Middle row (l-r);
Front row (l-r);
By Jim Brown
The 1965-66 season saw Coventry City get as close to the First Division as they had ever done- they finished third, just one point behind Southampton who were second and promoted with Manchester City. The Sky Blues were rarely out of the top three all season but inconsistency was their undoing especially the two crucial away defeats over the Easter period.
The major surprise was the demise of the crowd’s favourite George Hudson. In early season he could do nothing wrong, notching all four goals in the 4-3 pre-season friendly with First Division Nottingham Forest and scoring both goals in the opening league game as Wolves came to Highfield Road for the first time in forty years and were beaten 2-1 in front of almost 37,000 fans. ‘The Hud’ had scored 12 goals by the end of October including his famous effort against Southampton but then hit a lean spell and managed only five in 18 games. His form was listless and after a win-less February Hill acted and accepted First Division Northampton’s £29,000 bid for him. The fans were shocked and several coach-loads of them travelled to the County Ground to see Hudson’s scoring debut against Leeds rather than travel to Goodison Park to support City in the FA Cup.
Hill justified the shock sale: ‘With every player, there is a time to sell and a time to buy. I give the fans this assurance – I would never do anything against the interests of Coventry City.’ Hudson, despite scoring a few goals, failed to keep the Cobblers in the top flight and was sold to Tranmere for £15,000 less than a year later and his golden days were undoubtedly seen at Highfield Road. In local youngster Bobby Gould Hill had a ready-made replacement centre-forward who, whilst not the exciting, charismatic player that Hudson was, would score the goals that got City promotion.
In September Dietmar Bruck became the club’s first ever substitute. The rule changes enabling the use of substitutes only allowed one to be used if a player was injured – tactical substitutions were allowed a year later. Bruck came on at half-time in the 3-3 home draw with Manchester City after Ron Farmer fractured his cheekbone.
The club’s experiment with closed circuit television in October was an unprecedented success with the evening game at Cardiff relayed back to Highfield Road and watched by 10,295 on four giant screens on the pitch. The evening ended in true Coventry drama with a late goal to clinch a 2-1 away win, sending the City fans delirious at both venues.
Later in the season City staged another beamed game at Charlton. This time the gate at Coventry was higher, 11,321 while 15,000 watched the live action in London. This time however City lost, 0-2, a result which all but ended their thin promotion hopes, and the crowd were much more subdued.
The fans were pouring through the turnstiles at Highfield Road and in November the club’s receipts record was broken at the League Cup-tie with First Division West Brom. The game was made all-ticket, with 40,000 tickets initially for sale. On the night a crowd of 38,476, the second highest ever in the competition at the time watched the 1-1 draw, and paid £9,572. In the replay City’s promotion credentials were seriously examined and The Baggies, inspired by Jeff Astle, romped home 6-1.
Despite that reverse the Sky Blues went top of the table two weeks later but the glory was brief – in early December Huddersfield Town, one of their key rivals in the promotion chase wrecked City’s unbeaten home record with a 3-0 win. The game marked a significant event with the first visit to the ground of a reigning British Prime Minister – Harold Wilson was born and bred in Huddersfield and a keen Town fan.
Despite losing only two games between the Huddersfield defeat and Easter and staying on the fringe of the promotion race, City’s form was mediocre and there were too many dropped points. It didn’t dissuade the fans however and an estimated 15,000 cheered them to a 1-0 win in the big promotion clash at Molineux and enormous away followings saw them go down at Manchester City and in the FA Cup at Everton.
At the season’s end the average home attendance was 25,370, down by around 1,200 from the previous season, but again the eleventh highest in the whole Football League and second highest in the division behind Manchester City.
