Middle row (l-r); Bill Asprey (Coach), Brian Joicey, Billy Rafferty, Bill Glazier, Eric McManus, Chris Cattlin, Bobby Parker, Noel Cantwell (Manager)
Front row (l-r); Ernie Machin, Willie Carr, Quintin Young, Dave Clements, Jeff Blockley, John O’Rourke, Wilf Smith, Brian Alderson, Roy Barry
By Jim Brown
From the very first match it was clear that the 1971-72 season would be manager Noel Cantwell’s make or break season. Rumblings from terraces and boardroom were becoming louder, particularly as the side had a disjointed look about it from the beginning. A poor opening game against Stoke reminded everyone of the previous season, while a crowd of less than 21,000 illustrated the apathy that was pervading the club’s previously loyal following. In September after only one win in the first seven games, Robins sanctioned what would be Cantwell’s last big signing, Chris Chilton a £92,000 buy from Hull City. The big striker who had an outstanding scoring record for Hull in the lower divisions was a big disappointment scoring only four goals in 29 outings and was forced to retire with back problems just over a year later.
The arrival of Chilton and former Liverpool and Scottish international Ian St John briefly livened up proceedings and the team won three games in a row including their first top-flight victory over Don Revie’s Leeds United, the team to beat in that era. Almost 37,000 saw Quinton Young, a tricky Scottish winger, give England full-back Terry Cooper an uncomfortable afternoon, and lay on two of the goals. Derek Henderson in the CET described it as: ‘the Sky Blues’ best result in.the First Division’.
Things were picking up and by late autumn it looked as though City were in for what is euphemistically called a ‘transitional season’, but then things began to deteriorate. From early November until April, City mustered only one win in nineteen games, and they found themselves sucked into a relegation battle.
In early November, less than a month after the Leeds victory only 16,000 were at the ground to watch the 2-1 win over Huddersfield and although the crowds did not go any lower the average for the season was down another 3,000 at 23,724, eclipsed by their neighbours at Birmingham City and Aston Villa who both averaged over 31,000 in the lower divisions. The experiment with Friday night football was not a success. The three fixtures, with Crystal Palace, Chelsea and West Brom failed to attract bigger crowds and two other planned games were re-arranged to Saturday afternoons.
By February Cantwell was under pressure and just when an FA Cup run may have saved him, City were eliminated 0-1 at home to Second Division Hull City and from that moment there would be no-way back for Cantwell. He lingered on, a lame-duck manager, for another month, and ironically the game which probably sealed his fate does not feature in official records. On 4 March Sheffield United were leading 2-0 at Highfield Road during a snow-storm when the referee Peter Walters controversially abandoned the game. Torrential rain had turned the pitch into a paddy-field and when the rain turned to snow early in the second half he called a halt with thirty minutes remaining. City fans were relieved but the Blades, for whom Tony Currie was the star, were fuming.
Cantwell’s time had come, and gone, and he was sacked by Robins on Sunday, 12 March. The Board’s press statement was blunt and to the point: ‘Results have not come up to the expectations or necesÂsary standard required for Coventry City.’ Bob Dennison, the club’s chief scout, took charge as acting-manager until the end of the season. For the final month of the season it was as if a dead-weight had been lifted from the team. They responded with three wins, enough to ensure safety, restore some pride and hint at brighter prospects ahead.
The final judgement of Cantwell’s five-year tenure is best summed up in his own words ‘the ghost of Jimmy Hill followed me around the dressing room’. Set in the context of the previous 32 years he deserves a more favourable judgment than he enjoyed at the time. Circumstances, at times, dictated a functional, muscular and defensive approach, but that was in keeping with much of the football of the time – Cantwell loved his team being described as the ‘new Leeds’. More to the point, any side put out by Cantwell carried greater threat to the opposition than those of some of his successors – Terry Butcher, Don Howe and Phil Neal for example. Cantwell also bore too much of the blame for the collapse in supÂport after 1970. Viewed with hindsight, gates of 30,000 were improbably high, a quirk of history perhaps, and even a winning side would have struggled to maintain them.
During the three-month hiatus during which Bob Dennison was caretaker manager, the club buzzed with anticipation as to who would be the new manager. The job, on paper, looked enticing. It offered a reasonable squad of players, one of the most modern stadiums in the country with state-of-the-art training facilities, not to mention the backing of the Robins’ family’s financial resources. Rumours spread like wildfire as many of the game’s ‘great and the good’ were reputedly linked with the job. Brian Clough was approached and accepted the job, but before City went public he decided to stay at the Baseball Ground, where he had just won the League Championship.
That season City entered a new competition, the Texaco Cup – set up the previous season and open to leading English and Scottish clubs not involved in European Competitions. Their first opponents in a two-legged competition were Falkirk and City went through despite losing the first leg 1-0 in Scotland. They needed two extra-time goals in the second leg to win 3-1 on aggregate. The Highfield Road crowd of 14,283 was heartening whilst Falkirk’s star man was a muscular striker named Alex Ferguson, later to be manager of Manchester United. In round two City drew 1-1 with Newcastle at home in front of 12,311 but crumbled to a 1-5 defeat at St James’ Park.
