Cyclical Fortunes Of Yesteryear Promotion Rivals

It was 59 years ago this month that Coventry beat Wolves in what Jimmy Hill called the Midlands Match of the Century and gained the edge that led to them being crowned Second Division champions.

Ronnie Allen’s Wanderers went up as well in an era when there were no play-offs and only two promotion places – and the two clubs’ paths have often gone in highly contrasting directions since.

While Wolves went down again in 1976, came straight back up and then hurtled head-long towards possible oblivion in the mid-1980s, the Sky Blues pulled off a series of unlikely relegation escapes and survived in the top flight until 2001.

But here is where the balance of power between the two tilted back in favour of those of us on this side of the West Midlands.

Coventry’s first second-tier home game for more than 34 years was at home to Dave Jones’s Wolves, a Sunday clash settled by a single Carl Robinson goal that therefore offered a pointer to what was to come.

Premier League football would finally come to Molineux, initially for just one season and then for three in a row under Mick McCarthy and, although the subsequent nosedive would contain back-to-back relegations, the slide was not as spectacular or far-reaching as that suffered by the Sky Blues. And a certain Nuno Espirito Santo soon had spirits here going through the roof anyway.

Coventry not only endured the nightmare scenario of plummeting to the Football League basement but also lost the stadium they had moved into in 2005 and had to ground-share down the M1 with Northampton for more than a year.

As if to emphasise that fortunes go in cycles for clubs of a certain size, the wheel has turned again for both, with Wolves’ latest Premier League stay currently drawing to an end after eight seasons and the city of Coventry buzzing.

With a point at Blackburn, they have tonight secured the promotion that has looked a formality for many weeks and so ended exactly a quarter of a century out of the elite division.

The title will now be in their sights, too, and it is unlikely to be a last-day verdict as it was in 1967, when Wolves folded disappointinly at Crystal Palace on the last afternoon and allowed Coventry to take the prize by beating Millwall at Highfield Road.

Allen’s men had led the table going into the final match and also been in control of the title race a fortnight earlier before the game that home manager Hill had attached such a lofty tag to.

The massive attendance of 51,455 contained many hundreds of spectators hanging from floodlit pylons, perched dangerously on stand roofs or even squatting or sitting near the sides of the pitch. It must have been quite something to see for both sets of players.

Imagine the sight that greeted Coventry reserve Willie Carr, then a 17-year-old, who arrived back from playing in a junior fixture to the bedlam of the promotion battle.

Peter Knowles put Wolves ahead shortly before half-time and the euphoria from the promotion-sealing 4-1 home victory over Bury the previous Saturday looked like carrying on for the huge number of away fans.

But Sky Blues goals either side of the hour mark flipped the game their way and a late third had the home supporters in raptures as they celebrated their club securing a place in the top division for the first time ever.

Bobby Gould was another spectator, having hit 25 Sky Blues goals in the season before breaking a bone in his wrist in a draw at Cardiff a week before Wolves’ visit.

He was also about to reschedule his wedding because Hill fixed up a trip to the West Indies for his squad as reward for them winning promotion.

For a Wolves perspective on a game that went down in Midlands football history, we are happy to pull out the words of John Holsgrove from Clive Corbett’s 2007 Those Were The Days book. 

He quoted the lanky defender as saying: “It was phenomenal. I tell people and they don’t believe me. There were spectators on top of the stands, up the pylons and round the pitch.

“With the health and safety rubbish we have now, they would have shut the place down. The game would never have been played. It was amazing.”

So who knows how long it will be before Wolves and Coventry cross swords again with points at stake? And, hopefully, it will be in the top flight.

*The photos in this piece are from the Wolves In Pictures book David Instone wrote in conjunction with the Birmingham Post & Mail.