Matchday Memories: On This Day 1922 – Red & Green Citizens Vanquish Vale Thanks To Toms

On this day a hundred and three years ago the Coventry City’s first team played in Division Two of the Football League and their Reserves in the Southern League (newly moved from the Birmingham and District League). This was the club’s fourth season post World War One and the team turned out at this time in the civic colours of Red and Green (reflected in CCFC’s programme cover from that season- right) – about as far from the Sky Blues as you could get!

CCFC Manager – Albert Evans

The ‘Citizens’ were managed by one Albert J. Evans and David Cooke remained their influential ‘Acting President’ chairman and benefactor.  Walter J. Harris headed a Board of Directors of seven hardy souls!

CCFC had begun the 1922-23 campaign modestly with only one win and a draw in their first five games. Today’s sixth fixture was an away game against Potteries side Port Vale. Exactly a week previously they had lowered the City’s colours at Highfield Road by the odd goal in three with our goal scored by Bill Toms who had scored three out of the club’s four goals so far! Revenge in the Potteries would be sweet and that’s what the club from Coventry got!

Bill Toms (1922-23)

Once more it was the visitors who prevailed, this time City winning by the only goal of the game – and it was no big surprise that it came from that man Toms again!  The majority of the Staffordshire crowd of 12,733 would have gone home pretty disappointed as CCFC rose four places to thirteenth.

Bill was quite a character. A Mancunian, he had won the Military Cross in the Great War before becoming a football professional and travelling aound a bit. Before arriving at Highfield Road he had played for the likes of Eccles Borough (1914), Southport Central, Manchester United (1919), Plymouth Argyle (1920) and Oldham Athletic (1922).

Before leaving us for Stockport County in June 1923 Bill had scored a very respectable nineteen goals in his 31 games including CCFC’s first ever Football League hat-trick in the 7-1 demolition of Wolverhampton Wanderers on Christmas Day 1922! He later went on to play for Wrexham (1923), Crewe Alexandra (1934) and finished off with non-league Winsford United in 1925.

The teams on this day fully a century ago were as follows:-

Coventry City:

Jerry Best; Teddy Winship & Jimmy Lawrence; George Allon, Joe Jones & George Hadley;  Jimmy Dougall, Tom Storey, Alec Mercer, Bill Toms & Arthur Wood

Port Vale (managed by Joe Schofield): 

Teddy Peers; Len Birks & Peter Pursell; Ernest Collinge, ‘Jack’ Hampson & ‘Billy’ Briscoe; ‘Billy’ Harrison, Bob Connelly, James Smith, W.H.Pritchard & ‘Billy’ Agnew

The result put the City in good heart for the next home game at Highfield Road the following Saturday against Manchester United which they won 2-0 in front of 19,500 with goals from both Bill and Alec.

CCFC 1922-23

The final Division Two table, in a difficult season, saw CCFC manage to finish eighteenth out of 22 clubs. Port Vale were one place above us on the same points. Champions Notts County and runners up West Ham United went up whilst Rotherham County (United’s predecessors) and bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers went down.

Thanks to CCFPA’s Mike Young for sourcing the images.