SISU Change it Up with Mowbray Appointment. Now Must Work to Regain Identity.

Mowbray comes with a decent pedigree and experience.

With Tony Mowbray now confirmed as the next man to sit in the hotseat at City, it’s time for the club to support the latest incumbent and finally settle on a method and identity on and off the field, by supporting the new man charged with steering it forward.

Since the team formerly known as the London Wasps swooped in and took over the dressing rooms, exterior walls and most of the backpages. Coventry City Football Club has been without an identity- again. No real ‘home’, renting out a property they should own and any sign of it’s purpose-built diminished next too over-enhanced Wasps on stadium walls.

 
Now, this is no slight on Wasps, who since flying in have shown how a team with a budget such as theirs can operate a smart- if not occasionally grating- marketing strategy.

 
Billboards and hoarding around the surrounding area at the Ricoh sweep through into the centre of the city. Everything is thought of, when for too long in our first rent-paying stint such things were an afterthought for City.
Now, with another well-intentioned manager on the heap the club has to find their identity and it starts at the top, with the owners.

 
The past few managers when their argued ‘care’ of the club has been constantly called into question have all fitted a mold of being young, somewhat unproven and with a stock on the rise.
Mowbray is the antithesis of that and it’s equally surprising and encouraging- if not with tentative steps given the past two plus years.

 
But Tony Mowbray is a manager with a good track record. His brand of football seems to lead to excitement having spoke to a few people who watched his previous stops.He has Premier League experience and has long been a well-thought of manager.

 
The owners seem to of grasped, in some fashion, the predicament we found ourselves in 10 days ago. They can’t afford this club to fall into the land’s fourth tier of football. They have since acted swiftly and, in Mowbray, differently.

 
When Pressley was sacked a week ago, it seemed a foregone conclusion that David Hockaday (or another cheap option) would be swiftly charged with keeping City in League One. Any other name touted seemed wild and misguided given the recent record of cost-cutting decisions made by the owners.

 
Pressley worked an absolute wonder last year with attractive football with plenty of chances created and thanks to Callum Wilson, Leon Clarke and Carl Baker- goals galore. It was fun to go to an (away) game and watch this team with a ‘Cov Kid’ spine go about their buisness. He did marvellously to keep the club in this division with all put on his plate.

 
He had a formula and for a while it worked. Then Leon Clarke sulked and left for Wolverhampton.

 
Then Moussa. Then Wilson. Then Murphy and before the toughest to take, Carl Baker, who walked on down to Milton Keynes, much to his seeming want to see this out.

 

 

Wilson’s multimillion departure is yet to be replaced sufficently

Pressley’s formula and footballing identity he seemed to be working towards at the start of his reign,  was in dissaray, and as he replaced 50+ goals with freebies and deal sweeteners. Something changed, the identity it seemed he was trying to instill had gone. He was scrambling around for a formation and style that either didnt work or didn’t fit the players in the holes he was putting them. The free-flowing goal scoring of late 2013 had gone.

 
By the time Jamie Murphy netted for Sheffield United last week, it probably ended his chance to do what he wanted to do here.

 
The owners had soured on him, as did- if rumours from striving to be relevant sources were true- the players had.

 
Pressley left with the good graces of the fans and the owners stepped in to bring in a different approach.

 
Appointing Mowbray, you would hope at the very least, sees a change in approach from SISU. On the pure face of it, Mowbray would likely not come here if the conveyor of youth loans and cast-off freebies were to continue. You have to expect something of a investment that Pressley never had.

 
At Middlesbrough it appears he was charged with reducing the wage bill and for the most part, he was able to keep them competitive in the Championship. He left when that was no longer happening and now he finds himself charged with a even tougher challenge.

 
But, if successful, the coup it seems to some at the moment will reap rewards few likely expect. It has now been 45 years since this club finished in the Top 6, that is unacceptable.

 
Once survival is hopefully acheived, that will be his main perogative for next season. On the field, Mowbray will bring his own methods and form the Coventry City he wants.

 
But past that, the owners have to change their spots. They have to back their 3rd manager in 3 years. They must make either the Ricoh as much theirs as they can or finally come good on this seen-to-be-believed new stadium.

 
Either to give this club a hand on the rung. The floating mess it has been off-the-field can not go on.

 
You would expect Tony Mowbray to have pressed for assurances on that and likely wouldn’t of taken a job he didn’t apply for if those weren’t alleviated. If it continues, he will likely have plenty of suitors should the situation be untenable.

 
Past that- please start playing the Sky Blue Song before the players emerge. Supposed ‘detatched from reality’ clubs like Chelsea and Man City still keep that tradition, so get us doing that. Please.

 

Otherwise, welcome Tony Mowbray, the appointment few likely saw coming. But the majority are on board with.

 

 

PUSB

 

Saying Goodbye, for now.

I don’t really remember my first game. I know it was either Southampton or Leeds and one of them- I think the latter- had alot of trouble in the away end. It was 1993 or 1994.

To be honest, there’s not alot I remember from those early trips to Highfield Road. I remember players either by name or action- John Williams, Peter Ndlovu, David Rennie- but not alot else.

My first real memory was balling my pathetic eyes out because the West Terrace was ‘too loud’. That was Derby at home towards the end of the 1997 season, apparently we were down after that but we all know what happened next.
Even with the intermittent visits and the youthful distaste for ‘noise’ in a place I, like so many, yearn to be in the boundaries of now. I was hooked. I was a Coventry City fan.

Six weeks ago I went to Crewe, drank too much too early and watched through a Carlsberg induced haze Callum Wilson lead us to a 2-1 win. That- for the forseeable future- is the last time I’ll be a physical part of the Sky Blue Army.

At bloomin’ Crewe.

In about seven weeks I’m off, for a year at least to Canada. I’m a year removed from graduating and through being completely stuck and disheartened I am aiming to go at this ‘getting a degree job’ lark from a different angle or at least get a fresh view. It’s a bit of a random step to take but, I’ll roll with it.

After family and friends the thing I’m sure I’ll miss the most is Coventry City Football Club.

Saddest part? I’m leaving it at its lowest ebb.

In the late-90’s when I started going more frequently and I had a season ticket dotted all over the mecca that was Highfield Road, I didn’t really grasp completely what I was watching. Players like Darren Huckerby, Peter Ndlovu, Dion Dublin, Gary McAllister, Roland Nilsson in full flow. A teenager from Ireland was arguably as good as it got. We beat Chelsea, Arsenal, Man United, Spurs, Everton at home, frequently.

Now, with me in full grasp of what is happening and context to place the current guise of the club inTO, its fair to say it is a case of being in complete ruin. Not only are we unable to afford to keep moderately talented players or attract Premiership cast-offs. We play 35 miles down the road and have a fan base which even with a common ‘enemy’ or enemies seems to have a under-current of in-fighting on social media and the awkward phone-ins.

But despite that in-fighting the passion is still there. Days like MK Dons away at the end of November, the trip to Molineux earlier this season show that off. This football club might be a dishevelled mess, but it’s our mess.

It’s not the council’s or Avro’s/SISU/They who will not be named (DELETE AS APPLICABLE), it’s ours.

This man has been a breath of fresh air.

We have a manager who seems to realise that. He seemed in the early chapters of this season put that to the fore. Often paying glowing mention to not the opposition or John Fleck’s Scotland future, but to us- the long suffering, club-orphaned fans.

Steven Pressley has the potential to be the best manager we have had in my time of ‘going’- no pressure Mr Pressley. I didn’t get to watch Jimmy’s teams or George and John’s dancing. I saw Big Ron’s sunglasses, Gordon Strachan’s Moroccans and then a revolving door of incumbents victim of a club on a unrelenting slide with power brokers unwilling to point the finger of blame on themselves.

But Pressley, gives us hope. I don’t remember a time when we had a ‘manager on the up’. He has a grasp on the task at hand and we have to keep him.

We have a goalscorer we waited nearly 15 years for and we have to keep him.

We have another name on the surprisingly long list of all too often game-saving, ‘one of the best in the league’ Goalkeepers and we have to keep him.

We have a unbefitting home laying dormant and used only as a pawn in a desperate game of chess where the victims are us fans and we have to get back there.

If all that happens, I could miss out on a fun few years and this club in ruin could prosper and clamber back up the rising tide of the Football League ladder.

In the last couple of years I’ve had the chance- as I’ve posted up on here- to meet and spend nowhere near enough time with people who were with the club when it was at the top and beating the best frequently. People like Ronnie Farmer, Chris Cattlin, Andy Blair, Garry Thompson and Paul Telfer all had one constant. The fun they had at the club. The memories they have, in Ronnie’s case 50 years on.

If somehow one of those stories, one of those beliefs could resonate with the powerbrokers of the still-warring parties, you can only hope it’d get through and that we’d get those days again. But, the sad truth need not be said.

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I don’t really know the point of this post past that I wanted to do a end of season piece and I wanted to write once more with at least a smidgen of credibility I won’t have when following games on the t’internet from somewhere in Canada.

I haven’t written as much as I wanted to this year, but with people like Neil (SkyBluesBlog) and the chaps who do the CCFC podcast I felt I’d be trapsing over ground they had covered as good, if not better than I would on here.

Thanks to everyone who read this blog I only started to get by in a University module. Thanks to everyone who has shared it, Retweeted it or even is reading it now for the very first time.

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One final memory to sign off on. It’s retold with some eloquent creative license.

When I was in Year 9, I was standing outside the History classroom- which ironically- was taught by a Northampton supporting teacher. Two days before I had sat in the ‘Sky Blue Stand’ and watched us lose at home to Grimsby in the then Division 1. Before we went in the room, the teacher told us that Gordon Strachan had been sacked.

The response from me and others was basically- ‘We’ll still get promoted.’

Boy, was I wrong.
PUSB.

Young Core Accentuating the Positives for City

Photo owned/from CovTelegraph.net

It was a terrible summer as a Coventry City fan. There have been plenty similar bouts of turbulence, but this was spectacular in it’s desolation. The exit door was worn to the core, with both players and even the actual Football Club exiting stage left out of the Ricoh.

The man who was far too often dismissed at the back end of a up and down 2012/13 season as ‘not Mark Robins’ stood tall in his waistcoat and maintained that the players left standing were firstly enough to mount a bid to get out of a 10-point hole and secondly good enough to give the City faithful something to latch onto for this and future seasons.

Now, last season I wrote that this was the year to judge Pressley on. When he came in he had his top scorer on the operating table and a first ten point deduction kill all excitment and spirit that had built up before his arrival. He had square pegs in round holes to limp to the line.

Over the summer whilst a storm whipped up all around Pressley maintained that he had a group that would produce. All the time whilst being able to instill a belief, a way of playing that some couldn’t see working.

Fifteen league games in to the season, it is and then some.

30 points from 15 games, just one defeat at ‘home’ and two of the three joint-top scorers in the division. It’s working just fine.

Thomas has struck a fine partnership with John Fleck in City’s midfield

With the news on Tuesday that Conor Thomas had signed a new deal to stay at the club until at least 2016 following the similar signatures from Callum Wilson, Jordan Willis and Jordan Clarke then Pressley has the core of a squad together for building his ‘Coventry Way’.

Thomas is playing the best football of his young career. Wilson, finally fit, just oozes confidence and looks likely to score everytime he touches the ball and has pace to scare not seen since Mr Darren Huckerby. Willis is England youth-capped and started the season at the heart of the defence before man-marking Bakary Sako out of the game at Molineux, no mean feat. Then there’s Jordan Clarke; part of the ‘Bomb Squad’ at the beginning of pre-season before being re-integrated straight into central defence for Crawley on opening day. Since then, fans would be hard pushed to not put Clarke as the most consistent performer so far this season.

Cyrus Christie stands in the way of a un-City like full house of securing the best young talent at the club for the years ahead. When Christie was ruled out for a few weeks in the middle of a particular purple patch in form, the panic button- never far away for most City fans- was being tickled at the prospect of a Cyrus-less City. Christie is now back to fitness and rampaging down the right wing this weekend at Bradford. But in the time he missed, we didn’t lose. An anomaly? No, just how things are with Steven Pressley

In no way am I belittling the impact Cyrus has on this side. From the first glimpse of him, he has been fantastic despite the results not matching his performances. It’s more a testament to the ‘way’ that Pressley is instilling incredibly quickly. Fresh blood is stepping up and not only ‘getting by’ but thriving. Not many who were there will easily forget when Aaron Phillips appeared in the Wolves’ penalty box at Molineux in the dying embers of that game. Or even earlier, when Billy Daniels, stepping in for a suspended Carl Baker and nabbing three goals in that spell.

If a photo could sum up a season. This would probably be it. Phi

On Friday night we saw a bench made completely up of Academy products, (11 of the 18-man squad in fact) some unknown to most City fans. There was a time where that would scare the living Villa out of a City fan. Now, there’s that part of us where we hear Pressley talk them up, we believe him and want them to be leading the line, or caressing the ball around the pitch with consumate ease. We now believe it will happen and look forward to being there when it does.

The job Pressley is doing can’t be under-stated nor can just how much of a bloody hoot watching it is becoming.

PUSB!!

City fight on with ‘Bomb Squad’ cloud present.

What a terrible week.

The confirmation of the liquidation on Friday morning hurt, we all knew it was coming but that didn’t lessen the blow. Two games in and a cup run finished already so I thought I’d write a post on the last few days and something which I was rattled by on Saturday but now, given the positive vibes coming from the away end at Leyton Orient, getting irritated with. The so-called ‘Bomb Squad’ cloud hanging over Steven Pressley and his threadbare squad.

William Edjenguele, Kevin Malaga, Gary McSheffrey and Steve Jennings were ‘bombed’ out early in the summer and have took on a life of their own in the early days of this already tiring season. It’s the ready made excuse when the opposition scores and its tiresome already.

I did gripe early in pre-season about it, so this could be a little rich, but taking a step back and looking at the state of affairs Pressley is facing, it’s the minimalistic on the grander scale. But tonight the ‘tweets’ seemed to be bomb-centric from those listening like me and just, no.

There is a few reasonsthat the calls for their inclusion in the team from hereon are hollow. Firstly there is Kevin Malaga the Frenchman barely saw since he was signed by Andy Thorn about a year ago. I never saw him play and upon his arrival Mark Robins bombed him out to Nuneaton and the Academy, but people have seemed to of forgotten that with Pressley taking the same tact. As for the other three, they spent parts of last year lambasted from those now calling for their heroic return. Hollow.

Edjenguele immediately struck a rapport with the City faithful for his interaction on social media etc, but despite a few phenomenal displays he was laboured at times and Pressley never really seemed to warm to him at the backend of last season. Jennings, for me was the most surprising one of those put out to pasture. He was something we had lacked since Michael Doyle left and popped up with a few goals. But despite that, his stature and perceived weakness in Pressley’s system seemed to rile a few at the end of last season.

McSheffrey has found himself on the outside looking in.

Then there is the hometown blue-eyed boy Gary McSheffrey. The multi-million pound man who came home for free. Something has gone from his game. What it is he will probably be the only one who truly knows so I am not going to beat that drum, but something is lacking. At this level, I and many others expected more of a goalscoring output and while he shone in games (Hartlepool away sticks out most) without that tally added too the ‘fall’ which was very evident and with wages in the climate the club is in at this moment, it was the most predictable ‘bombing’ of a player.

But despite that, it hasn’t stopped it being brought up as a sore point or reasoning for  defeat or error, but it doesn’t stick.

Pressley since he came in to replace Robins has been up against it at every turn. Behind the scenes is well documented and the prior knowledge he had of what has come since pre-appointment is up to debate but he has faced a constant embargo handcuffing him from the moment he walked in. He has faced his goalscorer being put on the operation table the moment he sat down for his first cup of tea and then faced the most ridiculous of pre-seasons this club has gone through.

He also is suffering from being in the shadow of Robins himself, who some still pine for almost to a fault. But under Robins was it any different?

Under Robins Roy O’Donovan and Cody McDonald (when we had just one other forward) and Malaga (when we had 2 experienced around) were bombed out. Something seemingly forgotten six months on with the circumstances dramatically more chaotic than when Robins cleared his desk pre-compensation package.

But yet, 4 days into the season proper and there are still sticks are being used to beat Pressley down with.

The most common gripe, the four bombed out players.

Pressley has faced it all since he walked in the room and has took the same move his predecessor made but has faced a somewhat unfathomable bigger reaction. He had to take control of things in one way and backing down now will see him in a poor light. Once this embargo lifts, if it ever does then he will bring he players he likes-just as Robins did with Adams and Clarke- and this argument will hopefully quieten.

At a time when the manager and this squad needs support, people just insist on pining after Robins and not giving Pressley a fair crack. Something his bosses are even more guilty of.

However, with the side in its current situ they seem to be giving people reason for glimmers of optimism, tonight particualrly, where it has been refreshing to read positivity coming from Leyton Orient tonight and that it was football at the root of people enjoying watching this young City side fight and claw away from home.

PUSB!

In a few days time it will be a different story as the first ‘Sixfields experience’ will greet City fans and the charity game at the Ricoh is a masterstroke of opportunism and 130 years of existance will be rightly celebrated from plenty of names. So bravo CCFPA and all concerned and I look forward to making my first trip away this year.

 

 

Unsung Sky Blue Heroes: Part 4- Paul Telfer

Telfer was at the club for 6 years and a part of a more stable time at the club

In this final interview I spoke to Paul Telfer, a Strachan-mainstay and someone who almost could epitomise the term ‘unsung’. Versatile midfielder who always seemed to pop up with a goal. Enjoyable chat covering his current career and his thoughts on what the club did or didn’t acheive during his time here and also his thoughts on Oggy’s showing against Sutton.

This was published in the Coventry Observer earlier in the year.

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There are places you wouldn’t expect to find ex-Coventry players. One of those places is in the dugout at Sutton United. But that’s exactly where you will find Paul Telfer on a Saturday afternoon.

Telfer, who made 208 appearances during a six-year spell at Highfield Road is the Assistant Manager at the Blue Square South side who famously knocked City out of the FA Cup in 1989

Telfer, 41, spent two years out of the game before taking up coaching locally to where he lives now in the south, before joining Sutton.

“My neighbour is the manager at Sutton and asked me to come and join his staff. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but it’s really well organised.”

Talking about his time at City, it is a time he reflects on with fondness.

Telfer said: “When I joined Coventry I joined for nothing at first and the fee was decided at a tribunal. Ron (Atkinson) wanted to pay about 500-600k for me and Luton were asking for something silly like £2m. The tribunal met them at the middle.”

“I don’t think Ron was too happy with me to be honest, as I took up most of his budget that summer!”

“When I joined there was a fantastic bunch of lads there. Gordon was a player-coach at the time and took most of the training as Ron slowly moved upstairs and Gordon took over.”

In Telfer’s second year at the club it was one which came down to a typical final day escape from relegation with a 2-1 win at Tottenham.

It was a win and relegation escape that Telfer says was because of one player; Steve Ogrizovic.

“He kept us up that day. He made 3 or 4 unbelievable saves, off his face, his armpit. We couldn’t believe we had stayed up.”

One thing Telfer remembers from the Spurs game was Garry Pendrey, Strachan’s assistant. He said: “The game was delayed 15 or 20 minutes and the other games had finished and Garry was running up and down the touchline getting the message across like a madman. He was shouting ‘keep it like this and we’re staying up’ and we did somehow.”

The win at Tottenham was the culmination

Telfer in his current role as Assistant Manager at Sutton United.

of a sparkling run of late-season form which saw wins against Liverpool and Chelsea. Which again was puzzling to Telfer, he said: “Every year us as players would pull out boots up late in the season and we would ask ourselves why we didn’t do that sooner.”

“It’s something me Richard (Shaw), Paul (Williams) and Noel (Whelan) still talk about it when we see each other. We can’t believe we were fighting relegation on a consistant basis with the players we had.”

“We had Gary (McAllister), Dion, Darren then later on Hadji, Chippo, Robbie (Keane) and Boateng came in. But we still can’t believe we didn’t do better than we did and that must be the same for the supporters.”

The next year, City went on a run to the Quarter Final of the FA Cup until a shoot-out defeat at Sheffield United.

“I scored in the replay and in the shoot-out, so the defeat wasn’t my fault!”

It was playing under Strachan how Telfer spent the majority of his career from Coventry onwards and he is effusive in his praise for him.

“Gordon was by far the best manager I played for, when he took over from Ron I was with him then until 2008.His work ethic as a player was incredible and he was like that off the pitch.”

Looking back at his time at Highfield Road, Telfer says it was the most enjoyable spell of his career. He said: “I probably didn’t appreciate it enough when I was at Coventry. I was just playing with a great bunch of lads for a good club ran by good people.”

“Me, Rich, Darren and Noel used to go on holidays together. It wasn’t something I did at another club. Noel was the social entertainer in those days.”

“At Coventry we had the best strike duo I played with in Dion and Darren. When Dion’s head got sweaty and he would climb up and flick it on, he was like a Peter Crouch on steroids. Darren could just run and run, so fast”

Telfer said he enjoyed every facet of his time at Coventry.

He said: “I loved training. The lads were great and Gordon’s training was lively; loved it.”

“One day, I went back in from training and was getting changed and all our gear had gone. So we were there without our car keys, everything. This was a Premiership club and someone had come in the back door and took everyone’s gear. But it probably did John (Salako) a favour.”

In the 2000-2001 season Telfer was a part of Strachan’s side which suffered relegation from the Premiership.

He said: “It was devastating, obviously. I broke my leg in the game at Villa. I left the pitch and we were 2-0 up so I thought we were going to do it. Then we see Derby beat United at Old Trafford. Some things you just can’t legislate for.”

Looking on the current state of his old club Telfer said: “It makes me sad to see the situation they are in. They have a fantastic, Premiership stadium. City have been in freefall for 3 or 4 years and all it needs is a bit of stability, can’t expect to go straight back up. He’s just got to stabilise it and it’ll get better and better.”

But, 11 years after he left he is still puzzled at the lack of success during his time.

“That team unquestionably underachieved. Personally I won two titles at Celtic but the team we had at Coventry, we should’ve had more success.”

“Gordon left Coventry because things didn’t go well. But he went to Southampton, got us to the Cup final. He went to Celtic and won the title 2 or 3 times. So he is obviously a good manager, just that group of players didn’t peform as well as we should have.”

Now at Sutton, with all their connections to his old club, he admits he hadn’t watched the cup tie which made Sutton famous and City infamous until recently.

He said: “I saw the game a few months ago and Oggy comes flying out for the ball and misses it. I haven’t seen him since I watched it unfortunately.”

 

Unsung Sky Blue Heroes: Part 3- Garry Thompson and Andy Blair

Thompson, who now works in PR remembers his time at Coventry with fondness. Picture from http://www.elauk.com

Part 3 sees my interview with two of the side who reached the semi-final of the League Cup, Andy Blair and Garry Thompson. They talk about expectation and how the side never made the next step as each young part was sold off in the next year or two. Their final words sadly, didnt come to fruition.

This was published in the matchday programme for the JPT semi-final against Crewe.

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In January 1981 Gordon Milne’s Coventry side stepped out in a cup semi-final for the very first time in the club’s 98 year history.

Fast forward thirty years and Coventry have again sealed a place in the semi-final stages of a competition for the first time, the Johnstone Paint Trophy.

But back in 1981, it was the League Cup and two of Milne’s side look back on the tie over two legs with West Ham with some regret after a 4-3 aggregate defeat saw them miss out on the club’s first Wembley trip.

Garry Thompson and Andy Blair were key parts of Milne’s team and both had progressed up through the ranks together before getting so close to Wembley.

In 1981, like this season, played the first leg at home but didn’t get off to the best start as West Ham took the lead through Billy Bonds. It would get worse before the break after a break down in communication between Thompson and ‘keeper Les Sealey.

Thompson explains: “They had a throw in and I saw Alan Devonshire make a move to join in the attack, so I tracked back and as he controlled the ball I took it off him and looked back to see where Sealey was, looked down, passed the ball and as I looked up, Sealey was near me and the ball was trickling in the back of the net.”

“As it went in, Les just looked at me and with his arms out goes ‘Keepers!’.”

Thompson says it was a unusually quiet dressing room at half-time and that the usual good cop-bad cop duo Gordon Milne and assistant Ron Wylie went with made way for a singular message.

Thompson remembers: “Me and Les were going at it a bit, Gordon comes in and says ‘You’ve got in a bit of a hole, but you are playing well and if we get the next goal we will win this game.’ He turns around and walks out the room.”

Milne’s words seemed prophetic an hour later as after a Gerry Daly goal a double from Garry Thompson gave the side a 1-goal lead ahead of the return leg at Upton Park.

After the game, most of the team went out celebrating, apart from two-goal Thompson who didn’t realise the weight of his brace until the next morning.

“You know that feeling you get when you walk in a room and they have been talking about you. It was like that everywhere I went. When I got home I said to my missus that I didn’t like it, it felt like I had done something.”

Two weeks later what Thompson calls an ‘intense’ atmosphere greeted the City squad at Upton Park.

Thompson in the fall out from the first game had received some hate mail from West Ham fans and he had a eye opening experience in the pre-game warm up.

“The ball went out play and I went to get it and they tried to pull me in to the stands. Danny (Thomas) tried and he got similar treatment. It was the first time that side of the game had hit home for me.”

For Andy Blair the memories are different to Thompsons of that night in West London, Blair said: “I remember the 2^nd leg because we wore yellow t-shirts. I didn’t understand why we were wearing them. We wore Sky Blue and they wore claret and blue so it wasn’t much of a clash. It was on TV so maybe that had something to do with it.”

“It was a wonderful atmosphere to play in but a massive blow not to get to Wembley.”

Blair continues: “I never let myself think we were going to win it, I was scared to. Unfortunately my fears were justified with what transpired at Upton Park. It was a crushing blow.”

“1981 remains my biggest footballing regret. You don’t get many chances to get to a final or play at Wembley. We were a young side and we maybe thought we’d get another chance, but we didn’t.”

It’s a sense of regret Thompson shares, he added: “We should’ve won that 2^nd leg. Mark (Hateley) missed three chances in the first 20 minutes. We watched the final and just thought it should have been us playing there. That would have pushed us on a level.”

It’s the two legged nature of the competition which now faces the current City side in the JPT and both Blair and Thompson are agreed on what advice they would give to the current squad.

“They have to enjoy and savour  every moment of it. A total concentration on what they face between now and the end of the 2^nd leg; Be passionate about it but try to remain calm also.”

Blair added that the run this far in a competition was much needed: “This club needs to pick the people in the city up. The fans are right behind the club and it’s great to see this recent upward curve and I hope it continues.”

“You can’t not notice the good feel factor around. It benefits everyone. With a good spirit people will spend more and go to the games more often which has to be good.”

Despite the heartache of the cup exit, both Thompson and Blair look back fondly on their time at Coventry.

Blair said: “It was fabulous being at the club back then. We had good pro’s to learn from as a young player but we were also an especially good bunch of young players coming up through the ranks.”

After the defeat at Upton Park, the side were knocked out of the FA Cup soon after and the semi-final appearance was the seeming catalyst of the break up of the team Gordon Milne had built.

But it was a break up, which for both Blair and Thompson, was one they weren’t keen on being a part of.

Thompson said: “I didn’t want to leave. Jim rang me up and told me to go to West Brom tomorrow and to sign with them. I told him I was happy here, I was settled. This went on all night with Gordon ringing me.”

“I relented, drove to the ground the next day and signed. Got home and Dave had fined me. I drove over to his house and explained what had happened. He didn’t know I had been sold.”

“Danny and a few of the other lads told me that when I left they used it as motivation to leave the club as they didn’t.”

Andy Blair left prior to Thompson as his contract had expired and he agreed a move to local rivals, Aston Villa.

Blair, along with Thompson was in a impressive crop of Academy graduates.

Blair explains: “Gordon had moved upstairs and Dave had came in as manager, but I’d already agreed to move to Villa. I didn’t want to leave, but the offer never came from the club so I left. Then Garry left, Danny left, Gillespie went. Within a year that team who had come up together had all left.”

Blair and Thompson are both members of the club’s Former Player’s Association and say the treatment they get is fantastic from everyone at the club even 30 years on.

Thompson in particular says: “I bought my wife a few weeks ago and on the way home she asked if I was always treated like that everytime I come. My lad, when he came couldn’t believe it either. It’s just the way the club is.”

But with Wembley two games away Andy Blair has a piece of advice for the current crop of players as they begin their careers. He said: “They have to get the most out of it. The more you give to it the more you will get, both financially and emotionally.”

Unsung Sky Blue Heroes: Part 2- Chris Cattlin

Cattlin on one of his many visits as a CCFPA member. Pic from http://www.ccfpa.co.uk

In the second interview I did I spoke to one member of the only City side to play in Europe, Chris Cattlin. He remembers his first impressions of Highfield Road and explains the difference this club makes to him when he returns for functions.

This piece was published in the Coventry Observer earlier in the year, this is just an excerpt from our chat on the south-coast.

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It’s been 43 years since Coventry City last finished in the top 6 of a division, something the current crop are looking to correct this season.

One member of that 1970 team- Chris Cattlin, thinks that last year’s trials and tribulations will prove to be the biggest learning curve they have during their careers.

Cattlin, 66, said: “Going through what the younger players did last season would have been hard for them. But this season’s upturn after last season it makes this ‘up’ that much sweeter.

“Winning games and being up there will be good for the younger players. It’ll educate them and speed that education up. It’d be a great thing for them to sample the playoffs.

“Losing games become habit and that is the same with winning games.Football is all about confidence in yourself and it seems that this group has that quality now.”

Cattlin was a firm fans favourite during his eight years after being signed by Noel Cantwell in 1968 and was affectionately known as ‘Spider’ explains his relationship and nickname, adding: “I was a long, lanky lump and I wouldn’t dive in, I’d trap the attackers in the corner then wallop them. I had a great relationship with the fans at Coventry, they knew what they were going to get from me.”

With the top six finish in 1970 City qualified for their first and only European club competition. After beating Trakia Plovdiv in the first round, City found themselves up against the heavyweight of Bayern Munich.

Before the trip to Munich, the side’s chances were dealt a blow at the airport. Cattlin explains: “Bill (Glazier) came down with chicken pox at the Airport and had to miss the game, Eric McManus came into the side. We didn’t play that bad, but every shot they had seemed to go in and we got stuffed (6-1).”

“We should have carried onwards but it didn’t happen and it’s sad now to see where the club now sits.”

Despite being unable to repeat the successes of 1970, which also saw the club win a record 10 away games, not matched until this season’s team, Cattlin said it was still tight knit group, adding: “It was a tight knit group. The youngsters coming through like Mick Ferguson and others mixed with myself, Hutch and Ernie. There were no ‘Billy big timers’. If anyone tried it on, we’d soon sort them out. We were a group who played to the best of our ability in that special Sky Blue.I thought we’d build on finishing in the top 6. It didn’t happen though.”

Cattlin was signed from Huddersfield in 1968 for £70,000 and when he signed it left one of London’s big club’s at the altar. With two over-riding reasons; Noel Cantwell and Highfield Road.

“I was meeting Tommy Doherty and Chelsea after speaking to Noel. I drove down to Coventry and was greeted with TV cameras at Highfield Road as Coventry were playing Man United the next day. I met Noel and didn’t go to London. It was something which felt right the moment I walked in.”

“Noel was a great guy. He was someone you could have a laugh with but could just as often be deadly serious with you. He was the best manager I played under at Coventry. He could talk Football all day if he could. He had a more philosophical approach compared to Joe Mercer’s psychology approach. He was brilliant to play for.”

It’s that feeling for the club Cattlin says is still felt when he returns as part of the Former Players Association, Cattlin added: “When I walk back in there now, it gives me an added spring in my step. It’s the same feeling I got all those years ago. It’s what told me that Coventry City was the club for me all those years ago.”

As a member of the CCFPA, Cattlin says the chance to reunite with his former team mates is a highlight, with his first trip as a member a fond memory: “First time I was invited down it was snowing in Brighton, so I presumed the game was off, but I’d arranged to meet Steiny. Kirk Stephens rang me in the morning and told me it was on, so I drove up. Got the ground, went in the lounge and couldn’t see Steiny, so I asked Willie Carr and he pointed to this bald bloke just over from us.

“Willie was known for his pranks so I walked over a bit apprehensively to him and said ‘is that you Steiny?’. He shot around and replied ‘Who bloody else is it going to be!’. Straight away laughing together, it’s always fantastic to see them all.”

Over 30 years since leaving Cattlin still has a tinge of sadness about his exit from Highfield Road: “I was gutted to leave. Last time I drove out I was devastated. I cared about the people there. I had many good friends. “

“I played for Huddersfield and Brighton and had success after football but my one big love has always been Coventry City Football Club and it always will be.”

Unsung Sky Blue Heroes: Part 1- Ronnie Farmer

Charismatic Farmer was full of stories from one of City’s more memorable era’s

As some of you may know I have just finished a University course and as part of my final year I had to put together a portfolio of articles. I decided to talk to 5 ex-City players and reminisce with them about their time at the club.

First up was Ronnie Farmer. He joined the club in the late-1950’s and was a part of the Sky Blue revolution which ended with promotion to the top tier in 1967. He talked about his first impressions of Jimmy Hill and what the first thing that Jimmy said to him was. How important the characters in that side through the 60’s were. It was a brilliant talk and he reeled off story after story.

As tomorrow could be a dark dark day in our club’s history, I thought I would give some reading to remember the good times before this almighty mess.

Note: This was published in the matchday programme for the Swindon game, which also was a CCFPA ‘Legends Day’.

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This year has seen City celebrate 50 years of the ‘Sky Blue Song’. The song written by then-manager Jimmy Hill and John Camkin it is one that still resonates with the City faithful.

Ronnie Farmer who played 311 games in a near 10 year spell at Highfield Road was one of the few present to the song’s first airing.

Farmer, a midfielder who found the net 52 times during his City career was on the bus when Hill and Camkin first aired the famous song.

Farmer said: “Jim and John were writing the words but needed a tune to go with it. It was on the way back from Peterboro’ I think it was where they decided on the boating song and they got everyone to sing it with them. Jim told me not to bother though, as I couldn’t sing.”

The story is one of many the 76-year old Farmer rolls through with a smile on his face as a member of one of the most successful City eras.

Farmer joined from Nottingham Forest in 1958 when the club were in Division Four and under the guidance of former player Billy Frith.

Frith, with Farmer in his side led the Sky Blues to promotion that year and after missing out on promotion in 1961 the club then decided to make a move which saw Billy Frith replaced by Jimmy Hill.

Farmer in action.

The departure of Frith was one Farmer says he felt about bad about, he said: “Bill was a great bloke. He was the one who bought me here. I was upset when he left because as a player you feel that it was your fault.”

When Farmer first met the new manager, his affinity to the club was nearly bought to an end, Farmer remembers: “When Jimmy first came, he tried to sell me!”

“I was injured and I was struggling a bit to get back to fitness. He called me in and told me he wanted me to leave in a swap for Willie Humphries. I said that he hadn’t seen me play. He told me he didn’t think I’d be good enough. He eventually relented and gave me so many games to prove yourself.”

“After those games, he offered me a two-year contract to stay.”

With Hill aware of his abilities, City started their climb up the league ladder. It was a climb which Farmer was promised on by Jimmy Hill.

“When he gave me the two-year deal, he told me that we were going to go after it and you trusted his word because we all knew this team was good.”

After a promotion in 1964 to the 2nd division, Farmer remembers well that there was something happening, Farmer said: “It was brilliant under Jim. We were slowly pushing on. Ronnie Rees came in up front, Willie as well. Willie used to get me penalties with his pace because he was too quick and defenders would just hack him down.”

Farmer said it was a good team playing well consistently: “When you get the team we had, we had a squad of good players and we were winning games.”

According to Farmer there were other reasons for the upturn on the pitch under Jimmy Hill, one being the personality of the legendary manager.

“He was just like one of the lads. Most of the time when he lost it, it was with the forwards. When he came in, it all changed. We were given our own gear, a pair of boots and the rest of it when we used to have to fight for gear because the club wasn’t very well off.”

Farmer also credited the role the people around Jimmy Hill had saying: “Along with Jim, Alan Dicks and Pat Seward were the best coaches I played for in my career. We were trying these4-3-3 formations in training, Pat used to set up first’s against second’s games where the second’s wouldn’t have a striker, but they’d still win, ahead of his time.”

But possibly the biggest thing for City and their climb up the leagues were continuity and an unquestionable team spirit.

Farmer recalls: “The team came up through the leagues, pretty much all together. The back four with George (Curtis) never changed it seemed. Players like Ronnie (Rees), Dave Clements came in with Brucky and we started to gel together. We were together for 10 years, we knew how each other breathed.”

That continuity of players bred camaraderie, and listening to Farmer it was often himself, George Curtis and Bill Glazier at the heart of the more memorable stories.

“Bill, being a goalkeeper was a nutter. One day he drove down the hill to Ryton and drove over the pitch and with the boggy field, his car got stuck with track marks there. To this day I don’t think Jim knew who had done that.”

Remembering another Glazier antic Farmer continued: “Pulling these ‘wheelies’ was something Bill did often. He sped onto the car park at Highfield Road one day and handbrake turned to a halt spraying the asphalt everywhere. John Minton was in his car, shouted to Bill ‘You silly git’, to which Bill replied, have a look at your car. John got out and his car was covered in asphalt thanks to Bill.”

As for his captain- George Curtis- Farmer remembers when a young apprentice Bobby Gould discovered George’s fiery side. Farmer said: “We used to train at the ground and one day Bobby came in and George asked him to clean his boots. Bobby told him to do it himself. George stood up, in just his jockstrap, and chased Bobby up the tunnel and up the stands. Chasing him in his bare feet shouting for Bobby to take his punishment, it must have been nearly an hour before he caught him.”

Fifty years on and as a member of the former players association (CCFPA), Farmer is a regular at the Ricoh and still shares the same laughs with his former team mates.

“I was speaking to Bill a few years ago and asked if he’d ever conceded a hat-trick at Highfield Road, he said no. I told him he had, from me. I scored one just before he joined. He wasn’t impressed.”

“George is the same, when I see him I take the mickey out of him and run.”

But looking back Farmer will always remember his 10 years as a player at the club, he said: “It was brilliant. My biggest disappointment was not playing in the first division at Highfield Road. I only played away before I went to Notts County.”

Farmer was a key cog in Jimmy Hill’s team and the fact it nearly never happened is something the two joke about today: “I saw Jim when he had his statue, I went up to him and asked if he remembered the face. He went, ‘Ronnie! Course I do, I tried to sell you.”

“I was lucky to play for three great clubs in my career, but Coventry is my club.”

 

 

Is this the end? SFC Opinion:

The move we all dreaded seemed to be confirmed on Wednesday night as it was revealed a deal is in place for City to play their home games at Northampton Town’s Sixfields Stadium for the next three years. It’s a move which still requires the Football League’s approval, probably later today (Thursday) but the confidence in them stopping this move is just not there.

So after a absence of a few months, I thought I’d get back to this blog and share my thoughts, but as ever with this club, where the hell to start.

I won’t be going to Northampton. That seems a decent place to begin. I am a Coventry City fan, always will be but I won’t be one that trapses all that way, to watch our home games and in turn seaming the pockets of our owners.

For home game memories I’ll just live off the memories of getting on the number 13 bus and walking through the turnstiles and watching Dion Dublin outjump the best and Darren Huckerby scare the hell out of full backs with untethered pace. I’ll remember Mo Konjic’s kamikaze runs, the 3-2 win over Man Utd; Hadji’s curler around Seaman; Keane’s wonder volley against Arsenal; Froggatt giving birth to ‘you don’t save those’ from Andy Gray against Everton; Jimmy Hill singing from the directors box at the last game at Highfield Road and everything in between.

I am severely dating my support of this club which has been there since the 13th April 1988. My first Highfield experience was in the 1993/4 season, I think. Hooked. Line and sinker.

Saturday’s couldn’t come quick enough, that ‘least we’ll win a few more games next year’ line when Paul Merson relegated us at Villa Park yealded nothing. Now our club is one man’s yes vote away from ruin. That isn’t scaremongering, it is the brutal truth.

I wanted to get my opinion across and I’m struggling to contain anger, disappointment just sheer depression really. Our football club has been taken away callously with total disregard for 130 years of history close to being wiped away. We have all sat and watched the Portsmouth’s, Plymouth’s, Scarborough’s flitter with ruin and in the latter’s call succumb to it. But, honestly despite the warning signs being there for 15+ years, really think it would ever come to this.

We all have one common interest, most people who read this will anyway and that’s this frustrating club we call ours and this may sound like a sickly letter of a ‘lost love’ but it is what it is. Some people will now show it in different ways. Some will either give up entirely and call it a day, some will support no matter what or where the clubs go and there are some, like myself, who will trapse up motorways and the like to do anything to throttle the life out of the current owners and get the club back in the City limits and only stand on terraces as an away fan.

I have completely rambled through this but yep, this is what happens when the rug is pulled completely from under you.

Later today this could all be outdated and the Football League may just pay notice to the outcry that has come from most clubs’ fans tonight, even Mr Jeff Stelling has offered his support to this club, so far being the most high-profile ‘supporter’.

Doesn’t seem right but as ever, PUSB!

Pressley’s appointment shows it isn’t a case of now or never for City

Steven Pressley is our new messiah then.

Lee Carsley’s stint as caretaker ended frustratingly last Saturday in the defeat to Swindon, but now it’s another of those chapters to turn and Pressley has 10 games to cement a rapid legacy not seen since Mark Robins.

Pressley, with no disrespect, barely has a baptism of fire with 3 relegation threatened side’s to come up against in his first eight days in the job and if unscathed, we will be sitting pretty as the team’s above likely continue to trip each other up.

But what on Pressley then; for me, there is not a lot to go off. He seems to be someone who commands respect from his peers with glowing recommendations coming from Sir Alex Ferguson and people who follow the goings on north of the border more than me.

Furthering Cyrus Christie’s development could be key for City next season. Photo owned by Coventry Telegraph

Reading just a few articles on the new man and it gives reason for optimism, as well as the previously mentioned respect and fire he played with, there’s the style he has adapted.

This article he wrote in November is the clearest sign of his beliefs of how the game should be played and how club’s should, in some form, go about their business.

He says he is of the belief of getting young players to learn the basics of the game while keeping the passing aspect relevant is refreshing and with a core of young players at the club, who at times have seemed prone to an attack of nerves, his presence and past of working with youngsters could well stand us in good stead down the road.

In recent weeks the future of the club has again come into serious question with ACL/Council fighting against SISU with both seeming to position themselves as the victim when that is the fans and staff at the club and not people who are running the two businesses.

We have also had Tim Fisher get on the FFP implementation from next season and what that will do to the playing staff at the club. Wages need trimming yet again and what that will leave us with is unclear, with it seeming, to me at least, to indicate a reliance on youth yet again with ‘affordable experience’ coming in to guide them.

Pressley, on first glance, seems the perfect advocate to implement the new blood from the academy next season and onwards as it is his way of working at Falkirk for the past two years.

All the early signs suggest that despite the complaints of the time taken for an appointment, as is SISU and Steve Waggott’s way, that it is a process which benefits the club.

Waggott’s way seems to have a way of working.

Waggott has been charged with two managerial appointments, Mark Robins and Steven Pressley. Neither were ‘tipped’ and neither come with a hefty price tag but both seem to be unearthed against the grain and Waggott, unlike most at the club in the past (cc: Peter Reid and Mike McGinnity) doesn’t chase the headlines or listen to those who, without a sense of irony, become Eric Black’s agent (cc: Richard Keys) but makes a decision thoroughly and with the good of the club ahead of cheap press coverage.

The contract Pressley has signed also goes against recent talk of a Coventry City apocalypse but also falls in line with this vision of implementing the blooding of youngsters and making a ‘City way’ that hasn’t been seen since George and John or Jimmy and Mr Robbins.

It isn’t the ‘splash’ some would of liked, but from Keith Curle, Paul Dickov and the ‘next manager odds constant’ Phil Brown being mentioned it comes across early doors as a measured decision which could prove to be a wind change for City and the Sky Blue Army.

As for myself, he wasn’t someone I even knew was in the game still and wouldn’t of been someone I’d of even thought of but in the last few days when the appointment grew more clear and closer to being sealed some research has got the optimism creeping back, slightly.

If in ten games into his reign and we are sitting at home watching the playoffs from the comfort of our own homes, people will point the finger at this appointment, but that would be unfair.

This isn’t a 10-game appointment. This is an appointment for the next season and onwards. Any success in the coming six or seven weeks is a bonus at this point.

So now, we’ll back the new man and hope that this appointment sticks.

PUSB