Matchday Memories: On This Day 1940 – George’s Bantams Brace Sees Wolves Wilt In War Cup
Harry Storer
On this day (May 4th) in 1940 Football was on a wartime footing. The 1939-40 season had been ended prematurely in September with CCFC having played only three Division Two games (a win and two draws). ‘Gaffer’ Harry Storer remained in charge at CCFC as the football clubs, having resisted being mothballed during hostilities, found themselves playing regionalised football with unpredictable teams and many guest players.
Coventry was fortunate in having many factories geared up for the war effort with a number of pre-war professional footballers from around the country as well as local players using their civilian skills locally.
CCFC Players reflect on WWII future (09-09-1939)
The Bantams were playing in the Midland Division of the Regional League against the likes of Birmingham, Leicester City, Luton Town, Northampton Town, Walsall, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers, each played twice (home and away). The competition went on into early June and City were doing reasonably well winning as many as they were losing. Crowds were modest being made up mostly of workers and soldiers on leave.
The clubs were also entered into a League War Cup which had started in April. So far City had knocked out Luton Town 4-2 over two legs (3-0 at Highfield Road and 1-2 at Kenilworth Road) in Round One. Today was the first of two Round Two fixtures against local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers and Storer took his team the short journey across the West Midlands to Molineux. A crowd of 6,446 was there to watch the match. Wolves had not been beaten at Molineux since October 1939!
George Lowrie
Nineteen years old promising centre forward George Lowrie had been signed from Preston North End in June 1939 for the new season and had remained in Coventry after the outbreak of war. George scored both the goals that beat Wolves in the second half (53 & 57 minutes) to give the Bantams a 2-0 win to take back to Coventry.
George quickly became a feared goalscorer and eventually a Welsh International whilst with CCFC. By the time he left for Newcastle United in March 1948 he had scored 59 goals for us in League and F.A.Cup in 85 appearances post war (not including these Wartime seasons) !
Storer’s CCFC team that day lined up:-
Bill Morgan; Vic Astley & Walter Metcalf; Billy Frith, George Mason (c) & Harry Boileau; Les ‘Plum’ Warner, Bobby Davidson, Tommy Crawley, George Lowrie & George Taylor
Major Frank Buckley‘s Wolves lined up:-
Cyril Sidlow; Frank Taylor & Terry Springthorpe; Dennis Thornhill, Tom Galley & Ray Goddard; Horace Wright, Alan Steen, Dennis Westcott, Thomas Burden & Jimmy Mullen Referee:- J.A.Tucker (Nottingham)
Wolves full back Terry Springthorpe later came to Highfield Road from Wolves to play a dozen Division Two games (one goal) in 1950-51 before seeing out his career in the USA.
CCFC 1939-40
The following weekend City went on to beat Wolves again 5-2 in the return at Highfield Road and George got another brace. However, the Bantams went out in the next stage of the War Cup losing 1-0 at home to West Bromwich Albion after extra time (even though they had been reduced to nine men through injury for most of the second half).
City finished third in the Wartime Regional League Midland Division.
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing these images.
