Noel Simpson was an attacking wing-half who joined Coventry from Nottingham Forest for £8,000 in August 1948 and he was straight into the first team. Originally signed by Billy Frith he soon had a new boss, Harry Storer, who made Simpson one of the focal points of his team.
At the start of the memorable 1950-51 season he was a member of the team that saw only two changes in its first fifteen games and headed the table in November. A serious knee injury sidelined him and City’s promotion hopes dissolved.
Noel gave nine years service to the club and played 269 first team games until in February 1957 when at the age of 34 he joined Exeter City and after retiring managed Midland League side Arnold. He died prematurely after a heart attack on the golf course.
His daughter Anne has kindly donated a superb collection of memorabilia from his playing days to the Sky Blue Archive. The collection includes many programmes, press cuttings, photographs, correspondence and original cartoons.
The programmes from the 1948-1957 period fills a lot of holes in the Archive’s growing collection. One of the programmes is an extremely rare four-page issue for a friendly game at Groningen during City’s 1951 tour in Holland. All in all it’s a wonderful collection from a bygone era.
