Second row (l-r); Brian Nicholas, Ron Farmer, John West, Bob Wesson, Arthur Lightening, Bill Farmer, Bob Allen, George Curtis, Frank Austin
Third row (l-r); Ted Roberts (Coach), George Stewart, Peter Hill, Ken Cornbill, Billy Frith (Manager), Lol Harvey, Paddy Ryan, Ken Simcoe, Alf Wood (Trainer)
Front row (l-r); Frank harvey, Ken Satchwell, Alan Daley, Eric Jones
By Jim Brown
The new season in the higher division started well for the Bantams Another new kit with a far more radical look was introduced in 1959. The light blue and white stripes were abandoned for the first time in living memory and replaced with an all-white kit. The continental-style shirt however had a large bantam badge on the left hand chest and a round collarless neck with a blue solid V at the front and short sleeves with blue trim. The away kit was a reverse kit – blue shirt with a white V at the neck.
The club, despite severe financial pressures, were in the top four of Division Three for most of the season. At the AGM in October chairman Brandish announced a loss of over £10,000 for the previous season and outlined the club’s budget going forward. Income was estimated at £58,000 for the season whilst expenditure of £53,000 (£30,000 of it in on the wage bill) allowed a surplus of £5,000, ‘a sum totally inadequate to provide funds for transfer fees which must necessarily be paid if we are to attain, and preserve Second Division status’. The size of donations from the supporters club had declined and had been used to pay for the floodlights. Brandish hoped that this ‘frank disclosure’ would help supporters realise the seriousness of the club’s position and support the fund raising activities of the club and the Supporters Club.
Christmas 1959 saw the last instance of football at Highfield Road on Christmas Day. Wrexham were the visitors for the morning kick-off and a four-goal blast from Ken Satchwell helped the side to a 5-3 victory which maintained City’s excellent yuletide record – they had dropped only one point in five Christmases. A crowd of 17,526, whilst higher than average was not the bumper crowd that usually attended games on December 25th. There was increasingly less public transport on Christmas Day and less and less teams were playing on the day. The year ended with City lying third in a table in which only ten points separated the top fifteen clubs.
City had entered the Southern Professional Floodlight Cup again and although neither Chelsea nor Spurs had entered all the other London first and second division clubs had. Southend were overcome after a replay, then First Division Fulham were defeated in the quarter-final after a replay at Brentford’s Griffin Park. Fulham were drawn at home but did not have floodlights and the tie was switched to Highfield Road. A 15,000 crowd watched City dominate their ‘seven-international’ opponents but fall victim to a late penalty equaliser. England captain Johnny Haynes graced the Highfield Road turf for the first time and future England ‘stars’ George Cohen and Alan Mullery were given a hard time by their Coventry counterparts. The Londoners refused to travel to Coventry for a replay & insisted on a London venue but City put on an excellent display at Brentford to win through a solitary Ken Satchwell goal.
By the time the semi-final came around it was the end of March and City had shot their bolt in the promotion race. Despite impressive home wins over the two promoted clubs Southampton (4-1) and Norwich (2-1), the latter watched by almost 28,000 including a massive following from East Anglia, estimated at 10,000, too many inconsistent results stopped them seriously threatening promotion and three defeats over Easter ended their hopes. City finished the season fifth, seven points behind second-placed Norwich.
Southampton returned to Highfield Road for the Floodlight semi-final and were beaten again, 2-1, to clinch a place in the final against First Division West Ham. The draw gave home advantage to City and a substantial crowd, 16,921, roared the Bantams to a famous win. The Hammers included future England captain Bobby Moore, who was just establishing himself in the first team, and future City manager Noel Cantwell, one of the best full-backs in the league at the time. Two goals from recent signing Ron Hewitt meant he became the first City captain to lift a trophy since 1936.
Despite the disappointment of missing out on a second successive promotion the club’s directors were not down-hearted and rewarded manager Frith with a new four-year contract. The financial state of the club had improved slightly despite average gates falling 600 to 16,348.
