By Jim Brown
The Coventry City team that kicked-off the 1951-52 season had an average age of 31, the oldest in the club’s history with six of the team over 30. A number of them had played before the war including goalkeeper Alf Wood, centre-half and captain George Mason and forwards Les Warner and Ted Roberts. City’s supporters however had faith in manager Harry Storer but a 7-1 defeat at Swansea at the end of August set the alarm bells ringing.
City bounced back from the Swansea debacle and two successive wins, thanks to Tommy Briggs’ goals papered over the cracks briefly. In an example of player power the ostracised Briggs was sold and Roberts re-instated but the inside forward trio of Bryn Allen, Roberts and ken Chisholm, so prolific the previous season, scored only 26 goals compared to 53 in 1950-51. Left winger Norman Lockhart was shouldered with goalscoring responsibility and was top scorer with 15 goals.
Injuries, loss of form and bad luck turned the season into a disaster and the team never recovered from an 11-game run without a victory in the autumn. Club legends Wood and Mason were dropped with Wood moving to Northampton and Mason hanging his boots up after 21 years at the club.
There was a brief rally at Christmas with three wins in five days but they could never get away from the foot of the table. In a last throw of the dice Storer entered the transfer market in an attempt to arrest the slide. First old favourite George Lowrie was signed for a second time, from Bristol City, then the sale of Chisholm to promotion-chasing Cardiff freed up cash to sign defender Roy Kirk from Leeds and centre-forward Eddie Brown from Southampton. Lowrie managed only three goals in 12 games and rarely looked like sparking a rejuvenation.
Two successive wins in February raised hopes however and a 5-2 win over Luton on Easter Tuesday seemed to have bought the team a lifeline. Four days later the final home game, against promotion-chasing Sheffield Wednesday was crucial. On the morning of the match goalkeeper Billy Gilbert reported to the ground with a shoulder injury and with second choice Peter Taylor away with the reserves, third team keeper Derek Spencer had to make his debut after only three reserve appearances. A crowd of 36,337 turned up to witness Derek Dooley, Wednesday’s 46-goal centre-forward, score two goals against a City side who more than held their own but could not handle the prolific striker.
A week later City travelled to Leeds for their last game with a faint chance of survival but lost 1-3 and were relegated. In all, 34 different players were used by Storer but the new signings were too late to stop the inevitable and after ten seasons in Division Two the Bantams were back in Division Three.
There were few highlights that season but at least City had the pleasure of knocking local rivals Leicester out of the FA Cup. After a 1-1 draw at Filbert Street, the Bantams won 4-1 on a miserably wet Monday afternoon, but then lost 0-2 at First Division Burnley in the fourth round. The average attendance was down by over 4,000 a game at 22,548, the last time attendances would be over 20,000 until the Jimmy Hill era twelve years later.
