Middle row (l-r);
Front row (l-r);
By Jim Brown
After twelve years out of the Second Division Coventry City won promotion as champions of Division Three at the end of roller coaster season. Jimmy Hill stuck with the players that had performed so well the previous season and there were no summer signings.
The Sky Blues opened the season by slamming Crystal Palace 5-1 with wing-half Ron Farmer netting a hat-trick (including two penalties) past a bemused Bill Glazier in the Palace goal. City soared to the top of the table with a string of wins and the fans reacted. Over 26,000 were there for the Palace game and in mid-September there were almost 30,000 for the visit of Crewe (another 5-1 win). City’s away following was the one of the best in all four divisions with 5,000 travelling to Walsall and 7,000 to Luton with 2,000 plus the norm.
The club continued to be innovative and early in the season introduced Radio Sky Blue. Director John Camkin became the announcer and combined interviews with pop records for forty five minutes before the kick-off. It may not sound innovative these days but then there was little or no pre-match entertainment save for the occasional marching band. Other entertainments, on the pitch, included netball games, gymnastic displays from the Butlin Girls, trampolining and Coventry’s own ‘pop’ group the Mighty Avengers.
In October the team mauled Shrewsbury 8-1, the biggest win since the 1930s to cement the top spot in the league. Eleven unbeaten games later, on 3 January 1964, they were nine points clear at the top and looked certain of promotion. Cup defeats to Rotherham (League Cup) and Bristol Rovers (FA Cup) were quickly forgotten. November was a golden month for George Hudson with the striker netting 13 goals including three hat-tricks in ten days. The avaricious striker netted three at Trowbridge in the FA Cup, repeated the feat in an 8-0 friendly win over German club Kaiserslautern and again at Loftus Road in a 6-3 victory which convinced any doubters in the London press that the Sky Blues were going places.
The New Year however brought a halt to City’s amazing progress. From 3 January until 28 March the Sky Blues failed to win in eleven games and, although they managed to draw home games even that comfort was shattered on Friday 13 March when Southend destroyed the team’s fragile confidence and won 5-2. Jimmy Hill decided to enter the transfer market. He paid £12,500 for centre-forward George Kirby, to replace Hudson who had been out of touch since a groin injury in January, and £11,000 on Spurs’ inside-forward John Smith.
City had lost top spot to Palace and trailed the South Londoners by four points but the signings steadied the ship with Kirby netting a hat-trick on his home debut in a 4-1 win over Oldham. As the season reached its climax City without the dropped Hudson, staggered towards the finishing line. For the last two away games the City’s followers became the heroes with 8,000 travelling to watch a tense 0-0 draw at Millwall then, two days later an estimated 12,000 made the trip to Peterborough, only to see the team slump 0-2.
The final game was at home to Colchester and things were poised on a knife edge. Palace were already promoted with 60 points whilst City were in second place with 58 points, ahead of Watford on goal average. Victory over Colchester was essential and the prodigal son Hudson was recalled for the vital game, playing as part of a double strike-force with Kirby.
Hill’s tactical gamble paid off and Hudson netted after 24 minutes from a Rees cross. City missed many opportunities to increase the lead but the 36,901 crowd’s attention switched to news from the two other vital games. With City kicking off later at 3.15 the two other games finished before the final whistle at Coventry and the scores were announced over the tannoy. Watford, at home to Luton, let in two late goals to ensure City’s promotion. Palace amazingly lost at home to Oldham and City were champions by a goal average margin of 0.17 goal. The last ten minutes seemed to drag and finally the referee blew the whistle and the pitch became a sea of spectators with the players disappearing under a mass of young supporters in a repeat of the scenes twelve months earlier against Sunderland.
The final average gate was 26,017 the club’s highest since 1950-51 and the highest by a Third division club since the golden post-war years.
