A Question Of Sporting

GNP Sports  2  Coventrians  1

Midland Football League – Division Three

I was recently looking back at some of Belper Town’s results in FA competitions via the brilliant Football Club History Database website, and one fixture jumped out at me.

It was the 1979-80 season and it was a Preliminary Round tie away at Coventry Sporting, the Nailers lost the game 1-0, and at the time Sporting were a West Midlands League side.

I did a bit more digging around the history of Coventry Sporting, and found out that they once hit the headlines, 1975-76 to be precise, when they reached the First Round of the F.A. Cup, and went on to beat Tranmere Rovers 2-0 in a game played at Coventry City’s then Highfield Road. It was a hugely significant result given the gulf in leagues.

The Second Round also produced a home tie, which was again shifted but City’s ground, only this time Peterborough United were to have too much for Sporting, coming out 4-0 winners.

Sporting appeared on the map in 1974, when Coventry Amateurs changed their name and the club took up a place in the West Midlands League. Promotion was gained in 1983 to the Southern League, where they remained until the end of the 1988-89 season, and then they disappeared from the map completely.

I’ve tried to research the club, but very little seems to be out there. I can’t find out what happened to them, and other than an address of the ground, I can’t seem to find any pictures as to what it may have looked like. I did ask my Dad who was at the game in 1979, and his memory was that it lashed it down for the entire game, and he spent it sat in a small wooden stand!

Out Of The Blue

The address of the ground I did find, it was Kirby Corner Road, so I did what everyone would do, I checked Google Maps, and it’s now the site of the University Sports Complex. I did the historical thing via Google Earth, but it leaps from 1999 back to 1945, therefore it doesn’t help.

The area around Kirby Corner Road I know fairly well though. Going back a few seasons now I did watch the re-formed Coventry Amateurs play a game on Westwood Heath Road, at the David Sinclair Sports Ground, while almost opposite is the Westwood Heath Sports Ground that I saw Coventry Spartans play at.

At the start of the season I noticed a new team had been admitted to the Midland Football League, and the ground address was the Coventry Athletics Track, on Kirby Corner Road. The team was GNP Sports.

So, that begged a question. If I was to watch a game at GNP Sports, would I technically be on the old footprint of the Coventry Sporting ground?

Blue Moon

The journey was a simple one, until I got to Kirby Corner Road, both ends of it that is, as the road was closed! After a brief detour around the University complex, I found my way to the Varsity pub, where I was reliably informed I could leave my car and walk to the Athletics Track.

Once arriving at the ground a mere ten minutes before kick off, it became apparent that what I should have done is ignored the road closures, driven down anyway, and parked in the car park like everyone else, local knowledge and all that!

Coventry United had played at 12 noon today, so that meant a good number of the travelling community had decided to do a double and pick up this game afterwards, so the crowd was probably larger than normal for the Coventry derby,

Mr Blue Sky

GNP were top with a 100% record, Coventrians sat in mid-table. The first half wasn’t particularly thrilling, but the balance of power moved very much in the way of the hosts when the visitors had a player sent off for kicking out.

GNP got a grip of the game and scored twice before a hail storm hit us. From the limited shelter of the trees, we saw Coventrians come back into the game and pull a goal back late on. This set up an interesting finish but the boys from GNP hung on to make it five wins from five.

Blue Eyes

The ground is pretty much what you would expect. A slightly unusual blue athletics track surrounded the pitch, otherwise you were standing at pitch side. The facilities were at one end where vending machines provided refreshment. Otherwise, not an awful lot else to say about it. The officials were friendly though, and I have to praise the way they use social media, just a tweet on the morning of the game to say something like ‘Matchday – Game On’ is hugely helpful and saves an awful lot of time ringing around checking fixtures. GNP are a progressive and well run club, but praise too for Coventrians. A couple of years ago now I took a trip to their ground via the train and bus, and got some great help from Secretary Jane Connolly, who today was taking photographs from the dugout. 

My question remains unanswered though, was I on the site of the former Coventry Sporting ground?  Maybe someone can shed some light on it and even point me in the direction where I can find out a bit more about them.

Until then, curiosity will continue to get the better of me…

Green Door