Monday 26 December 2011

Christmas Quiz answers


Quiz 2011
Answers

Sect 1
  1. Brighton’s American Express Community Stadium
  2. Lukas Jutkiewicz
  3. Roy O’Donovan
  4. Carl Baker
  5. Matt Mills
  6. Josh Ruffels
  7. Leicester City 21,102
  8. Andy Gray (Barnsley)
  9. Northampton Town
  10. Blackpool

Sect 2
  1. Ronnie Farmer
  2. Scott Dann
  3. Michael O’Neill
  4. Patrick Suffo (Cameroon)
  5. Colin Cameron
  6. Robbie Keane
  7. Andrew Whing
  8. Darren Huckerby
  9. Dion Dublin
  10. Adam Virgo

Sect 3
  1. Billy Frith
  2. Brentford and Fulham
  3. Roy Dwight (Gravesend)
  4. Peterborough
  5. He got married
  6. Alan Dicks
  7. Millwall
  8. George Hudson
  9. 8-1
  10. The game was televised on CCTV at Highfield Road and the shirts were chosen to distinguish the teams in the black and white transmission

Sect 4
  1. 1883
  2. 1919
  3. 1910
  4. 1981
  5. 2005
  6. 1983
  7. 1997
  8. 1995
  9. 1983
  10. 2006

Sect 5
  1. Micky Adams
  2. Martin O’Neill
  3. Frankie Bunn
  4. Bobby Gould
  5. John Sillett
  6. Micky Adams
  7. Steve Kean (unless he is sacked this week!)
  8. Terry Butcher
  9. Aidy Boothroyd
  10. Roland Nilsson

Christmas Quiz 2011


Merry Christmas to all my readers. Hope you enjoy the annual quiz

CHRISTMAS QUIZ 2011

 1. THE SEASON SO FAR



1.      Which stadium did the Sky Blues visit for the first time earlier this season?
2.      Richard Keogh has played every minute of every league game for the Sky Blues this season, but which other player has also done so?
3.      Who scored City’s goal in the League Cup defeat at Bury?
4.      Two City players have received red cards this season. Gael Bigirimana  is one, who is the other?
5.      Which former City loanee appeared for Reading at the Ricoh Arena?
6.      Which City player made his club debut as a sub at Selhurst Park this season?
7.      Which club has attracted the biggest crowd to the Ricoh Arena this season?
8.      Two opposing players have scored twice in the same game against the Sky Blues. Darius Henderson (Millwall) is one, who is the other?
9.      From which club did Chris Dunn join Coventry in the summer?
10.  Which club failed to win at City again this season and haven’t done so since 1937?

 2. WHICH FORMER COVENTRY CITY PLAYER…..

  1. …coached City’s Youth team to the FA Youth Cup final in 1970?
  2. was laid low with a ruptured testicle last week?
  3. …managed Shamrock Rovers to the Europa Cup group stages this season?
  4. won a gold medal for Football at the 2000 Olympic Games?
  5. … is the manager of Scottish club Cowdenbeath?
  6. …helped LA Galaxy win the MLS Cup recently?
  7. is currently playing at full-back for Oxford United?
  8. …had his biography ‘Through Adversity to Great Heights’ published this year?
  9. …is a musician who accompanied Ocean Colour Scene at a concert at the University of East Anglia earlier this year?
  10. …spent last season at Yeovil and is now vice-captain at Bristol Rovers?

3.         THE JIMMY HILL ERA


  1. Who did JH succeed as manager of Coventry City?
  2. Which two London clubs did JH play for?
  3. Who, in January 1962, was JH’s first signing for the club?
  4. From which club did JH sign Terry Bly in the summer of 1962?
  5. What personal event in JH’s life occurred in January 1962?
  6. Who was JH’s assistant manager for most of his time at City?
  7. Which club did City beat on the final day of the 1966-67 season to clinch the Second Division championship?
  8. In 1963 which City player scored a hat-trick on his debut against Halifax Town?
  9. In 1964-65 City were beaten in the quarter finals of the League Cup by First Division Leicester City. What was the score?
  10. Why did City wear red striped shirts in their away game at Cardiff in 1965?




4.  IN WHICH YEAR?


  1. ..were Singers FC formed?
  2. ..did City join the Football League?
  3. ..did City have a record crowd of 19,000 for an FA Cup quarter final against Everton?
  4. ..did Highfield Road become an all-seater stadium?
  5. ..did Highfield Road close and the club moved to the Ricoh?
  6. ..did Jimmy Hill leave as chairman?
  7. ..did Dion Dublin score a hat-trick against Chelsea?
  8. ..did Ron Atkinson take over from Phil Neal as manager?
  9. ..did Danny Thomas become City’s second England international?
  10. ..did Dennis Wise sign for the Sky Blues?
 

5.            MANAGERS & Coaches


1.      Which former Coventry City manager is currently managing Port Vale?
2.      Which current Premiership manager almost joined City as a player in a part exchange with Mick Ferguson in 1979?
3.      Which former Coventry City coach was recently sacked as assistant manager at Rochdale?
4.      Which City manager allegedly resigned in the toilets at Loftus Road?
5.      Which former Coventry City manager had a brother Peter who played for England?
6.      Which Coventry City boss manager as a player, was the first ever Premiership player sent off in 1992?
7.      Who is the former City coach currently a first-team manager in the Premiership?
8.      Which former Coventry City manager was recently inducted into the Scottish Football Museum’s Hall of Fame?
9.      Which former Coventry City manager was recently appointed manager of Northampton Town?
10.  Which former Coventry City manager is currently manager of FC Copenhagen?

Sunday 18 December 2011

Jim's Column 17.12.11


                                                 Billy McDonald pictured (far right) in 1937

Last week’s column with my observations about relegation and the small number of points acquired to date by the Sky Blues depressed a number of readers. So this week I will try and be a bit more up beat and frivolous.

In my absence from Saturday lunchtime sessions in the Whitefriars Inn my friends are getting very frivolous. Last week they got to discussing the number of City’s great players’ names started with HU. There’s Willie Humphries, Ernie Hunt, Darren Huckerby, not to mention arguably the two greatest ever, George Hudson and Tommy Hutch. My chums set about coming up with a team of HU’s and asked for my assistance.

The conclusion was that we could put out a great forward line but defence would be tricky. Then Dave Long pointed out that Stephen Hughes had once played most of a game in goal after Ian Bennett got a red card and therefore in the absence of a ‘real’ goalie starting HU, Hughesy got the vote! The casual midfielder wouldn’t have got into the side in his normal position anyway.

No true full backs’ names started HU but back in 1991 Lee Hurst made his debut as a full back in an FA Cup debacle at Southampton’s Dell (Not an omen, I hope), so he could play at number 3. Ernie Hunt played a number of times in midfield so could get the number 4 shirt and 'Sailor' Hunter was a centre-half from the 1920s and gets the 5 shirt. Jailbird Lee Hughes wouldn’t get a game up front so he could play at right back and the left-footed Michael Hughes (one of Dowie’s useless Palace refugees) could play at 6. The team therefore lines up in an old 2-3-5 formation, as follows:-

Goal
Stephen Hughes

Right Back                                                                   Left Back
Lee Hughes                                                                  Lee Hurst

Right Half                                 Centre Half                              Left Half
Ernie Hunt                                Billy Hunter                          Michael Hughes

Outside Right           Inside Right            Centre Forward   Inside Left            Outside Left
Willie Humphries  Darren Huckerby  George Hudson   Steve Hunt  Tom Hutchison.

The attack would be so potent that we probably wouldn't need much of a defence anyway.

David Kite is a long-suffering City fan whose dedication goes back to the 1940s. He contacted me recently to tell me about the Red Lion pub, which is located on Corley Moor. He tells me that in the donkey box (I don’t know what that is) on the Left Hand side of the entrance are two picture frames, which contain Churchman cigarette cards of eight famous football players from the 1930s. Two players are of particular interest to him and he asked me for more information.

One is a certain W. McDonald of Coventry City, whom he believes was a Scottish international before the war and the other is the great England centre forward Tommy Lawton, who played for Burnley, Everton, Chelsea and was subsequently transferred in 1947 to Notts County in the old Third Division South whilst still an England player for an English record transfer fee of £20,000. David wondered if the great Lawton ever appeared at Highfield Road.

Let me deal with Billy McDonald first. Hailing from Coatbridge in Scotland he was an inside forward who joined City in the summer of 1936 from Tranmere Rovers and stayed three seasons. In 1936 City had just won promotion from Division Three and manager Harry Storer saw the Scot as the ideal replacement for Jock Lauderdale who was showing signs of his age. Billy made 96 appearances at inside forward and scored 23 goals and was a member of the team that was unbeaten in the first fifteen games of the 1937-38 season. That team looked set for promotion to Division One but ran out of steam after Christmas and finished fourth. Billy had previously played for Airdrie and Manchester United. He left City for Plymouth in 1939 just before the war started but retired from playing about 12 months later. He died in Scotland in 1979, aged 71. Sadly, David, he never played for Scotland. The picture shows Bill on the right with his City colleagues at the pre-season photo shoot (l to r): Walter Metcalf, Bill Morgan and Clarrie Bourton.

Lawton was a big star before, during and after the Second World War. He made his First Division debut for Burnley, aged 16 and was soon on his way to Everton for £6,500, a massive fee for a teenager. A prolific scorer, especially with his head, he won his first England cap two weeks after his 19th birthday in 1938 and scored in each of his first six internationals. His 34 goals in the 1938-39 season helped Everton to win the League Championship. After the war he joined Chelsea but failed to settle in London. David is right in saying that he moved from Chelsea to Third Division Notts County and in six seasons at Notts he scored over 100 goals and helped County to promotion to Division Two in 1950. In total he scored 235 goals in 383 league games and 22 goals in 23 full England internationals. I believe he played once at Highfield Road for Notts County, in 1951-52, and scored in a 2-0 away win.

Sunday 11 December 2011

Jim's column 10.12.11


                  City team at Coventry station leaving for Denmark 1946. Alf Setchell is kneeling on the right.

Coventry City’s poor run of form continued at Fratton Park on Saturday with the division’s financial basket-case gaining a much needed three points with a 2-1 victory. If, as many believe, Pompey are docked ten points because their parent company have gone into administration (and Southampton set the precedent for this three years ago), then they will become basement bedfellows with the Sky Blues. Unfortunately the way things are going we will need two more clubs to go into administration in order to avoid the drop.

The defeat sent City to the foot of the table, somewhere they haven’t been since 1996. On 7 December 1996 City lost 1-2 at home to Tottenham and propped up the whole Premier League. Ten days later Darren Huckerby inspired a famous win over Newcastle and a further three successive wins lifted City into mid-table. A spring slump however saw the Sky Blues sucked back into the relegation dog-fight and it needed wins at Anfield and at Tottenham (famously on the last day) to avoid the drop.

This season the statistics are not good for the Sky Blues. In the last eleven seasons only four clubs in this division have had 13 points or less from the first twenty games, and all have been relegated. The unfortunate four were:

Stockport            2001-02        12 points
Brighton            2002-03        12 points
Rotherham            2004-05        8 points
Southend            2006-07        12 points

In an effort to be positive I should point out that City’s worst 20-game start to a season during the same period (before this season) was in 2005-06 when, despite the move to the Ricoh Arena, only 18 points were in the bag at this stage. Then Micky Adams’ inspired signings of Don Hutchison and Dennis Wise lifted the season from the disastrous to the ecstatic with a final placing of eighth. Me thinks Andy Thorn needs to find a new Dennis Wise!

2011 has been a miserable year to be a City fan with before today only six league wins recorded. This is heading to be a new all-time low unless two wins are gained before the New Year. The current record low is eight in 2003 when City managed just one win in 24 games between January 1 and September 13. Gary McAllister’s team managed to win a further seven games out of the remaining 22 that year to reach the heady total of eight victories. That 2002-03 side was undoubtedly the worst City team I had ever seen and would have been relegated if the season had gone on two more games. Anyone who thinks the current team is the worst ever couldn’t have been around in 2003!


My brief obituary of Alf Setchell last week prompted his sons John and Alan to contact me to correct some of my facts and add some more of their own. Alf, who sadly passed away two weeks ago, was born on 29 October 1924, therefore was 87. 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.

After the war he was on City’s books until 1947 and 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! 

I was incorrect in saying that he played for Lockheed Leamington but he did appear 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 Norman Smith, with ex-City man Bob Ward as trainer. One of Alf’s playing colleagues at Bedworth in 1953-54 was Jim Brockbank (from Earlsdon) who also contacted me this week to express his condolences and remind me that ‘Shad’ Richards, the goalkeeper in that team, also passed away recently.

Outside of football, Alf worked at Dunlop Aviation Division for a number of years before being elected to the position of Secretary of the Unicorn Social Club, Holbrook Lane, in 1972. He held this position until his retirement in 1993. He was therefore well known not only in the Holbrooks area but also in the wider Warwickshire branch of the Club and Institute Union organisation.


Sunday 4 December 2011

Jim's column 3.12.11




                         CCFC photographed in Denmark on tour in 1946. Setchell is far right in the front row.


City’s trip to the South Coast and the first visit to the new Amex Stadium ended in defeat and disappointment for the 1900 City fans (the biggest away league following for almost two years) who made the long trip. One bright spot was the debut of Gary Gardner who scored after just eight minutes of his debut in a City shirt. According to my records he is only the fourth loanee to score on his first outing for the club. The three others are Lee Mills (2001-02 v Crystal Palace – almost ten years ago to the day), Johnnie Jackson (2002-03 v West Brom) and Micky Quinn (1992-93 v Manchester City). Quinn scored twice on his debut in a 2-3 loss and like Mills had his loan turned into a permanent transfer within weeks. Gardner’s goal however will go down as the fastest by a City loanee. Gary was also the first City debutant scorer for over four years – the last being Julian Gray on the opening day at Barnsley in 2007.


Cov kids Billy Gray and Alf Setchell were both on Coventry City’s books in the period immediately after the Second World War. This week I had news of both of them but very sad news in the case of Alf. Two weeks ago he was badly burned in a fire at his home in Holbrooks Lane and has subsequently died of his injuries.

Recent knowledge of Alf is vague but I do know that he was secretary for a local football team and must have been in his mid-80s – having appeared for City during the World War Two.

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 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. He then disappeared off the scene for almost two years before popping up in April 1946 and making three further appearances near the end of the transitional regional league season.

In May 1946 City travelled to Denmark for some friendly matches and Alf was in the 17-man squad who travelled across a war-ravaged Europe and scored a goal against crack Danish side Aarhus. (see picture).  He 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. I believe he may have played for Lockheed Leamington at some stage after the war but I do know he lived in Coventry for the rest of his life.

Alan Clowes gave me the latest news on Billy Gray. Billy, who celebrates his 80th birthday today, moved to Northumberland with his wife, Dot, a few years ago, to be closer to his family, but misses Coventry. He was a couple of years younger than Setchell and was one of an amazing crop of talented youngsters who played for Modern Machines FC which was in effect City’s youth team in the late 1940s. The team were virtually unbeatable in the Coventry leagues and saved the club thousands of pounds in the transfer market and Billy was a contemporary of players like Lol Harvey, Reg Matthews, Peter Hill, Frank Austin and Gordon Nutt. Billy played at wing-half where there was stiff competition for a first team place with Don Dorman, Harry Barratt, Harvey and others vying for a place. Billy got his chance in October 1951 playing at right half in a 1-1 home draw with Birmingham City. City’s form that autumn was not dissimilar to this season and the result, City’s fourth home game without a win, left them 21st in the Second Division table. At the end of the season City were relegated.

Billy did enough to keep his place for a visit to Leicester the following week but the 1-3 defeat at Filbert Street marked the end of Gray’s first team career. He appeared many times for the reserves in a six-year career at the club but in 1954 he transferred to Kettering Town before reverting to local football with Morris Motors a year later.
Hopefully I can persuade Billy to sign up to the Former Players Association and get him to the Ricoh for a game soon.

Former City player Paul Furlong was spotted playing for St Albans City at Leamington’s New Windmill last weekend. The Londoner who played for City under Terry Butcher and Don Howe in the 1991-92 season, is now 43-years old.