Matchday Memories: On This Day 1968 – Sky Blue ‘Gibbo The Great’ Returns Toon Army To Tyneside Pointless
On this day (7th September) in 1968 there was a great crowd of 33,361 crammed into Highfield Road to watch Noel Cantwell‘s Sky Blues take on Newcastle United in City’s sixth Division One fixture of the season. City had lost their first three games of the the 1968-69 campaign, at both Sheffield Wednesday and Manchester United and home to West Ham United. Things then appeared to be looking up after a 4-2 defeat of West Bromwich Albion and a 1-1 draw at Burnley the previous Saturday. The positive results continued today as the Sky Blues ran out 2-1 winners over the Magpies but they did have to come from behind!
The Sky Blues conceded a soft opener against the Toon Army favourites as Jackie Sinclair knocked one in after only eight minutes. However (later a CCFPA member) Gerry Baker soon equalised for the Sky Blues with a header after 23 minutes.It was left to impish Sky Blue inside forward Ian Gibson (who also joined the Association later on), who was enjoying a purple patch, to supply the winner with only a quarter of an hour to go. My, did he and the Sky Blue faithful celebrate the success of his superb shot that beat the Magpies ‘keeper Willie McFaul all ends up (left)!
Gibbo in the Sky Blue
Gerry in the Sky Blue
The graphic below portrays both teams that lined up that day. The Referee was Mr. Roger Capey.
Sadly, both ‘Gibbo’ and Gerry as well as Brian Hill, both Ernie’s (Hunt and Machin) and Maurice from this Sky Blues’ team have since passed away. All, we are pleased to say later went on to join the Association.
Newcastle United got their full measure of revenge at the end of March with a 2-0 victory over the Sky Blues at St. James’ Park and later went on to finish a fairly successful season at ninth in Division One. Though the Sky Blues had a reasonably good run to the Fourth round of the League Cup, eventually being knocked out by Swindon Town, they relied on draws in their last three games of the season to give them just enough points to stave off relegation, finishing just above the drop zone in twentieth spot.
CCFC 1968-69
Leicester City went down with one point less with bottom club Queens Park Rangers who only managed eighteen points all season! At the top Leeds United took the Division One title by six points from runners up Liverpool.
Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young (& Dean Nelson) for sourcing the graphic and images.
