CCFC’s Manager, Noel Cantwell
On this day (3rd October) in 1970 Sky Blues ‘gaffer’ Noel Cantwell picked a team to take on Everton in a Division One clash at Highfield Road. The previous season’s Champions brought a good following with them to join the 29,212 crowd watching the game.
Neil in the Sky Blue 1970
The Toffeemen were in confident mood having won their last six games in a row but the Sky Blues produce a mesmerising performance to take the game 3-1. Our late CCFPA member, cheeky chappie ‘Ernie’ Hunt fired a second half brace on 58 and 80 minutes to ensure the points.
CCFPA member Neil Martin got City’s opener on eighteen minutes which was cancelled out eight minutes later by the Toffees’ John Hurst.
So, it was 1-1 at half-time with everything to play for.
Willie in the Sky Blue
Ernie in the Sky Blue
This game will always be remembered by fans for the completely innovative free kick goal fashioned by CCFPA member Willie Carr and finished off emphatically by ‘Ernie’. The so-called ‘Donkey Kick’ comprised Willie framing the ball between both heels, athletically flicking it up in the air behind his back, thus allowing Ernie to volley expertly over the defensive wall and past Everton‘s goalie Andy Rankin!
The ‘Donkey’ was only tried three times: the first at a pre-season friendly at Blackpool missed by a mile, this successful deployment was the second and the third hit the crossbar against ‘Spurs. It proved so novel and controversial the football authorities later banned it! However, from the photos below did they do it twice during the Everton game as the photos show them kicking towards the kop end , the opposite end to the ‘Donkey Kick’ goal?
Thanks to former CCFPA committee member Dean Nelson for supplying the video below and see Ernie talking about the goal interviewed by Sky Blues iconic former late manager (and Ernie’s fellow CCFPA member) Jimmy Hill.
The Sky Blues fielded the following team that day in October 1970:-
Bill Glazier, Mick Coop, Dietmar Bruck, Dave Clements, Jeff Blockley, Geoff Strong*, Ernie Hunt*, Willie Carr, Neil Martin, John O’Rourke* and Brian Alderson*.
was this another attempt at the donkey kick in the same match ?
Sadly the four players asterisked (*) have since passed away. Two of them, Geoff and Brian, were the only members of this team not to later sign up for this Association. Apparently the England Manager at the the time Alf Ramsey was enormously impressed with Brian’s performance that day and was dismayed to find that the winger hailed from Scotland!
Harry Catterick‘s Toffees team lined up as follows:-
Andy Rankin, Tommy Wright (sub. Sandy Brown), Henry Newton, Howard Kendall, Roger Kenyon, Colin Harvey, Alan Whittle, Alan Ball, Joe Royle, John Hurst and Johnny Morrissey Referee: T.Dawes
Everton got ample revenge against the Sky Blues in April beating us by three clear goals at Goodison.
CCFC 1970-71 Sky Blues Into Europe
The 1970-71 season saw the Sky Blues finish above the then Champions claiming a creditable tenth spot in Division One (the Liverpudlians finished fourteenth, five points behind us). Arsenal pipped Leeds United by a point to became this season’s top level title holders. At the other end Burnley and Blackpool suffered the drop.
More about the history of the famous ‘Donkey Kick’ will be covered in more detail in the next post a little later today – keep checking back!
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young (& Dean Nelson) for sourcing the images.
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