Middle row (l-r);
Front row (l-r);
By Jim Brown
In the summer of 1962 chairman Derrick Robins lent the club £30,000 to strengthen the team. Jimmy Hill decided to buy a complete new forward line. The largest fee, £12,000 was spent on Peterborough’s prolific scorer Terry Bly with the balance acquiring Willie Humphries and Hugh Barr from Northern Ireland, Jimmy Whitehouse, Bobby Laverick and one defender John Sillett.
Hill was out to change forever the trouble-scarred image of Coventry City and introduced a new continental-looking all Sky Blue kit. The programme got a revamp and when Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph described the team as ‘the Sky Blues’ a new nickname was born. In December the Sky Blue Song, with words written by Hill and John Camkin sung to the Eton Boating Song, was launched and was an immediate success.
The fans responded to the publicity about their new-look team and over 22,000 turned up for the opening game of the season and saw goals from new men Bly and Barr launch the Sky Blue era with a 2-0 win over Notts County.
The new team had their teething problems including an early 3-4 home defeat to Southend and 1-6 thrashing at Watford but in mid-October the side started an unbeaten run which would last 23 matches. It was the worst winter Britain had seen since 1740 and from Boxing Day to early March, much of England was continuously under snow and very little football was played anywhere. City’s FA Cup Third round cup-tie at Lincoln was postponed fifteen times and eventually took place in the first week of March. With massive fixture congestion facing all clubs City had to play three ties with Second Division Portsmouth in the space of six days eventually winning a 2-1 second replay at neutral White Hart Lane.
City then faced Sunderland in the biggest post-war game at the ground with the prize at stake a home Sixth round tie with Manchester United. Over 50,000 fans converged on Highfield Road that night and the turnstiles were closed with thousands locked out. Three gates were broken down by determined fans and hundreds rushed in without paying. The terraces could not cope and there were fans up the floodlight pylons, on the stand roofs and hundreds on the running track. The official attendance was 40,487 but there must have been almost 50,000 inside the ground.
Those that witnessed it will never forget the suspense as Sunderland led through a first half Crossan goal. Two goals in the last eight minutes from Dietmar Bruck and George Curtis won the tie for City and provoked ecstatic pitch invasions. The Sky Blue song finally drowned out the Blaydon Races and the result brought City to the attention of the country’s sports media.
The sixth round tie with United was watched by an all-ticket crowd of 44,000 and City stunned the Reds by going a goal up through Bly in five minutes. On a glue-pot pitch United slowly got their act together and Bobby Charlton scored twice to give United a flattering 3-1 victory.
Just days after the United defeat Hill paid a club record £21,000 for Peterborough’s prolific scorer George Hudson and made it clear that there was no place for 27-goal Bly.
In retrospect it was an inspired move but to City fans at the time it was impossible to fathom why Hill discarded a man who had scored virtually a goal a game that season. Hudson scored a hat-trick on his debut against Halifax but Hill was not off the hook and faced criticism for weeks afterwards.
After the exertions of the Cup the team virtually sleep-walked through the remaining 16 league games. The long unbeaten run ended in a heavy loss at Wrexham and a shaky Easter culminated in a 1-2 home defeat to Bournemouth in front of 30,289, the biggest league crowd at the ground since 1952. The team’s form fluctuated like a roller coaster and an exhausted team finished fourth, five points behind second placed Swindon. The final attendance figures showed a 70% increase to 17,098 – the highest in the division, better than most of the Second Division and two First Division clubs.
