James Kerr

May 1925 – March 1928

James Kerr presided over three of the most dismal seasons in Coventry City’s history. When he arrived in the summer of 1925 they had just been relegated from Division 2 to Division 3 North and he replaced Albert Evans, not a successful manager but one who was popular with the players, who had been sacked the previous November.

Born in Annan in the south of Scotland in 1881, Kerr had previously managed Scottish club Bathgate for several years.  His first season at Highfield Road the club had a very strong home record but a pathetic away record and they finished sixteenth. The standard of the league however was poor and the fans were not impressed with Kerr’s efforts. Gates, which had started the season at 15,000 quickly dwindled to under 6,000 and the final home game was watched by a paltry 4,700. An embarrassing FA Cup defeat at non-league Worksop was made even worse when it was discovered that many of the Worksop team had spent the morning down the mine. Some supporters even organised a petition to boycott Highfield Road but despite collecting 5,000 signatures the crowds were already so pitifully low that the boycott barely had an impact. 

He slowly replaced the more experienced players only to replace them with players of inferior quality, men usually recruited from Kerr’s native Scotland. He worked overtime in the transfer market in that first season, buying 13 players, 10 of them from north of the border, but as the Coventry Evening Telegraph commented against a background of falling attendances: ‘City fans have little desire to watch Coventry Celtic’.

Things went from bad to worse in 1926-27 as City were switched to the more competitive Southern section of the league. Several large defeats including an 8-1 thrashing at Exeter prompted blistering attacks from the Telegraph, who on one occasion, compared the club to a mule, being ‘without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity’.

After finishing 15th in 1926-27 the next season was even worse with a 9-1 defeat at Millwall then a 7-0 thumping at Walsall. By February his time was coming to an end and he resigned with re-election looming. The side, under his temporary replacement, director Albert Saunders, managed to finish in 20th position and avoid that ignominy by one point but it was a dark period for the club.

Kerr became manager of Walsall where he created a reasonably attractive team, again with more than a smattering of Scots. He was instrumental in selling Billy Lake, later to become a City legend, to Coventry. He moved on to Norwich a year later where he had some early success including inflicting on City their biggest ever defeat, 10-2 in 1930, but the following season the Canaries had to apply for re-election.

In January 1933 Kerr was admitted to hospital with pneumonia and a few weeks later he died aged 51. Up until the previous November he had never had a serious illness in his life. A year later Norwich won the Third Division championship and many of the players he had signed were in the triumphant team. 

From: May 1925
First game: 29th August 1925 v Lincoln City H, Division Three (North), won 3-2

Until: 17th March 1928
Last game: 3rd March 1928 v Brentford H, Division Three (South), drew 0-0

120 games as manager

	Lge	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Win %	Pos
1925-26	Div 3N	42	16	6	20	73	82	38	38.0	16th
1926-27	Div 3S	42	15	7	20	71	86	37	35.7	15th
1927-28	Div 3S	30	8	6	16	50	73	22	26.6	19th
Totals		114	39	19	56	194	241	97	34.2

FA Cup: 6 games (1 win, 2 draws, 3 losses)