Football's Finest
A database of the greatest teams and the most fascinating stories in the sports history.
Birmingham City 1954-1963
Keep Right On
When manager Arthur Turner took over Birmingham City part way through the 1956 season, the club sat mid-table in the second division. By the end of that season, City had smashed in 92 goals, with every one of their five first choice forwards achieving double figures, inflicted a 9-1 defeat of Liverpool, their worst ever loss, and raced up the table to be proclaimed champions with a 5-1 away win over Doncaster Rovers on the final day of the season. On their first season back in the first division, Birmingham achieved their highest league finish at that point in their history, of sixth place. In addition to this, they reached the FA Cup final where they played, and were defeated by, Manchester City. This game is notable due to Manchester City’s goal keeper Bert Trautmann playing the last 20 minutes of the game with a broken neck bone. Birminghams achievement of making the final is all the more commendable considering the fact that all of their games had been played away from home. It was during this campaign that “Keep Right On To The End Of The Road” by Harry Lauder was adopted as the clubs anthem.
City reached the following years FA Cup semi-final, only to be defeated by Manchester United’s “Busby Babes”. This Birmingham City side is a trailblazer for English teams in European competition, being the first English side to ever play in a continental tournament when they featured in the inaugural Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in May of 1956. In this tournament, City went all the way to the semi-final. Here, they played Barcelona who at the time, were one of the worlds greatest and most star studded club sides. Birmingham held Barcelona to a 4-4 draw, but were defeated 2-1 in the replay. In 1960, Birmingham became the first English club to reach the final of a European competition when they again faced Barcelona, this time losing 4-1. They made the final again the following year and were beaten 4-2 by Roma. Before this match, City defeated Inter Milan home and away. No other English club had won a game at the San Siro until Arsenal achieved this over 40 years later.
Turner left the club in 1960 and was replaced by the clubs old goalkeeper Gil Merrick. Birmingham’s league form at this point left a lot to be desired, but there was a silver lining in the form of the newly created League Cup. Entering was optional and a number of top division clubs chose not to bother, but Birmingham did so from its first year onwards. City dodged a relegation bullet in 1963 by winning two of their last three matches, but showed inspired form in the new cup competition, reaching the final against their bitter local rivals Aston Villa, who were heavy favorates for the win. But City served up a display of attacking football that had their supporters wondering how they had done so badly in the league. They came out comfortable 3-1 winners in the home leg and put in a solid defensive performance in the away leg to lift their only major trophy to date.
Achievements: FA Cup – Runners up x1
English Second Division – Champions x1
Football League Cup – Winners x1
Star player: Alex Govan DoB 16 June 1929, Glasgow, Scotland
Alex Govan was a Scottish footballer who primarily occupied the outside left position. He spent most of his career with Plymouth Argyle, although he was a Birmingham City player during their most succesful period in the 1950’s. He was spotted as a teen by Plymouth manager Jack Tresadern and was talked into making the long trip south from Glasgow to sign for the club, although he admits that the reason he went was because one of the clubs directors was a builder, and took him on as an apprentice carpeter so that he could keep out of national service. Birmingham City came knocking and offered Govan and his wife a house in Birmingham in exchange for signing, and he began playing for the Blues in 1953. Govan is most famous among Blues fans as being the source of the clubs anthem “Keep Right On To The End Of The Road.” One version of the story goes that Govan was heard singing the song on the team bus on their way to a 1956 FA Cup game against Arsenal. His team mates thought it was catchy and they all got off the bus singing the song. Birmingham fans heard their heroes singing it and at the next FA Cup match at Hillsborough, all the Blues fans started singing the song when Birmingham’s third goal went in. The song inspired City to become the first club to reach the FA Cup final without playing a single game at home.
GK: Gil MERRICK 1
RB: Jeff HALL 2 CB: Ken GREEN 4 LB: Graham SISSONS 3
RM: Alex GOVAN 11 RCM: Trevor SMITH 5 LCM: Len BOYD 6 LM: Jimmy BLOOMFIELD 8
RCF: Bryan ORRITT 10 CF: Peter MURPHY 9 LCF: Bertie AULD 12
SUBS:
Eddy BROWN 18, Mike HELLAWELL 7, Johnny SCHOFIELD 1, Harry HOOPER 11 Noel KINSLEY 14, Gordon ASTALL 17 Johnny NEWMAN 4
Manager: Arthur TURNER
Home Ground: St Andrew’s Stadium