Matchday Memories: On This Day 1963 – Sky Blues Silence The Shrimpers At The Seaside
JH, Sky Blue legend
On this day (2nd November) in 1963 the Sky Blues, under iconic manager Jimmy Hill, were well along the road to the Division Three Championship. With a great home record and having won five out of nine on their travels JH‘s men were in confident form – and the Shrimpers of Southend United could not stand in their way despite a late flurry! The Sky Blues came away with another victory on foreign soil by the odd goal in three in front of a crowd of 12,102. The Sky Blues actually flew to and from the game and were followed by about 2,000 fans from Coventry.
Ken Hale in the Sky Blue
Their away victory came courtesy of goals from left wing forward pairing of Ken Hale and Ronnie Rees (who, sadly, passed away just a few days ago). Ken’s goal in the 22nd minute was a sharp header which gave the Sky Blues a 1-0 half-time advantage. City’s centre half and captain ‘Iron Man’ George Curtis riled the crowd with some strong tackling but the next goal also came from the Sky Blues, winger Ronnie finishing off a chance made by George Hudson in the 57th minute. Sadly Bob, both Georges, John and Ron have all recently been taken from us by the grim reaper.
The only glimmer for the homesters came four minutes later when Ron Farmer upended Southend’s Ray Smith in the box for a penalty converted by Terry Bradbury. City held on for a deserved 2-1 victory!
Ron in the Sky Blue 1964
JH’s Sky Blues team that day comprised (CCFPA members underlined):-
Bob Wesson*, John Sillett*, Frank Kletzenbauer*, Dietmar Bruck, George Curtis*, Ron Farmer*, Willie Humphries, Hugh Barr, George Hudson*, Ken Hale* and Ronnie Rees*.
*sadly eight of these Sky Blue stalwarts have now passed away.
John and George, of course, became F.A.Cup winners as CCFC’s management team in 1987 and later joint CCFC Life Presidents Now based in Manchester current CCFPA committee member Dietmar Bruck also remains a regular at Sky Blues home games whenever he can and was most recently our ‘special guest’ at the Sky Blues Championship draw against Rotherham United in October 2022!
Southend United‘s men lined up:-
Brian Rhodes, Mortimer Costello, John Neal, Tony Bentley, Peter Watson, Terry Bradbury, Malcolm Slater, Ray Smith, Jim Conway, Mick Beesley and Derek Woodley Referee:- Ray Spittle
The 1963/4 squad with the Division 3 Cup
Just as the Sky Blues took the Division Three Championship, the Shrimpers ended up fourteenth but got some gratification by inflicting a surprise 5-2 defeat on the Sky Blues at Highfield Road in mid March after being three goals to the good at half time! In that game Ronnie Farmer scored at both ends (a penalty and an own goal) and ‘the Hud’ also got one for the Sky Blues.
Crystal Palace were promoted runners up to the Sky Blues at the end of the season on the same points but with slightly inferior goal average. The relegated quartet (in descending order) were Millwall, Crewe Alexandra, Wrexham and Notts County.
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing the images.
