On this day in 1981 the Sky Blues, under (now CCFPA member) Gordon Milne, were having a fair to middling season going great guns in the League Cup. Perhaps, with one eye on the upcoming semi final second leg against West Ham United, they managed to let slip a two goal half time lead against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the League and had to settle with sharing the points in a 2-2 draw. They had beaten Wolves at Molineux earlier in the season in mid September with a third minute goal from Peter Bodak (now a CCFPA member). Today’s draw, nevertheless, extended their unbeaten run to eight games.
Steve Hunt in the Sky Blue
There were 18,242 fans watching at Highfield Road and they were perhaps surprised that John Barnwell‘s lads went in at the break two goals down given they had bossed the first half. Sky Blues goals from (both fairly recent CCFPA recruits) Steve Hunt (29 minutes) and Mark Hateley (35 mins) seemed to set up a home win.
Mark in the Sky Blue
However Wolves eventually got their just desserts when, first, John Richards netted a minute into the second half and Andy Gray equalised with six minutes left on the clock.
Milne’s men lined up as follows (CCFPA members underlined):-
Sky Blue Manager Gordon
The late Les Sealey, Danny Thomas, Brian Roberts, Andy Blair, Paul Dyson, Gary Gillespie, Peter Bodak, Gerry Daly, Garry Thompson, Mark Hateley and Steve Hunt
Future Sky Blue (and CCFPA member) Kenny Hibbitt was in the Wolves side that day. Former Sky Blue star (and CCFPA member) Willie Carr was on the Wolves’ books but not in their side today.
John Barnwell‘s Boys lined up as follows:-
Paul Bradshaw, Geoff Palmer, Derek Parkin, Wayne Clarke, John McAlle, George Be
Gordon, Gary, Paul, Mark. Tommy English, Andy & Ray Gooding
The Sky Blues finished the Division One season in sixteenth spot with Wolves two places behind, a couple of points above the drop zone. Sadly, CCFC lost the League Cup second leg at West Ham three days later by 2-0 and went out within sight of a Wembley final 3-4 on aggregate. ‘So near but so far’, as recognised by Steve Phelps‘ excellent 2017 book “29 Minutes from Wembley: The Inside Story of Coventry City’s 1980/81 Season”. Steve and CCFPA got together a number of that squad in to a game at the Ricoh that year to help him launch the book (below).
