29 Minutes from Wembley

The Inside Story of Coventry City's 1980/81 season

Steve Phelps

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785313738
• Year: 2017

On February 10, 1981, Coventry City stood 29 minutes from Wembley in the League Cup semi-final second leg at West Ham United's Upton Park. Victories over Manchester United, Brighton and Hove Albion, Cambridge United, and Watford had taken Gordon Milne's side to the first semi-final in the club's 97-year history. City's youngsters missed out on a trip to Wembley in the cruelest of circumstances after a fantastic first leg at Highfield Road in front of 36,000 fans. For the first time, the cast of 1981 are reunited to tell their stories. 29 Minutes From Wembley features exclusive interviews with players, management, supporters, and opposition stars. Contemporary media reports appear alongside memories and retrospectives to recall a wonderful time in Sky Blue history, the team's age averaging just 21. By the summer of 1983 the majority had left the club; here, they tell their individual stories of their time at Coventry City, a club still close to their hearts after all these years. Just how good could that team have been?

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• The Cast
• Welcome to Coventry City Football Club
• Pre-season 1980/81
• The Goal That Never Was
• Farewell to ‘Hutch’
• From the Abbey to the Connexion
• Bodak’s The Name, Goals Are My Game
• And They All Run to Little Danny Thomas
• Seats For All At Highfield Road
• Just How Good Could That Team Have Been?
• Photographs