By Jim Brown
The added spice to the 1957-58 season was the reconstruction of the regional Third Division into new Divisions Three and Four. The top twelve from each regional division would form the new Third Division, whilst the bottom twelve from each league would constitute the Fourth Division. City were determined not to start the following season in the basement division.
When the season started the drama again began to heighten. Only one of the first eight games was won and 19 different players pulled on the blue and white shirt. At the end of September a 2-1 win over Torquay failed to stop the axe falling on Warren. The man appointed to replace him, Billy Frith who nine years previously had been sacked unceremoniously by the club. Warren, who in retrospect had lost the director’s support at least six months previously, was believed by many to be the scapegoat for an increasingly inept and under pressure boardroom, the players however had lost faith with a disorganised and clueless manager. Warren did however later successfully fight a legal claim over his dismissal.
Frith steadied the ship with some clear direction but he had inherited a hotch-potch of a squad with no leader on the pitch and no regular goalscorer. By the season’s end he had solved both problems. The switch of boy-wonder George Curtis to centre-half was the making of the young colossus and acquiring centre-forward Ray Straw from Derby guaranteed goals. Other players arrived and departed and Frith put a much bigger emphasis on youth but by February it was obvious that a top twelve finish was out of the question and relegation was inevitable.
October 1957 saw the christening of the new floodlights with a 2-2 draw against Scottish First Division club Third Lanark. The work to erect and commission the lights took three months. The new system which consisted of four pylons, one in each corner of the ground, each carrying a bank of 24 1,500 watt lamps.
Another floodlight friendly produced the best performance of the season, a 3-1 win over First Division Manchester City, who fielded a full first team including German goalkeeper Bert Trautmann, Footballer of the Year in 1956. City’s star was left winger Ray Sambrook who scored twice and virtually clinched a £15,000 transfer to Maine Road on the strength of his display. A good but inconsistent winger, Sambrook found it hard to settle at Maine Road but it was another blow for the fans who saw the sale of another home-grown talent as a lack of ambition by the club.
League gates which had started the season as high as 16,000, slid badly after Christmas and were down to 5,846 in March when City put on their best display of the season to beat Aldershot 6-0 with the unique event of two City players, Jimmy Rogers and Peter Hill (pictured), scoring hat-tricks in the same match. The final average gate was 11,907, over 10% down on the previous season.
Three weeks later however came another bombshell when chairman Shanks resigned after four stormy years in the chair. According to the CET the resignation came after an incident following a home defeat to Swindon in April. Shanks had stormed into the home dressing room and in front of the manager and several other directors severely criticised the players’ performance. Walter Brandish, son of the City chairman of the same name in the 1930s took over as chairman.
The final position of 19th place guaranteed Fourth Division football at Highfield Road and the club had slipped to its lowest position since entering the Football League in 1919. The fans had trips to exotic places such as Workington, Barrow and Gateshead to look forward to.
