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Post by Monkey Tennis on Jan 13, 2020 20:14:36 GMT
Are you talking Ernie Hunt? And didn't he once score the winner for Bristol City in an FA cup match at ES? And was landlord of The Full pitcher in Ledbury. And became bankrupt. So I heard.
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Post by Incognito on Jan 13, 2020 20:15:14 GMT
Geoff Merrick scored the only goal of the tie. Without going all OME here, I once played a charity game for Bristol Rovers XI against a Bristol City youth team. The reasons escape me, but I played in midfield with Geoff Merrick and my housemate, one Jonathan Pearce (who was a very decent footballer before he fecked his knee up). I was, in no way, shape or form a decent footballer. Which soon became painfully apparent as the tuts, sighs and increasing frustration of Mr Merrick made crystal clear. we lost. Heavily. I’m not sure I lasted the full 90, but I knew one day I’d be able to mention it to huge indifference to all. tbf like, I might have a chance of getting into the current HFC midfield with that sort of CV You'd have got a two-year contract in Harris' time.
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Post by colebridgebull on Jan 13, 2020 20:17:27 GMT
Without going all OME here, I once played a charity game for Bristol Rovers XI against a Bristol City youth team. The reasons escape me, but I played in midfield with Geoff Merrick and my housemate, one Jonathan Pearce (who was a very decent footballer before he fecked his knee up). I was, in no way, shape or form a decent footballer. Which soon became painfully apparent as the tuts, sighs and increasing frustration of Mr Merrick made crystal clear. we lost. Heavily. I’m not sure I lasted the full 90, but I knew one day I’d be able to mention it to huge indifference to all. tbf like, I might have a chance of getting into the current HFC midfield with that sort of CV You'd have got a two-year contract in Harris' time. I asked for three.
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Post by gefod on Jan 13, 2020 21:22:10 GMT
You'd have got a two-year contract in Harris' time. I asked for three. And got given four.
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Post by mikeunderpenyard on Jan 14, 2020 21:10:50 GMT
Coventry currently 2 up.v BR
If they go through they'll be playing Birmingham at home, which is actually Birmingham's home. Who gets the home end,home changing rooms etc?
They should never have left The RICOH.
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Post by Peroni on Jan 15, 2020 9:46:24 GMT
Coventry currently 2 up.v BR If they go through they'll be playing Birmingham at home, which is actually Birmingham's home. Who gets the home end,home changing rooms etc? They should never have left The RICOH. Highfields.
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Post by Monkey Tennis on Jan 17, 2020 18:44:03 GMT
Pre 1986/1987 Season Overview – Part 2
The 84/85 season began badly and frankly didn’t get much better. An opening day defeat at Vile Park set the tone, and City struggled again.
Having been dumped out of the League Cup in the second round by Walsall, Bobby Gould splashed a bit of cash and signed Big Cyrille from the Albion, but he failed to make any real impact within what was a poor team. Defeat after defeat seemed to follow including a 6-2 loss at Chelsea, a 5-2 reverse at The Hawthorns (Cyrille’s return not a happy one) and a 5-1 embarrassment at Leicester at C-Word when Gary Lineker scored a couple and Bobby Gould was sent off, resulting in his sacking as manager. Don Mackay took over in charge but continued inconsistency left City facing yet another relegation battle.
Fortunately in February an outbreak of ‘flu came to their rescue when the virus struck down enough of the first-team for the footy (sorry ‘bout that) authorities to allow several postponements of scheduled league fixtures. One of the postponed games was Everton at home – Everton who were sh!t-hot at the time and on their way to the League Championship with the likes of Gray, Southall, Reid, Sheedy et al, a team who would’ve doubtless trounced Cov had the game taken place in February. These postponements of course. meant a back-log of fixtures needing to be fulfilled.
Toward the end of the season, another “Great Escape” seemed unlikely but ultimately did come about as a result of those February sniffles. By the middle of May ‘85, City (the team now regularly including Lloyd McGrath, a former youth-team player, in midfield), still had 3 games left to play, whereas most other clubs had finished their season. Stoke City and Sunderland were already relegated and Cov occupied the final relegation place on 43 points. The only way they could avoid the drop was to win the 3 remaining games against Stoke, Luton and champions Everton, pick up 9 points in the process and thus condemn Norwich City (on 49 points) to Division 2.
A 1-0 win at the Victoria Ground on a Friday evening (Stuart Pearce, pen; he did score from the spot occasionally) followed by another 1-0 win at home to Luton Town the next Thursday (Kilcline, very late in the game) left City needing to beat Everton at Highfield Road 3 days later in order to survive.
Everton were already League Champions, and had also won the Cup-Winners Cup, so were probably a bit p1ssed off to have to go to Highfield Road on a Sunday lunchtime for what was for them a meaningless and unwelcome game. All they wanted to do was go on holiday to Southport, probably, and they fielded a less than full-strength side. Cov took full advantage and ran out 4 – 1 winners, thereby ensuring their survival.
Poor old Norwich…..
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Post by Monkey Tennis on Jan 22, 2020 20:55:16 GMT
Pre 1986/1987 Season Overview – Part 3
Few will deny that Stuart Pearce was a bit useful, and not just as an electrician. The Highfield Road faithful knew he was very good but as an historically selling club, it came as no great surprise when Pearce signed for Cloughie’s Forest in the summer of 1985. I was still a bit p!ssed off when I read it on Ceefax, though.
For the 85/86 season the defence needed to be sorted, that was clear. Mr Mackay had flexed his Scottish neck Mr MacKay-like, and signed a young centre half from Wolverhampton Wanderers called Graham Rodger during the previous season, but Rodger wasn’t about to become a first-team regular whilst Peakey and Killer were fit. Given Pearce’s transfer and the prospect of the imminent loss of the injury-ravaged Kirk Stephens to the less energetic sport of snooker, it was the full-back positions which were the real worry.
As a result, Brian “Bugsy” Borrows was signed from third-division Bolton Wanderers to play at right-back. Bugsy turned out to be, in my opinion, one of the best players ever to pull on a Sky Blue shirt. He just did his job quietly, properly, superbly. What a footballer.
Mackay also signed a new left-back - an affable chap from Norwich City by the name of Greg Downs (Greggy).
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this season didn’t begin too clever and City once again struggled to pick up points. Bugsy settled in nicely, but Greggy, bless him, did become a bit of a figure of fun. To be fair to him, Pearce was always going to be a tough act to follow, but it seemed that any opposing right-winger with even a modicum of ability was able to run rings around him while he gesticulated wildly, and wrongly, to the referee claiming he’d been fouled.
Cov did produce a bit of Sky Blue history in the League Cup, though. Drawn against Chester City in the second round, Big Cyrille scored 5 of City’s 7 goals in the second leg at Highfield Road. Don Mackay’s somewhat bizarre response to this was to sign Chester’s left-back, but this may have been the boot up the backside that Greggy needed.
League form continued to be problematic that season with few highlights. Terry Gibson (who seemed the only player capable of scoring regular league goals for City at the time) left for Manchester United in January ’86 and received death-threats for his trouble, and yet another relegation battle loomed. In an attempt to avoid this, Mackay signed an England international (yes, really) from Sunderland by the name of Nick Pickering, or as we preferred to call him “Fecking Nick Pickering”. Regretfully, the signing of Nick Pickering failed to improve the team’s performances and Mackay was duly sacked in April ’86. George Curtis then took charge, assisted by John Sillett.
The 85/86 season concluded with yet another last day escape. A defeat at West Ham United (that was always an awfully intimidating place to go) on the penultimate Saturday of the campaign had left City needing to win their final game at home to Queens Park Rangers in order to be sure of staying up. Killer and Benno duly scored in defeating QPR 2-1, and other results went in Cov’s favour. Coventry City would once again be there when the First Division fixtures were released in July.
We supporters, whilst temporarily jubilant, braced ourselves for yet another season of disappointment, and the club was to be honest fast becoming a bit of a joke. 86-87 would surely be no different to all the others, would it?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2020 21:54:07 GMT
Stuart Pearce was on the Danny Baker show one Saturday morning approx. 18 months ago. It was a great 10 minutes of radio. One thing he did say about his time at Coventry was that he went down injured against Forest. He said that his physio was already busy so Cloughie who didn't have a clue who he was sent his own physio on to help him. He said it was really weird cos the only thing the physio was interested in was his age.
He also said that when he was negotiating something with Clough he brought his knackered toaster in and said if you can get that working you can have it.
I think he also went on to say that he didn't think Clough liked him much (but he loved him as a footballer), he would never praise him but be sound with other players. It was all about Cloughs man management techniques. If someone could dig it out on Sounds or whatever that would be handy.
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Post by Monkey Tennis on Jan 23, 2020 20:55:50 GMT
1986/1987 – The first bit.
It was all a bit confusing at the beginning of this season. City didn’t seem to have a proper manager, not in the traditional sense anyhow, and looking back at my Official Matchday Magazine from the first home game of that season (against Arsenal – cost 60p - Fecking Nick Pickering on the front cover), George Curtis is referred to as “Managing Director”, John Sillett as “Chief Coach”.
However, one of them, or both of them, were responsible for making two crucial signings during the close season. David Phillips arrived from Manchester City and Keith Houchen, a gangly striker with legs longer than those of yer average giraffe was signed from Scunthorpe United. Phillips looked a welcome and decent signing, but “Houch”, really? Anyone can score a penalty for York City in a one-off in a cup-tie; we couldn’t see him doing much good week-in week-out in the top division.
The 86/87 started with another trip to West Ham. Despite the inclusion of the two new signings, City lost. Here we go again.
What followed though perked us all up a bit. Wins in the league against Arsenal, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Watford, backed up with draws against Everton, Chelsea and Charlton Athletic, left Cov looking good as far as the league table was concerned. They also beat Rotherham United in the League Cup over two legs and so (obviously) signed one of their players, midfielder Dean Emerson. Another former youth player, Steve Sedgley, was beginning to feature regularly as a substitute and Coventry City were suddenly becoming a difficult team to beat. What the f*** was going on here?
The points continued to roll steadily in in the league, but there were the inevitable blips. Liverpool put paid to a run in the League Cup then made Cov look like amateurs at Anfield in the league within the space of one week. A win, a draw and a defeat in December ’86 led to a home game against Spurs on 27th of that month.
I know it’s happened on many an occasion, but on 27th December 1986 when Tottenham Hotspur visited Highfield Road, the referee deemed Spurs traditional white shirts to present a colour clash when playing City’s sky-blue and white striped shirts. Having failed to bring their “away” kit with them (how times have changed, eh?), Hoddle, Waddle, The God That Is Gary Mabbutt, Ardiles and co had to don City’s yellow away shirts.
Cov won that game 4-3. Cyrille was immense (though the whole team was, to be fair), and we thought blimey – this team is actually bloody good, what on Earth is going on here?
But that game is tinged with sadness, for me and my brother. It was the last match we ever went to with my Dad who died 18 months later. When we got home after that game he’d lost his voice and my Mum had a go at him for being so infantile and for behaving “worse than the kids”. He’d been chanting “Cyrille, Cyrille, Cyrille”, with the rest of us.
On a footballing front for Coventry City, 1987 looked promising.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2020 21:19:09 GMT
Where did you used to go in the ground?
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Post by Monkey Tennis on Jan 23, 2020 21:33:06 GMT
Where did you used to go in the ground? West Terrace, the end Cyrille scored that goal.
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Post by leakybull on Jan 23, 2020 22:21:37 GMT
GREAT STORY MONKEY CAN REALLY RELATE TO IT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2020 6:07:01 GMT
GREAT STORY MONKEY CAN REALLY RELATE TO IT We're all praying that they get knocked out in the 3rd round. Failing that, they get 80's Liverpool away in the 4th.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2020 6:34:48 GMT
Joking apart it is very good.
I particularly love the way he has actually recreated the goals Skinner & Baddiel style. If you watch it when Spurs second goal goes in - if you ignore him having a hissie fit at his brother for not saving it you can see Hereford Swimming Baths in the background.
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Post by Monkey Tennis on Jan 28, 2020 20:08:37 GMT
1987 and all that – FA Cup Round 3Attachment DeletedAttachment DeletedIn the league, a home defeat at the hands of Luton Town and an away win at Newcastle United followed that momentous December game against Spurs as we entered 1987. The 3rd Round of the FA Cup was up next and City had been given a home draw to Third Division Bolton Wanderers. Not that it mattered much of course as, such was Cov’s record in the FA Cup. Even if they managed to get past Bolton they’d doubtless go out in the Fourth Round. It was the law. This may come as a bit of a surprise, but it wasn’t part of our match-day ritual to go to the pub before a game in those days – drinking was then very much an evening activity for my brother and I. We’d make our way by car from Banbury to Coventry and park in Harley Street. Then, once we’d been checked over for ticks (and nose bleeds, given City’s then lofty position in Division One) and been passed as fit by the medical types we would walk the short distance to the ground; past the away fans' car-park and the Private Shop on Walsgrave Road which sold mostly private things (including candles infused with a certain aroma, probably) to take up our position on the West Terrace. The beginning of ’87 was bloody cold as I recall. I was the proud owner of a 1981 Triumph Dolomite back then and the throttle cable (or whatever it’s called – I know nothing about cars) frequently froze when depressed meaning the thing was revving like feck and picking up speed even when my foot had long left the accelerator; it made for some interesting journeys. As can be seen on the video highlights of this game, it had been a bit snowy in recent days, but games at Highfield Road were rarely called off due to inclement weather thanks to a decent under-soil heating system. The Bolton game on 10th January thus went ahead as arranged and despite being a Third Division club, the Bolton team of the day boasted a couple of talented and well-respected players nearing the end of their respective careers. Phil Neal was their player-manager and featured at full-back, and Asa Hartford also played in midfield. Of interest to Hereford United supporters, George Oghani wore Bolton’s No.9 shirt. City lined up as follows; Ogrizovic, Borrows (playing against his old club), Downs, Emerson, Kilcline, Peake, Bennett, Phillips, Regis, Gynn, and Fecking Nick Pickering. Subs were Houchen and Sedgley. The game itself was all over by half-time. Greggy blasted a free-kick into the back of the Bolton net early on, then a typical Big Cyrille effort made it 2-0, and a fortuitous run from Benno put the Sky Blues 3-0 up by the break and that was basically that - City were through to the 4th Round without really having to break sweat. This in itself was not normal, but of course it was only the 3rd Round against (no disrespect intended) Bolton. Cov would surely be out of the competition by the end of January because that’s what normally happened and in any case, they were away at Arsenal the following weekend in the league and it was going to be shown live on the gigglebox. Much more important.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2020 20:40:40 GMT
Great stuff. What was the attendance? Being needy.
Also it will be good to see how long the cup run will last where every team you touch is completely cursed (before coming here and nobbling us).
P.S. What did you do that game when Hereford (Utd) played Coventry and Fleetwood went berserk? That must have been weird? I remember loads of Hereford Utd/Manure fans - proper vocal about MUFC normally but having not even a hint of divided loyalties that day. Hereford all the way, but you go deep with Coventry. No answer to this bit can offend us seeing as we killed the Hereford club anyway.
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Post by Monkey Tennis on Jan 28, 2020 21:06:10 GMT
Great stuff. What was the attendance? Being needy. Also it will be good to see how long the cup run will last where every team you touch is completely cursed (before coming here and nobbling us). P.S. What did you do that game when Hereford (Utd) played Coventry and Fleetwood went berserk? That must have been weird? I remember loads of Hereford Utd/Manure fans - proper vocal about MUFC normally but having not even a hint of divided loyalties that day. Hereford all the way, but you go deep with Coventry. No answer to this bit can offend us seeing as we killed the Hereford club anyway. 10 - 11 thousand. Pretty poor looking back. Hereford playing Cov in any guise is a bit odd for me. I think I'd have to abstain should Coventry play Hereford in a competitive match going forward, it's honestly my worst nightmare on a footy (sorry 'bout that) front. I've lived here for over 30 years and when I arrived thought it was great to live in a city with a proper football club at the bottom of the road. I still do. I suppose I was left bereft when Cov moved from Highfield Road. That's where it all went wrong and whilst I look out for City's results and get to an away game or two if I can, it'll never be the same. I can't do the Ricoh. Not sure that answers your question, but you can probably infer.
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Post by Hawkeye on Jan 28, 2020 23:06:45 GMT
Loving this.
Don't stop.*
*I have a distant nemory of hearing that phrase before. It seems a long time ago, though.
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Post by Monkey Tennis on Feb 2, 2020 20:29:00 GMT
1987 and all that – FA Cup Round 4I can’t remember when the draw for the 4th Round took place in those days. Was it the following Monday as it is today? I’ve a feeling it was, but possibly at lunchtime rather than in the evening. Either way, the announcement of Cov’s opponents for the 4th Round resulted in little more than an accepting “Oh well…” type of response from City fans; Manchester United. Away. Again. Time to forget any potential 1987 FA Cup run and concentrate on the league, it would seem. So off to Highbury we went to watch the live-on-the-gigglebox league game against Arsenal on Sunday 18th January. This would be our chance to show the nation what a great attacking team City had become in recent months and to try and shove one up the Arse in the process. It didn’t quite turn out as planned but Cov did come away with a point following a dull 0-0 draw in the freezing cold. The following Saturday, West Ham visited Highfield Road and Tony Cottee took the p!ss as the nemesis-like Hammers won 3-1. With the FA Cup trip to Old Trafford scheduled for the next weekend, we feared the Sky Blue bubble may have burst and another relegation battle could yet be on the cards come the end of April. Saturday 31st January duly dawned. We were off to Manchester and it was still b@stard cold. Like any other town/city/village/hamlet/oil-rig/lighthouse/rabbit-hutch in the UK, and probably across the World, Banbury had (and I’m sure still has) its fair share of Man Utd fans and my brother and I were friendly with two of them. We readily accepted their kind offer to hop in their car and be driven to Manchester for the match – us nervously in the back, them confidently in the front, naturally. We parked up and made our way to the ground. It wasn’t the first time we’d been to Old Trafford so we sort of knew what to expect – basically intimidation, loads of red and white everywhere we cared to look and a whole fish and chip shop named after a Scottish former Man United player. That always summed up the difference to me – we didn’t even have a Tommy Hutch, an Ian Wallace or a Jim Blyth tea bar at Highfield Road. Old Trafford remains a different world for most of us and there was little chance in our minds, or anyone else’s, that City would win this game. The cartoon strip in the matchday programme that day did little to encourage us. As we entered the away end incurring a charge of, I think, £2.80, I was surprised to see how many Cov fans had made the effort to travel. It was packed out and we made some serious noise that day. Still, I suppose this was our Cup Final, wasn’t it? United weren’t the team they were later to become admittedly, but they still had some good players and a pretty decent manager. They had the likes of Whiteside, Strachan, Stapleton, Olsen and former Sky Blue hero Terry Gibson in their line-up that day, and were justifiably favourites for the Fifth Round. Enter Keith Houchen, the bloke signed from Scunny. I think the euphoria as Greggy crossed into the penalty area and following a neat flick from Dave Phillips Houch somehow, after several attempts (akin to Sunday League football), forced that ball into the United net will stay with me forever. Our end went mad as you’d expect, and United ultimately failed to recover. Sorry Gibbo; still love you, mind. So Cov were through to the next round, great. But we still had to get home and the disgruntled look on the faces of our Man U mates when we arrived at their car didn’t bode well. We sat sheepishly in the back until half-way down the M6 when my brother (who had recently embraced Veganism – and anyone with any experience of that particular lifestyle choice will know what a vegan diet can do to one’s bowel-movements) was suddenly “caught short”. The driving Man U fan obligingly pulled over to the hard-shoulder to allow brother to scramble out of the car and up the embankment to evacuate his rotting yet impressively vegetative load accordingly. In spite of my futile protestations, Man U driver then edged delicately down the hard-shoulder until the car was about half a mile further south than it had been when brother had initially baled out. He caught up with us eventually, of course, happily cursing the “stupid Fecking tw@t” in charge of the Vauxhall Chevette. The Fifth Round beckoned. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, this was starting to look a bit interesting.
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