The Highfield Road stadium was substantially rebuilt in the 1960's with three new stands erected in four years. In 1963, after a feverish FA Cup run, City lost out in the quarter-finals to Manchester United, but the following season were champions of Division 3, boasting average crowds of 26,000. Most importantly, on the pitch the team delivered. A new sky blue kit was unveiled, the nickname was changed to the Sky Blues, trains were laid on for fans to travel to away games and pre-match entertainment became commonplace, plus many more innovations. It was the arrival of Jimmy Hill as manager in 1961 that sparked the revolution at the club. The 1960's was a boom time in Coventry, with car factories keeping pace with the consumer revolution in the nation at large. Fortunately, one season was enough to clamber out of the league's basement. That decade witnessed many false dawns before the team embarked on the slide, which touched rock bottom in 1958 with membership of the newly formed Division Four. The post-war years brought troubled times, Storer left for Birmingham City in 1945 and returned in 1951 but his ageing side were relegated to Division Three South in 1952. In 1938 they missed it by one point, and many observers believed that but for the war City would have achieved that target. The three seasons prior to World War II saw the club come close to promotion to Division One. In 1936, they won the Third Division South championship after a nail-biting final day 2–1 victory over Torquay United and returned to Division Two after eleven years in the lower division - with crowds averaging over 20,000. It was not until the arrival of manager Harry Storer in 1931 that fortunes improved and the 1930's were a golden period for the Bantams, as the club was nicknamed.ĭespite City being substantially in the red, Storer developed a side which scored 100 goals in four seasons out of five, with the club's greatest ever goalscorer Clarrie Bourton netting 49 goals in 1932 and 40 the following season. Throughout the Twenties City struggled, with managers coming and going, until relegation finally caught up with them in 1925. Setting the precedent for their later dramatic survival battles, they avoided relegation on the final day, but only after a bribery scandal rocked the club. They lost their opening game, at home to Tottenham, 0-5 and did not win a match until Christmas Day. City's first season in the League in 1919/1920 was a disaster. In 1919, Coventry City were voted into the Football League. In 1910 they enjoyed one of their finest moments when as a non-league club they reached the FA Cup quarter finals, beating First Division Preston and Nottingham Forest en route. Having been members of the Birmingham League since 1894 the club progressed to the Southern League in 1908 before being elected to Football League Division Two immediately after World War I. The period of 1887 to 1892 was a golden one for the club with the Birmingham Junior Cup being won in consecutive years, 18. The club as a result was known as Singers FC until 1898 when the name was changed to Coventry City.Įarly matches were played at Dowells Field, off Binley Road until a move to Stoke Road in 1887 before the move to the Highfield Road site in 1899. The club was founded in 1883 by Willie Stanley, an employee of local cycle firm Singers. Coventry City - A Brief History In The Beginning
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