjacent to the Ricoh Arena.

He attended Foleshill Church of England School but left at 14 to work as a painter and decorator with his father. In 1936 he was playing football for the Miners Arms team in Aldermans Green and from 1938 he was in City’s ‘A’ team as an amateur. In 1940 he enlisted with the Coldstream Guards, first as a PT instructor but later he saw action in North Africa and in Italy. In 1944 he was involved in the famous but bloody battle of Monte Cassino and was shot in the thigh.

He joined Coventry City as a professional in 1946, following his demobilisation, and played for the ‘A’ Team and the Reserves, occasionally playing at centre-forward. On Easter Tuesday 1947 he got a surprise call-up to the first team to play Swansea owing to injuries to Charlie Elliott and Billy Frith. Eric had to mark Swansea’s dashing winger Norman Lockhart, who later joined City.

On a wet afternoon City won 3-2 and Nemo commented on Eric’s debut: ‘Dobbs showed up prominently in conditions that did not help him at all’. Eric got another first team game before the season was over, playing in a 2-1 home win over Leicester. His further three games came the following season and he played right-back in home wins over West Brom (1-0) and Fulham (5-2) and a home defeat to Leeds (1-2). At the end of the season he was released and joined Bristol Rovers. Sadly he failed to break into Rovers’ first team and a year later was back in the Midlands playing briefly for Kettering Town before signing for Lockheed Leamington under his former City team-mate Les Latham.

Eric’s arrival at the Windmill Ground in 1949 coincided with the Brakes’ first season in the Birmingham Combination and the team finished last but one in the league. The following season however saw the team improve to ninth and win the Birmingham Senior Cup for the first time and Eric was in the team that beat Hereford United Reserves in the final after a replay.  The first game, at Nuneaton, ended 2-2 but Lockheed won the replay at their own Windmill Ground 3-1 in front of a ground record 3,500. The team picture, kindly supplied by Chris Wilson, shows the successful Lockheed team of 1950-51 with Eric far left on the back row.

Former City player and director Micky French played with Eric both for City Reserves and later at Lockheed. He remembers Eric fondly and used to get a lift to training in Leamington on the pillion of Eric’s motorcycle. He remembered: ‘Eric and I hit it off at Coventry and played a few reserve team games together. When I finished my National Service in 1950 and went to play for Lockheed he was there and we took up where we left off. He was a popular but quiet man who was very kind and honest. But on the field he was a good footballer with an extremely hard tackle and it was best to avoid him in training. He was a real old-fashioned defender and took no prisoners’.

After he left professional football Eric became a painter and decorator and later joined the machine tool company Skelcher and Rowe where he worked as a maintenance man. He was a keen golfer and played at Cosby Golf Club in Leicestershire. He is survived by his wife Joyce. Eric was one of the early members of the Former Players Association when it was formed in 2007 and attended the first Legends Day. He will be sadly missed by his friends and former team-mates in the Association. 

Jack Kendall RIP (1921-2011)

It is very sad to report the death of former wartime Coventry City player and local footballer and cricketer Jack Kendall. Jack, a member of the Former Player’s Association,  passed away on 7 January 2011 aged 89 years. Born in Lentons Lane, Aldermans Green in 1921 Jack had outstanding ability at football and cricket and played cricket for Coventry Boys and football for Longford St Thomas as a teenager. When war broke out he was working as an engineer at Brico in the city and was excused a call up to the services because his job was vital to the war effort.

He was never strictly on City’s books and was playing football for Morris Engines in 1944 when manager Harry Storer called him up to play as a guest for City, covering for a regular who was away on service duty (many of the city’s top amateur players played for the club in this period). In 1944-45 season he made 10 appearances, at left half.

Jack made one appearance in 1945-46 season and also appeared as a guest for Leicester City earlier in the war. He was involved in local football and cricket for many years after the war, captaining and coaching the very successful Morris cricket team throughout the 1960s and coaching cricket at colleges until the age of 69. Friends put Morris’ success down to Jack’s ability and man-management skills. He was an amateur on Warwickshire C.C.’s books for a number of years playing mainly as a wicket-keeper for the Second XI and in 1948 played 4-5 first XI games. Jack was courageous behind the stumps, standing up for some very fast bowlers. His friend Alan Blackwell once asked the famous old England wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans whether he knew Jack and Evans’ reply was: ‘he was one of the best wicket-keepers I ever saw’.

He loved football and was always asking how the City had got on. He was involved in coaching Rugby Town under the famous Eric Houghton in the 1960s and continued working for Brico as tool-room foreman up until his retirement in the 1980s. He will be sorely missed by friends and family.

Norman Smith RIP (1919-2010)

The Association was very sorry to hear from his family that Association member Norman Smith (hitherto City’s oldest surviving player) had passed away on Thursday 18th November 2010 a few days short of his 91st Birthday.

Norman came to Coventry aged 15 to seek work in the motor industry escaping going down the pit a traditional job in his native North East.  He played for City either side of WW2 (and was the last surviving player to have appeared in a Bantams shirt pre-war).  He was quickly spotted in works football and joined the Bantams  from Standard Apprentices in 1938.  His modest 5ft 7in frame was not the best for the rugged style of play at that time in Division Two and he was restricted to three appearances in the number nine shirt in the 1938-9 season.

The former Players Association are very sad to report that former Bantams striker and Association member Barry Hawkings died last Sunday May 9 2010 after a short illness.

Hawkings joined the Sky Blues in 1949 as part of a group of talented young players who came through the Sky Blues’ nursery club Modern Machines in the late 1940s and produced a very respectable strike rate of 12 goals in 34 appearances over three seasons for the club between 1953 and 1956 including a memorable hat-trick in a 6-0 win over Swindon Town.

Barry was transferred to Lincoln City in March 1956 and also played for Northampton Town and a number of non league clubs (including Rugby Town) before retiring in 1962.  The Birmingham-born striker was also a member of the Coventry City Former Players’ Association and attended the CCFPA-organised Legends Day at the Ricoh Arena in 2008 (pictured).

The Association sends our condolences to Barry’s family and friends.

Charlie Timmins RIP (1922-2010)

We are very sad to report the death of former Coventry City player and Association Member Charlie Timmins. Birmingham-born Charlie died on Tuesday 13th April 2010, aged 87, after a fight with cancer and his family and many friends, ex colleagues and fans fondly said goodbye at Yardley Crematorium on 21st April 2010.

After many years away from Coventry he had in recent years become a regular visitor at City home games with his son, Charlie and grandson, Stephen, and could always be expected to brighten up the Legends Lounge with his impish sense of humour. He was a regular attendee at the Former Players’ Legends Day (though his illness prevented his attendance at the event last month) and loved mixing with his former City teammates

Jim Brown recalls the pleasure of meeting Charlie and his family some years ago when giving them a tour of the new stadium. Charlie could hardly believe his eyes at the facilities available at the Ricoh and spent more than hour reminiscing about his tn happy years at Highfield Road from 1948-58.  For his age Charlie’s memory was remarkable. For example he talked about a famous game in the 1950-51 season when City beat Blackburn 6-1 to go top of Division Two – and he was able to rattle off the names of nine of the City team. He also remembered the day Preston North End, then a top First Division side, including the legendary Tom Finney, came to Highfield Road. It was in January 1956 and with both teams out of the FA Cup a hastily arranged friendly took place. Finney was at the time one of the top players in Britain, if not Europe, and he gave Charlie a real chasing in the mud. Charlie described the experience: “Finney played on the right wing that day but his left foot was stronger and whilst I could get close to most wingers, he was unorthodox and so fast. I was puffed out at half-time and the manager George Raynor had to switch Frank Austin and I to give me a breather. At the end I didn’t have enough energy to shake his hand”.

Charlie did service in the Royal Engineers in the war and was playing for a Birmingham non-league side, Jack Moulds Athletic, when City spotted him. ‘I was 27-years old and working at the Morris in Birmingham with no thought of playing football professionally. One night there was a knock on the front door and a chap called Harry Storer was there, saying he wanted to sign me for Coventry City. I played a game for the reserves on the first day of the season in August 1949. We won and I was picked for the first team game at Luton four days later. We lost 0-2 but Storer was pleased with me.’

Charlie played 23 times that season, at either right or left back and helped the Bantams to an eight-game unbeaten end to the season, lifting any relegation worries. The next season he was a regular as the team set the pace at the top of the Second Division. Promotion looked a strong possibility until the New Year when the team stuttered and finished seventh. Charlie kept a book of his press cuttings which made clear that his outstanding performances that season prompted the media to tip him for international honours with a big money move to Newcastle mooted at one time.

A loss of form cost him his place the following season and with City’s ageing team suddenly looking tired the team were relegated to Division Three. Charlie played a total of 165 games for the club between 1949 and 1958 and scored five goals for City, four of them penalties. He played under six managers Storer, Jack Fairbrother, Jesse Carver, Raynor, Harry Warren and Billy Frith. His only outfield goal came on Christmas Eve 1955 in a 5-3 win over Norwich. His final game was a 0-0 home draw with Brentford in February 1958. He was released at the age of 36 and joined Lockheed Leamington, managed by former City colleague Les Latham.

Charlie remembers travelling to Coventry from Birmingham every day for training on the Midland Red 159 bus with other Brum-based players like George Mason, Martin McDonnell, Gordon Nutt and Don Dorman. ‘Very few players could afford a car in those days and we had great fun on the bus every day. When I joined Lockheed I used to cycle to Olton station and catch the train to Leamington, taking my bike with me. At Leamington I would cycle up Tachbrook Road to the Windmill Ground in time for the kick-off.’

After hanging up his boots he went back into the motor industry and joined Rover at Solihull in the Car despatch division where he spent 28 happy years before retiring in 1986 continuing to live in the Sparkhill district and continuing to follow the ups and downs of the Sky Blues with his friends in the Legends Lounge at the Ricoh.

Charlie Ashcroft RIP (1926-2010)

As a twelve-year old Chorley-born Charlie Ashcroft was already six feet tall and the natural choice to play in goal at school. Liverpool spotted him playing for Eccleston Juniors in the Preston & District League. His full debut for Liverpool was a 7-4 win over Chelsea in September 1946 and he went on to make 89 appearances over nine years for the Reds as well as winning an England B cap.

He joined Ipswich Town and played under Alf Ramsey but after two seasons at Portman Road manager Harry Warren signed the six-foot two-inch keeper for City in 1957. He had previously broken an arm, which had not healed properly and he could not straighten it properly. Poor Charlie was on a hiding to nothing at Highfield Road, having to replace the famous Reg Matthews especially during one of the club’s worst post-war seasons. He started the season as first-choice keeper but in the fourth game of the season, a home defeat to Newport County, he was badly at fault for one of Newport’s two goals. The Newport winger, Thomas, handled the ball which ran loose to Ashcroft. City players appealed for the free-kick but the referee waved play on as City had the advantage. Then Charlie, obviously thinking he had awarded the free-kick, inexplicably threw it straight to Thomas who gleefully lobbed it into the goal. After the game a fuming Ashcroft and several other City players were adamant they had heard a whistle.

In the following game Ashcroft was dropped and replaced by 17-year old Graham Spratt. Soon afterwards manager Warren was sacked and replaced by Billy Frith and after a horrendous 7-1 defeat at Southampton in February 1958 Charlie was recalled for the shell-shocked Spratt as the team slid towards Division Four.    He played in most of the remaining games that season before being transfer-listed in the summer, joining Chorley where he played for four years. He worked at the Royal Ordnance factory at Euxton and lived in Eccleston,near Chorley, where he built his own house. A keen cricketer, he was playing cricket at the age of 56. Charlie passed away in mid March 2010.

Charlie Dutton RIP (1934-2009)

Charlie Dutton was a crowd-pleasing inside forward signed by manager Harry Storer from Derby County as an 18-year old in 1952. Storer loaned him out to Rugby Town almost immediately and he scored prolifically for the non-league side including five goals in one game against Sutton Town. He scored on his City debut as centre-forward in a 2-0 victory over Bournemouth in September 1953 and a week later scored the winner in a 2-1 victory at Millwall. Despite three goals in six games he was back in the reserves when regular centre-forward Eddie Brown was fit. That tended to be the story of Dutton’s career at Coventry. When he left to join Northampton in March 1956 he had made 28 appearances and scored nine goals.

His stay at Northampton was short and he was soon at Lockheed Leamington where he found his scoring boots and later enjoyed a successful career in non-league football with Bedworth, Rugby, Hinckley Town and Brereton Social. Charlie spent his later years back in his home town of Rugeley but died after a long fight against Motor Neurone Disease in October 2009.

Ken Watkins RIP (1923-2009)

We are sorry to hear of  the death of another Bantam player of yesteryear. Ken, who passed away on 26 November 2009, aged 86, lived on Hipswell Highway.

Ken was a right-half who played for Humber FC during World War 2 and was one of many promising young local players called in by City when the first teamers were away in the war. Ken never played in a peacetime game for the club, his 14 appearances coming in the wartime period 1943-1945, eight of them in the transitional 1945-46 season when City played in a Southern regional league with many First Division clubs. In August 1945 Ken played at right half in a 2-0 win over Arsenal (the first ever competitive game against the Gunners) in front of the biggest League crowd of the season, 20,943.  Ken also made one guest appearance for Port Vale in 1946 and later played for Rugby Oakfield before coaching Humber after the war. He was also a talented cricketer and we understand played the odd game for Warwickshire and was a top player for a number of years in the Coventry leagues.

Tommy Capel RIP (1922-2009)

It is sad to report the death in October 2009 of former City player Tommy Capel. Manchester-born Capel played as a teenager for local works team Goslings and then Droylesden before joining Manchester City in 1941. Military service in Burma with the Marines meant he made only a handful of senior games for City in war-time football. In 1947 he joined Chesterfield and later was briefly at Birmingham City before a move to Nottingham Forest in 1949.  The dashing inside-forward was a regular scorer and played his best football at the City Ground scoring 72 goals in five seasons including 23 in Forest’s Second Division promotion campaign of 1950-51. Coventry City boss Jack Fairbrother pulled off a major coup signing Capel and his Forest colleague Colin Collindridge in 1954. In his first season at Highfield Road Capel, a ‘bustling’ inside-forward was top scorer with 22 league and cup goals including a brace in the surprise 3-3 FA Cup draw at First Division Huddersfield. The following season under Jesse Carver he was dropped after the first two games and sold to Halifax soon afterwards. After leaving senior football he worked as a travelling salesman for Trent Concrete and played non-league football with Heanor Town in the Midland League. Tommy continued to play for Padstow in the Nottingham Spartan League until past his 50^th birthday.

Neil Dougall RIP (1921-2009)

We are sorry to hear of the death on December 1st this year of Cornelius ‘Neil’ Dougall a wartime guest for City  ‘borrowed’ from Plymouth Argyle. Neil, a canny right footed inside forward, was perhaps unfortunate that his early career was shaped by the 2nd World War. He  played 18 times and scored 7 goals in City’s 1944-45 campaign in the Football League North.

Born in Scotland (and capped for his country in 1946), Neil initially played in Birmingham as a schoolboy but started his professional career with Burnley in 1940 (5 appearances) before a short spell at Walsall (7). He then signed for Birmingham in October 1945 for £2750 for whom he made nearly 150 wartime and full league appearances scoring a total of 28 goals before being transferred to Plymouth Argyle for £13000 in March 1949. In a longstanding relationship with Plymouth Neil made a total of 289 appearances for the Argyle in 10 seasons scoring 15 times before moving up to coaching and scouting roles (and a short spell as manager). He retired from football in 1969 and ran a fitness club in Plymouth until 1986.

We send our condolences to his family.

Terry Bly RIP (1935-2009)

We are sad to report that former City centre-forward Terry Bly died on Thursday 24th October after a suspected heart attack.

Bly, a prolific goalscorer with Norwich City and Peterborough, was one of five forwards signed by Jimmy Hill in the summer of 1962. He was a rumbustuous traditional centre forward best when bearing down on the goal with the ball in front of him – he possessed a strong shot.

Although he stayed only one season with the City he scored 29 league and cup goals in 42 games as the Sky Blue Revolution took off.

Hill, though, was not convinced and in a move that upset many City fans, signed George Hudson and sold Bly to Notts County for £13,000, a shrewd £3,000 profit. Terry’s best days were behind him and within two years he was playing non-league football for Grantham.

He ran a sports shop in that town for many years and managed Grantham in over 700 games. We offer our condolences to Terry’s family.

Régis Genaux R.I.P. (1973-2008)

We are very sorry to report that former City player Régis Genaux died suddenly on 8th November 2008, at his home in Chaudfontaine, Belgium at the early age of 35 (from a heart attack following pulmonary embolism).

A talented defender, whose career was blighted by injury, Régis was a Belgian International capped 22 times for his country and a Belgian cup winner for Royal Standard de Liège where he began his career. He signed for City in August 1996 for £750000 but only totted up 4 Premiership appearances that season – unfortunately never on the winning side – before being transferred in January 1997 to Udinese (for a similar fee). He spent a season there before returning to Standard Liège where he hung up his boots after yet another serious injury in 2004.

Prior to his untimely death Régis had done coaching work with Belgian teams RCS Verviétois and RFC Sérésien as well as doing TV work in his native country.

Alan Moore R.I.P. (1927-2008)

We regret to report that Alan passed away at the age of 81 in April 2008. From a family of footballing brothers Alan was a talented winger with plenty of skills on the ball when City signed him for £10500 from Nottingham Forest in December 1954. The 27 years old Hebburn born right-winger had failed as a teenager with Sunderland, drifted into non-league football with Spennymoor United but was spotted by Chesterfield in 1948 and started an 11-year Football League career starting with Hull City (1951). At Forest from 1952 he had the most fruitful period of his career scoring 38 goals in 104 League and Cup games.

City were managerless and in turmoil when he signed for them as a replacement for the transferred Gordon Nutt and made a scoring debut in a 1-1 draw with Southampton on Christmas Day 1954. He made 60 league and cup appearances for City scoring 14 goals.

Alan always gave 100% for the cause, was a regular during the brief Carver era the following season but his appearances were more sporadic under Harry Warren and in early 1957 he was suspended for ‘gross insubordination’ at a time when there was a lot of friction between the players and the manager. It was no surprise at the end of the season when Alan was released and he joined Swindon.

His final league club was Rochdale and his short spell there took his total senior appearances to over 275. He moved down to non-league football and played for Wisbech and was a very successful manager of Cambridge United for four years leading them to promotion to the Southern League Premier Division as well as the club’s best ever FA Cup run in 1963.

Alan settled in the Cambridge area and ran a sports shop in the city for many years. His health had not been good for a few years but he and his wife had recently celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.

Alan ‘Digger’ Daley R.I.P. (1927-2008)

It is sad to report the death yesterday (24 June 2008) of former Coventry City player Alan ‘Digger’ Daley. Daley, who was 80 years old, joined City in 1958 and played 60 games for the club including many in the Fourth Division promotion campaign of 1958-59 and scored 12 goals. A left-winger, Daley was a football nomad playing for numerous lower division clubs before arriving at Highfield Road from Crewe. In 1960 he lost his place to Stewart Imlach and in January 1961 joined Southern League Cambridge City. After retiring from the professional game he was a market trader in Bedford for many years and lived in the village of Renhold.

Jack Barnes RIP (1908-2008)

Jack Barnes, the oldest former Coventry City player who was a member of the CCFPA, has died four weeks before his 100th birthday. Jack, who played for City between 1927 and 1929 was also the oldest former professional footballer in the country. He died on 1st April 2008 in a Coleshill nursing home.

Wilf Nash RIP (1913-2008)

Wilf Nash, who played just two games for Coventry City during World War Two, died on 11 March 2008 aged 94. Wilf played for Bedworth Town before the war and was appearing for Morris Motors when City were short of players for wartime league games. He played on the right-wing away to Aston Villa a 0-4 defeat and away to Derby County a 1-2 defeat.

Graham Paddon RIP (1950-2007)

Former City player Graham Paddon died suddenly aged 57 at his Norfolk home on 20 November 2007. Graham was a product of the City youth set up and starred in the FA Youth Cup final in 1968. He left the club for Norwich in 1969 after just five first team games and went on to play over 400 games for the Canaries & West Ham and later was a coach at Stoke, Portsmouth and most recently in Brunei.

Dennis Uphill RIP (1931-2007)

It was sad to hear of the death of 1950s star Denis Uphill who passed away on 7 February, aged 75. Denis joined City from Reading in October 1955 and had an impressive time at Highfield Road despite the club’s turbulent history then.

Born in Bath in 1931 he joined Tottenham as a junior in 1948 after being spotted playing for Western League side Peasedown Colliery. Spurs loaned him out to crack amateur outfit Finchley before he turned professional in 1949.

A short, stocky but skilful inside-forward Denis never became a regular at White Hart Lane but was a valuable understudy to England international Eddie Baily. He made his debut during Spurs 1950-51 championship season, in a 1-1 home draw with Sunderland. He played only six league games in four years, scoring two goals before moving to third division Reading in 1953. He scored 42 goals in three seasons at Elm Park before City’s flamboyant manager Jesse Carver, under pressure to revert to English tactics after a run of poor away results, saw Uphill (his first signing) and another signing Ken McPherson as the ideal front pairing to pacify the critics.

He was signed after appearing as a guest player in a home friendly with First Division Burnley. He showed Carver enough in the 1-2 defeat to convince the manager to sign him.

After making his league debut in a 1-1 draw with Aldershot, Denis was soon on the score-sheet and scored 12 goals in 31 games as City made a vain attempt at promotion. He netted two goals in the 5-3 Christmas Eve win over Norwich and another brace in the 3-1 win over Ipswich later in the season. During that season the club had the unusual situation of a forward line including Denis Uphill, Peter Hill and Jimmy Hill.

In 1956-57, with Harry Warren in charge, Denis lost his place and scored only four goals in 19 games and was made available for transfer. After rejecting a move to Ipswich he signed for Mansfield in March 1957. In 1959 he returned south to play for Watford and in his first season scored an amazing 30 goals as the Hornets won promotion from Division Four. His partnership with Cliff Holton (who scored 42 goals) yielded 72 of Watford’s 92 league goals that season. In October 1960 Crystal Palace, managed by his former Spurs boss Arthur Rowe, snapped him up and he scored 21 goals in 74 games for the South London side, including one in their 2-0 win at Highfield Road which virtually sealed Billy Frith’s fate in 1961. He appeared alongside Bill Glazier and Brian Lewis, both who later joined City.

Palace were his last league club but he played Southern League soccer with Rugby Town, Romford and Dartford before hanging up his boots in 1964. He worked as a turf accountant after retiring and lived in Watford up to his death.