When Bangor City played Coventry City – with four internationals in our ranks! - by Huw Pritchard

Many are the Football League giants who have visited Farrar Road, and on 17 May 1971 it was the turn of Coventry City. 

In the season just completed, Coventry had finished a respectable 10^th in the old First Division, and competed in their only European campaign to date. They played in the European inter-Cities Fairs Cup (later the UEFA Cup), beating Bulgarian side Trakia Plovdiv 6-1 on aggregate in the first round. In the second round they notably beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in the home leg, but lost 3-7 on aggregate.

Coventry’s manager Noel Cantwell had previously won fame with Manchester United and the Republic of Ireland, and later helped pioneer the role of TV football pundit.

According to the matchday programmes, Coventry had a number of past, present and future internationals in their ranks such as defenders Jeff Blockley (England) and Jimmy Holmes  (Rep of Ireland) midfielder David Clements (N Ireland) and future Aston Villa star Dennis Mortimer – described as the best midfielder never to get an England cap.

 

Also in the squad were Willie Carr and Ernie Hunt, famous for their famous ‘donkey kick’ goal scored against Everton the previous October. This was when Carr took a free kick by gripping the ball between his ankles and flicking it up for Hunt to volley home. The move gained widespread fame through being shown repeatedly on Match of the Day. The football authorities banned the skill at the end of the season.

More remarkable than some of the famous names in the Coventry lineup were those listed to appear for Bangor.

As well as local heroes such as George Morton, Jimmy Conde and George McGowan were names who were, or were to become, internationally famous in the world of football.

Emlyn Hughes – at the time with Blackpool, went on to achieve fame as captain of England (62 appearances) and the much-decorated Liverpool team of the 1970s. Hughes returned to a snowy Farrar Road nearly ten years later, captaining Liverpool in a friendly when nearly all Football League matches were called off

Jimmy Armfield – played 627 times for Blackpool, the only club of his career. A full back, he played 43 times for his country, captaining the England team on 15 occasions

Ron Yeats – a Liverpool legend of the early 1960s. He was known as ‘The Colossus’ at Anfield, after his huge frame and muscular build. As club captain, Yeats led Liverpool to their first major honours in nearly 20 years – the League championship in 1964 and 1966 and the FA Cup in the intervening year. Yeats also won four caps for Scotland. 

Tony Book –joined Manchester City as a fullback at the age of 31 and became the club’s most-decorated captain of all time, winning a League championship, FA Cup, European Cup Winners’ Cup and League Cup. Book had spent the period 1956 – 1964 with his home town club Bath, making nearly 400 appearances.

Shay Brennan – was a full back for Manchester United who also played 19 times for the Republic of Ireland. He made his debut for United in an FA Cup match v Sheffield Wednesday on 19 February 1958. This was United’s first match after the Munich Air Disaster, and Brennan scored twice on an emotional night. Brennan went on to help United to the 1965 and 1967 League titles as well as to the European Cup.

With so much talent on both sides, you’d think there’d be thrills and goals a-plenty …. and there certainly were!

Bangor won 4-2 in front of an estimated crowd of 5,000, our scorers being Mcgowan 8 Fleming 41 Conde 50, 87

Coventry's scorers were: Rafferty 12, O'Rourke 18

Many thanks to Jim Brown, official historian at Coventry City FC for the score and scorers information. Read Jim's Coventry City blog at jimbrownsjournal.blogspot.com