Congrats to Four City ‘Old Boys’

Chris Coleman

Firstly, former Sky Blues’ Manager (2008-10) Chris Coleman was recently appointed National Team Manager of Wales replacing close friend the late Gary Speed. Chris was successful in winning a job for which another Former Player (and Association member) Jon Hartson also threw his hat into the ring.   Chris is the third post-war Welsh manager with CCFC connections, with Terry Yorath (1976-79) taking the reins between 1988-93 and ‘Coventry Kid’, former player (1963-68), CCFPA member and twice CCFC manager (1983-84 & 1992-93)  Bobby Gould doing the honours as Welsh supremo between 1995-99! Well done Chris!

 

Aron Gunnarrson

Ben Turner

Lastly, though CCFC have no direct further interest now in either the F.A.Cup or the Carling trophy the Club does have a link to the former in that Mark Noon a former academy starlet (and a Nuneaton Town player since 2004 and currently their captain) will be centre stage in the live 5th round draw for the F.A.Cup this coming Sunday (29th January 2012). Mark who is employed as Head of Sports Science at CCFC’s Academy will be joining Gazika Mandieta to ‘pull the balls out’ and decide who will get the plum ties.

Mark Noon

F.A. Cup hero Lloyd McGrath revisits 1987

Lloyd and his Winners medal in his 1987 F.A.Cup final shirt

As part of our wish to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Coventry City’s famous FA Cup triumph over Tottenham Hotspur, the Association has teamed up the Coventry Observer to facilitate their special feature series which every week seeks to re-capture the memories of players, managers and fans from the club’s greatest day on May 16, 1987.  So far, the Observer’s sports reporter Steve Carpenter has spoken to Association member  Keith Houchen (scorer of that most memorable cup final goal) and Tony Galvin of the gallant and star studded Spurs team whom the Sky Blues defeated in what many regard as the best final of modern times. The latest interview in the series with Association member and midfielder Lloyd McGrath (who put in the cross for one of the most famous own goals in English football) is reproduced in full below (courtesy of Coventry Observer) . 

 

“The mere mention of the name Gary Mabbutt is enough to make most Sky Blues’ fans smile. It was his famous own goal in extra time which handed underdogs Coventry victory in the cup final, but few fans will remember the decisive cross from McGrath which led to the gaffe. The match was perfectly poised at 2-2 heading into extra time and both sides were refusing to focus on defensive duties, opting to attack in the same style for which the game will always be remembered.

“Our fitness levels were very good. You could see the Spurs players were slightly flagging and our fitness shone through at the end,” McGrath told us.  “You would have thought that with the players they had they would have wiped the floor with us, and I’m sure they thought that as well, but we had been involved in several high scoring matches with Spurs that season and managed to force extra time.

“I found myself on the right wing for some reason, I don’t know what I was doing there but I just sprinted down the wing and managed to get a decent cross into the area.“The ball hit Mabbutt and seemed to loop into the air and all I could do was stand there and watch. I was just waiting and waiting but it finally dropped into the net and the reaction from all the players and the crowd was just fantastic.

“When the final whistle blew I think I was talking to myself because I just couldn’t believe it. It’s every players dream to win the FA Cup and to actually be involved in such a classic match against a really good side was just amazing. “I always liked playing Spurs because it was always a good open football match and they had a star studded line up at the time with the likes of Paul Gascoigne, Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle.“Most of the general public thought we were the underdogs that day but I think our fans thought we were going to win it because every time we had played them previously they had been very open games.”

McGrath signed for the Sky Blues in 1982 and worked his way through the ranks before making his debut two years later. He currently runs the Hawkesmill Sports and Social Club in Allesley and although he still has people stopping him in the street reminding him of the club’s FA Cup success, he told of the disappointment he felt that the Sky Blues have not come close to any success since.

“The FA Cup final year was obviously a very special year for the club but before that we had been through years of struggle and we always seemed to find ourselves in a relegation scrap, but that changed in 1987. “We went thought the streets of Coventry on the Sunday morning on the bus and that was amazing, and again the amount of people that came out was unbelievable.

“For months after the final the city was buzzing because of what we had achieved and it was a great feeling.“You can’t really forget it because people will always remind you which is a shame in one way because I would have hoped the club would have moved on from that. “I personally feel when we won the cup in 1987 that was the start of the downfall for Coventry City Football Club.

“It’s a crying shame that the club hasn’t come closing to any sort of success in 25 years. We have done nothing in the league and nothing in the cup, which is quite disappointing really. “I think we got to the semi-finals in the League Cup one year, but apart from that we have done nothing. “Perhaps Coventry as a whole got a bit too big for its boots. They spent a bit too much money on players, eventually moved away from Highfield Road to the Ricoh Arena when they couldn’t really afford to and they’ve never had stability with managers.“It’s just gone downhill and to have such magnificent stadium and for the club to be where they are is a crying shame.”

Thanks to Steve Carpenter and the Coventry Observer for permission to reprint this article. Others in the series can be found at  http://www.coventryobserver.co.uk/2012/01/25/fa-cup.html . You can also purchase a copy of the photo of Lloyd (McGrath 01.012.002.cov.jm1) taken by the Observer’s Jon Mullis  at (www.buyphotos247.com)

 

 

Blast from the Past: Ladies football in Coventry nearly a century ago

Rudge Whitworth Ladies teams 03-10-1917

Appropriately enough in a season when Coventry City Ladies are doing so well both male and female readers may be interested in seeing the picture reproduced above of a women’s football team in Coventry team of over ninety years ago!  The photo was recently lent to the Association’s Membership Secretary and web editor Mike Young by one of our Association Members and former players Ken Brown and shows two teams representing the Rudge-Whitworth factory in  Coventry in October 1917 playing in aid of the Lord Mayor’s Fund.

Ken played a number of games for CCFC reserves in 1955-56 as a young man before building a career with Corby Town, Rugby Town, Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic, Torquay United and Hinckley United. He has also lent the Association (to copy for our archives) a number of interesting  CCFC reserve team and other programmes from 1950s games in which he appeared. Ken said he knew very little about the details of the game involved but does know that two of his aunties played for the (lower) striped team in the picture above (first and third left back row). We have been able to provide a little more detail.  The game took place probably at Highfield Road since there was a Ladies Invitation Tournament held there that month and several local factories (including Coventry Ordnance, White and Poppes, Daimler and Humber entered their women’s teams.  Rudge-Whitworth Ladies (for whom Ken’s aunties presumably turned out)  lost  to Humber in the final and played several fixtures around then including, in January 1918, another game at Highfield Road against a men’s team representing a Coventry Armed Services XI!   If anyone has any further details of these or any other early ladies fixture in Coventry please contact us through this website. 

Ladies football in the country has, surprisingly some may think, a long history and this is equally true in Coventry.   The earliest known example of a game between women’s teams in Coventry took place on the Stoke Road ground of  CCFC’s precursors, Singer FC’ in October 1895 in front of a 2000 crowd and games in later decades are also known .  Above is a photo of the Coventry Ladies team from around 1910. The women’s game was extremely popular either side of the Great War encouraged by young women contributing to the war effort by filling male jobs in the nation’s factories and often adopting other aspects of male working class culture. The country’s best teams (e.g. Dick, Kerr’s who were World Champions from 1917-23) attracted five figure crowds to exhibition/charity games at stadiums all around the country including those of many top English League teams. However, in 1922 women’s football was denied access to all Football League grounds and therefore lost its foothold on the public’s imagination. The pictures (below) from February 1921 shows a challenge game between Dick, Kerr’s Ltd and St Helen’s Ladies FC at Highfield Road in which attracted a gate of well over 20000 and the following August the City Ladies themselves played the Dick, Kerr’s team at Highfield Road!

Any reader wishing to research the topic of Ladies football in more  detail could do best by consulting either  ‘Belles of the Ball’  (1991) by David J Williamson (R&D Associates) or Barbara Jacob’s ‘The Dick, Kerr’s Ladies – The factory girls who took on the world’ (2004) (Constable & Robinson)

G’day from Norm and Norma in Australia

Regular readers will remember that less than a month ago we managed to track down and sign up one of our oldest surviving former players, 87 year old Norman Greenway who now lives in New South Wales, Australia with his wife Norma.  A photo of their 60th Wedding Anniversary is reproduced below.  Norm has just sent the Association some interesting memorabilia.

‘Norm’ as he now prefers to be known is a ‘Coventry Kid’  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 6 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 he has sent us 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. Pride of place on the front page is a photo of the victorious team (reproduced below). Norm is third player from the right (back row). He also sent 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…”

For a more recent likeness Norm is also shown above left from 1977 working as a manager for John Crane Mauri Pty Ltd. in Australia.  Norm and Norma also sent us a delightful picture of their four grandsons age 8,15, 16 and 21 and their 18 year old granddaughter all looking exceptionally hale and hearty, obviously thriving in the Aussie sunshine and ALL, Norm tells us, soccer players in the Australian winter.  Thanks for the greetings and memorabilia Norm. Keep in touch!