Middle row (l-r);
Front row (l-r);
By Jim Brown
The 1950-51 season started in the same impressive vein that the previous season had ended with City winning their first three games including a 2-0 victory over newly promoted Notts County at Meadow Lane in front of over 41,000.
City had sold winger Peter Murphy to Tottenham in the close season for £18,500 but the form of Scottish centre-forward Ken Chisholm, signed the previous March, meant that Murphy, had not been missed. ‘Chizzy’, a nomadic and burly Scottish forward started the season in great form and notched 10 goals in the first 15 games. A virtually unchanged City team looked capable of winning every game during the autumn.
On October 14th City defeated Blackburn Rovers 6-1 in front of almost 35,000 in what is recognised as one of the finest games of the decade. Norman Lockhart put City ahead after only 20 seconds and Blackburn equalised 40 seconds later. From that moment on, until the final whistle, the game was played at a fantastic pace with great skill and the final score could have been 7-7 so many chances were created. The best goal was City’s sixth, scored five minutes from the end by Lockhart, following a dazzling run past several Blackburn defenders, even had the normally unemotional Harry Storer jumping off the pitchside bench.
By the end of October City were top of the division with only three defeats in 15 games and seven straight home wins. From that point however the away form was their Achilles heel and the team failed to win on their travels until March. There were some great games, not least the 4-5 defeat at the Dell in November and the 3-3 draw with Barnsley a week later.
Two home wins over the Christmas period took City back to the top of the league and with promotion on the horizon manager Storer believed he had strengthened the side by paying out £30,000 on two players. A club record £20,000 went on Grimsby Town’s centre-forward Tommy Briggs. Briggs had scored prolifically for the Mariners and would continue to score heavily throughout the 1950s but at Highfield Road he was a failure. His arrival sparked off dressing room unrest and the team spirit, so evident before the turn of the year, evaporated and the team’s form suffered. The other signing, full-back Terry Springthorpe was signed from Wolves for £10,000 but three months later he decided to quit the game and emigrate to America. For once Storer’s astute transfer dealings were flawed.
The team’s form in January and February was dire and one win in six and a home defeat to promotion rivals Manchester City saw City slip out of the leading places. An improvement in March saw the Bantams back in the top three but trailing well behind runaway leaders Preston and when Manchester City had played their games in hand Coventry’s dreams of First Division football were dashed. City eventually finished seventh and, although no-one realised it at the time, their chance of promotion to Division One was gone for many years. Few too could have foreseen however the disaster that lurked around the corner.
Attendances boosted by the pre-Christmas form, averaged 26,694, a twenty percent increase on the previous season..
