Jim Brown, the official historian for Coventry City Football Club, has chronicled the Sky Blues 1966/67 season, one which culminated in the club winning the Second Division and reaching the top-flight of English football for the very first time.
Under the charismatic leadership of Jimmy Hill, the Sky Blues had narrowly missed out on promotion in 1966 and, strengthened by the arrival of record signing Ian Gibson, were the favourites to go up the following season.
The story tells how, after a mixed start, the team had a crisis in October with Hill and Gibson falling out and the Scot asking for a transfer – at which point the team was dumped out of the League Cup by Third Division opposition.
For a time ‘JH’ was under presssure until he and ‘Gibbo’ settled their differences, and the fans’ hero was recalled.
His return sparked a run of 25 unbeaten games and secured promotion. With success guaranteed, the ‘Midlands Match of the Century’ with Wolves would decide the title: over 51,000 watched as the Sky Blues triumphed and went on to clinch the Second Division championship.
A full review of the bok will be published shortly on Vital Coventry.
It is available to buy from Pitch Publishing
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