Middle row (l-r);
Front row (l-r);
By Jim Brown
The fanfare which signalled the second coming of Jimmy Hill in the summer of 1975 was far less triumphal than that which greeted his original arrival in 1961. Derrick Robins was no longer there to bear the burden of expenditure that was required if the club was to make further progress from a lower middling First Division side to the levels that would satisfy the raised aspirations of the average City fan. The selling that had begun the previous season continued as players were traded to ensure the books were balanced. Out went goalkeepers Bill Glazier and his expected successor, Neil Ramsbottom and striker Brian AlderÂson made the short journey up the A46 to Leicester City and City banked £110,000.
In the close season veteran Celtic full-back Jim Brogan arrived on a free transfer, and Bryan King, the long-serving Millwall goalkeeper arrived for £57,000. Soon after the season was underway, Barry Powell, Wolves’ England Under-23 midfield player was signed for a bargain £75,000. Of these three, only Powell, a regular for the next four years, would make any real impact at Highfield Road.
The 1975-76 season began with City facing insolvency and, accordÂing to the bookmakers, relegation. All told, it was therefore a welcome surprise to the fans when the team started the season so well. The stunning opening day win at Goodison Park was followed by a pleasing draw at Old Trafford – against Tommy Docherty’s exciting, newly promoted young side – and a home win over a star-studded Manchester City. After eight games the Sky Blues, boasting a new Admiral egg-timer kit, had lost only once and the critics were eating their proverbial hats.
The impressive early form however was soon confined to memory, in the wake of consecutive home defeats by Stoke, Middlesbrough and Burnley. The slide accelerated with an early exit from the League Cup at Mansfield – another disastrous cup exit to add to a long and growing list.
The fans might have ignored the club’s finances but the directors could not, for, despite Peter Robins’ naïve comments the previous spring, the wolf was inching closer to the door. The club were desperate for cash, and £175,000 was obtained by selling star player Dennis Mortimer to arch-rivals Aston Villa. The loss of such a jewel, not to mention the timing of the sale – a week before Christmas – stretched supporters’ patience to breaking point. Mortimer had played over 200 games for City and had blossomed into a much-coveted England Under-23 performer who was strongly tipped to win full caps. But still labouring under a £250,000 overdraft (puny by today’s standards), as well as owing Derrick Robins £88,500, albeit on an interest-free basis, and losing £4-5000 per week, City were hardly in a position to keep him, no matter how bitter a pill it was to swallow.
In the wider context, of course, Mortimer’s sale provided further evidence of Coventry’s parlous financial state and its inability to compete on a level playing field with bigger clubs. Jimmy Hill dressed up the sale ‘as in the long term interests of the club and building a stronger position for the future’. But these words were to ring hollow when the Sky Blues slumped out of the FA Cup, 0-5 at Newcastle, the only consolation was that the first game at Highfield Road, a 1-1 draw, was watched by over 32,000 paying record receipts of £29,672.
The team were capable of fine performances – notably wins over West Ham, Manchester City, and two draws with Manchester United, which kept City in the comfort zone – the season was hardly one to shout about. Crowds averaged 19,288, slightly up on the previous season with United, rejuvenated after a season in Division Two attracting the biggest league crowd of the season (33,922). Following the sale of Mortimer, attendances dipped, as low as 13,000 against Sheffield United and Arsenal, the lowest for more than thirteen years. If ever City needed Jimmy Hill to weave his old magic, this was the time.
Striker David Cross scored 16 league and cup goals, the best seasonal haul by a City player in the First Division, including a unique feat of hat-tricks on the first and last day of the season. Tommy Hutchison was again an ever present (he had missed just one league match in four seasons with the club). Hutch was fast becoming a City institution, something of a legend in his own lifetime. Whenever the going got tough, he could always be relied upon to turn on a bit of magic, to bring a smile and a cheer to the fans on the dullest winter days.
