Matchday Memories: On This Day 1967 – George & Mick’s Testimonial Sees Sky Blues Beat Reds
City’s team provide a guard of honour as Ron Yeates leads his Liverpool team out
On this Tuesday night (May 9th) in 1967, four days before their triumphant Division Two championship winning season concluded with a 3-1 Highfield Road win against Millwall, CCFC rewarded two of their Sky Blue stalwarts with a testimonial at Highfield Road. Under innovative manager Jimmy Hill the ‘Sky Blue Express’ was on its way to the very top!
Mick in the Sky Blue
Both members of the defensive duo of Mick Kearns and their current captain ‘Iron Man’ George Curtis had begun their CCFC journey earlier on in the bottom tier Division Four (under previous ‘gaffer’ Billy Frith) and both would go on to play top flight football the following season! The two men had played a joint testimonial against Northampton Town at the end of the previous season. Now, for a club making football waves both on and off the pitch, it was something of a coup to attract top flight team Liverpool to Highfield Road for their second joint testimonial!
George in the Sky Blue
A wonderful crowd of 25,040 turned up to watch the Sky Blues come out on top against the Reds, winning 2-1. The visitors fielded a team full of international stars including Emlyn Hughes, and future Sky Blue players Ian St John and Geoff Strong as well as future Sky Blue ‘gaffer’ (and current CCFPA member) Gordon Milne! The Sky Blues goal-getters were both stars of this and previous seasons, Ronnie Rees and Ernie Machin. Liverpool’s goalscorer was Roger Hunt.
Ernie gave the Sky Blues a fifth minute lead with a header before Hunt equalised on 22 minutes after Bill Glazier couldn’t hold a Geoff Strong effort.
Mick Kearns (AS) at LD22
City hit the woodwork twice so could have won by more, though Bill made some great saves. Ronnie’s cracker of a goal from outside the box after 31 minutes finished off his fifty yard run and was a fitting end to a deserved win! ‘Pool’s legendary manager Bill Shankly was well impressed!
One club man Mick went on to play 382 times for CCFC before retiring in after the end of the 1967-68 season and George played fifteen seasons from 1955 pulling on the first team shirt 538 times before moving to Aston Villa in December 1969. As all Sky Blues fans will know George later became CCFC’s co-manager (with John Sillett) at the time of their 1987 F.A.Cup victory and, with John, both became CCFC Life Presidents. Both were CCFPA members before their deaths in very recent times. Pleasingly Mick was at the last four Legends Days in 2019, 2022, 2023 (and 2024 a few days ago accompanied by family members including grandkids).
Sky Blues:-
Bill Glazier, Mick Kearns, Dietmar Bruck, the late Brian Lewis, the late George Curtis, Dave Clements, John Key, the late Ernie Machin, John Tudor, the late Ian Gibson and the late Ronnie Rees.
Apart from Brian all the members of this team (as well as their late manager JH) later went on to join CCFPA (and Dietmar is a current CCFPA committee member).
Liverpool:-
Tommy Lawrence, Gerry Byrne, Emlyn Hughes, (the late) Geoff Strong, Ron Yeats (c), Gordon Milne, Ian Callaghan, Roger Hunt, (the late) Ian St John (sub. Peter Wall -46), David Wilson and Peter Thompson. Referee: Kevin Howley
The Liverpudlians finished in fifth place this season in Division One.
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young (& former committee member Dean Nelson) for sourcing the images.
