Season 1988/89 - Part 1 of 3

Defeat to Manchester United in the final game of 2004/05 sent Harry Redknapp’s ‘Saints’ spiralling into the Championship. Seven seasons later their return is imminent having experienced administration, numerous managerial changes and a ten point deduction. Dovetail this with their subsequent relegation to the third tier, the death of their owner and life hasn’t always been as glorious as it must seem now for Matt Le Tissier’s only club. Life hasn’t always been about league titles for Sir Alex’s multi-millionaires either. Season 1988/89 saw John Sillett’s City side complete the league double over Manchester United and finish in seventh place. The men from Old Trafford finished in 11^th, four points behind City with no hint of the success to follow. Life hasn’t always been a struggle for our beloved Sky Blues, we’ve more than held our own against the best in the land and witnessed some great days and nights at Highfield Road.

December 1988 brought the ‘Red Devils’ to sixth placed Coventry four games prior to the Sutton United debacle. In the match day programme Trevor Peake revealed how after a treatment room visit Michael Gynn took Brian Kilcline’s trousers to the laundry ladies, unbeknown to ‘Killer’ who was still sat on the physio couch. Gynn then went home and left the cup winning captain sat there fuming waiting for the wash to finish. Five years prior, Terry Gibson’s hat-trick sank Liverpool 4-0 in front of 20,586 fans while ‘Coventry City Clubcall’ advertised its services with no call charges listed. It certainly wasn’t free as those of us who dialled it will testify. Granada Bingo ‘Hummel’ shirts were on sale for £12.99 in the club shop and you could purchase video recordings of City matches for the same price in either VHS or Betamax format.

United’s side comprised Mark Hughes, Brian McClair, Bryan Robson and Steve Bruce while seven of the FA Cup winning line-up took to the field for City. A closely fought contest was decided by a piece of magic from then record signing David Speedie whose clever turn deceived Mal Donaghy and his cross was powered past Jim Leighton by Big Cyrille (see clip and forward to 8:55 minutes).

Big Cyrille powers home a trademark winner

Unable to get to Villa Park in 2001 this was my first, and hopefully last, ‘live’ relegation. There was a disbelieving silence amongst the crowd, stood there quite simply unable to digest what had just become final and how lame the performance was against Doncaster. Eventually the playing squad resurfaced for the ‘lap of appreciation’ to more applause than they deserved. Compare this with the half-time response to George and John’s 1987 FA Cup winners and Mick Coop’s Youth Cup winners. When Forest were relegated in Brian Clough’s final season of 1993 he was asked why they had gone down by Martin Tyler. His response ‘because we’re not good enough’ can certainly be applied to our demise, not just this season but over the past 11 years. What Mr Clough did not have was a Bryan Richardson figure creating huge debt in search of glory and a SISU Capital taking on the losses, changing their game plan two years into their tenure and then stripping our magnificent club of its assets and dignity. I wonder if Mr Richardson was watching Sky Sports News on Saturday evening and saw the ‘R’ appear next to our name in the league table. I doubt whether SISU did either.

'What a marvellous day for Terry Gibson and for the supporters' - John Motson Dec 1983

In the summer of 1983 City spent £100,000 on a young reserve striker from Spurs. Bobby Gould’s astute signing top scored in each of his three seasons and collected Player of the Year in 1984/85. In just 113 appearances he netted 53 times scoring in seven successive games during his final season. Terry Gibson went on to play at Old Trafford and then re-united with Gould at Wimbledon. In 1988 he won an FA Cup winner’s medal in their victory over Liverpool just 12 months after our cup final success.

‘Gibbo’ was a different kind of striker to his predecessors Mark Hateley and Garry Thompson. Little known prior to signing it took him just over an hour to open his City account in the 3-2 win at Watford on the opening day. The Highfield Road faithful were impressed with their initial sighting of Gibson against Everton before he scored three days later in a 2-1 win over Brian Kilcline’s Notts County. With a fine turn of speed his finishing ability brought him a goal every two games in the top division including another winner at Watford a year later. City always looked likely to score with Gibson leading the attack and it was a major loss when he joined up with ‘Big Ron’ at Manchester United.

City supporters’ abiding memory of Terry Gibson is the stunning hat-trick against Liverpool at Highfield Road in December 1983 (see clip below: its a brilliant nine minutes but the best part for me is the fourth goal and what follows at 6:35 mins - cue John Motson). For modern day comparison it rivals Manchester United or Manchester City as Liverpool were the team to beat throughout the ‘80’s. They ended 1983/84 as Champions and beat City 5-0 in the return fixture when Ian Rush scored four times. A fortnight later Joe Fagan's men defeated Roma on penalties to win the European Cup, 1-1 after extra-time, their goal came from former City manager Phil Neal.

Terry Gibson's finest moment at City

Bristol City’s squad is riddled with injuries and nerves, they are looking over their shoulders with an inexperienced manager at the helm. With the Sky Blue Army due to arrive on Easter Monday that fixture could well decide the final relegation place. If we can turn up at Watford we have every chance. On Christmas Day we had 13 points but we've gone against tradition and improved our form in the second half of the season.Gibson’s supply line 28 years ago, Dave Bennett, will be in the commentary box for Mercia watching every minute of City’s battle for survival. With 17 winless away journeys to date let’s hope the drive/train home from Vicarage Road for ‘Benno’ and all the City supporters follows jubilant scenes in the away end as we celebrate an away win at long last.

Ferguson 4 Ipswich 1

When (Sir) Bobby Robson brought his Ipswich Town side to Highfield Road in the winter of 1979 little did he know what lay in store. His defence comprised George Burley, Terry Butcher, Russell Osman and Mick Mills while John Wark reigned supreme in midfield. Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen complemented the free-scoring Scot with Paul Mariner, Alan Brazil and Eric Gates leading from the front. Over 42 games they would concede just 39 goals, establishing themselves as challengers to Liverpool and Manchester United. Mick Ferguson and Ian Wallace led City’s attack with Tommy Hutchison and Steve Hunt on the flanks.

Ferguson, the bearded Geordie number nine, had smashed three hat-tricks in one season back in ‘77/78. By 4.45pm he needed trophy cabinet reinforcements as he claimed the first four goal haul for 20 years in a Coventry shirt.  Gordon Milne's men won 4-1with Wark netting the Suffolk side's consolation from the penalty spot. In the return fixture the following April, Robson's men won 3-0 having not lost since their mauling at the hands of Ferguson, a valuable lesson learnt.

Hat-tricks can tend to come against the division's struggling sides as in the cases of Lee Hughes (Crewe) and Freddy Eastwood (Peterborough). Ferguson’s haul was comparable in future years with Terry Gibson, Dion Dublin and Mick Quinn as they scored against the country's elite defences on their particular day. ‘Gibbo’s’ treble in 1983 against Mark Lawrenson and Alan Hansen was beyond belief, even now when you view the footage that Liverpool side was simply outstanding. Dion Dublin triumphed in his battle against French World Cup winners Frank Lebouef and Marcel Desailly in 1998 while Mick Quinn led a merry dance to messrs Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Andy Linighan and Tony Adams at Highbury as chants of ‘Sumo’,’Sumo’ rang out from the jubilant away following.

As is the norm in modern times the hero is afforded a substitution to a standing ovation from most sides of the ground. Ferguson, however, played the whole game and walked off with his team-mates holding the ‘Minerva Supreme’ match ball as just over 16,000 stood to applaud. In that evening’s ‘Pink’, the legendary 6pm after-match newspaper, a picture of the scoreboard summed up the day as it beamed out ‘FERGUSON 4 IPSWICH 1'. This feat remains the last time a City player scored four times in a league fixture, just over 32 years ago. Freddy Eastwood's treble was just over three years ago, the club must be saving a fortune in match ball expenditure.

The visit of Ipswich has taken on even more importance with the late capitulation on the Golden Mile. Away points may prove to be so vital come April but the home games hold the key. Draws at the Ricoh are of little value, we need the maximum haul to counter the dearth of points on the road. We escaped the previous time we failed to win away all season mainly due to Robbie Keane and Gary McAllister entertaining us with flair and goals at Highfield Road. Gary McSheffrey was a fringe player in that squad, he's now a main player and his goals could make all the difference to our hopes of survival.