Coventry City, Christmas Day 1959

For my seasonal post this year, I'm offering up another snapshot of Christmas Day football. This time the location is Coventry City's Highfield Road Stadium, on 25th December, 1959. For my previous Christmas post, I showcased the matchday programme of the last ever professional football fixture to be played in England on Christmas Day - Blackpool's home game versus Blackburn Rovers in 1965.

When Coventry City took on Wrexham at 11am on Xmas Day 1959, the tradition of the Christmas Day match which had harked back to 1889 (the second season of the Football League) was already well on the wane. This Third Division fixture had actually been scheduled for December 28th, but in the programme notes it was explained that most people in Coventry would be back at work on that day. So a return to the 25th December would offer the supporters a better chance of seeing their team play. 

Coincidentally, it wasn't until a Christmas Day fixture in 1919/20 when Coventry City beat Stoke, that City managed to win their first ever match in Division Two having been promoted to the Football League from the Southern League after WW1. 

A good omen then, as on this Christmas Day match in 1959, City beat Wrexham 5-3. For the return game which was played at the Racecourse Ground on Boxing Day, City also won, this time 3-1.

The slim 12 page City programme has a tremendously powerful front cover design depicting a packed to the rafters Highfield Road with the word CITY in bold white capitals. There's a typical-of-the-era collection of advertisements accompanying the team line-ups, words from the manager, and pen pictures of the visitors. The cost of a coach journey from Coventry to Wrexham for the away fixture was 14/6 (seventy two and a half pence). I wonder how many coach loads of fans made that Boxing Day trip up to North Wales?

Coventry v Wrexham, 25th December 1959

Wrexham v Coventry, 26th December 1959

Here are some highlights from that Coventry City v Wrexham programme issued on 25th December 1959:

Just over 60 years on, Coventry will be UK City of Culture 2021, and the team are competing in the Championship, the second tier of the Football League. The club left Highfield Road at the end of the 2004/05 season, and are currently playing their home matches at Birmingham City's St Andrew's Ground before a planned move to a new site in association with the University of Warwick.

                       

Happy Holidays to all...