Former Coventry City player and twice manager Bobby Gould today wowed the Coventry City Diamond Club when he spoke at the autumn lunch of the supporters club for City supporters with fifty or more years service.
Around 170 guests attended the lunch in the Legends Lounge at the Ricoh Arena and after an excellent meal, those present including former players Dietmar Bruck and Ronnie Farmer, watched a dvd of some of Bobby's goals for City, Arsenal, West Ham, Wolves and Bristol Rovers.
This drew good applause as did the speech from the former Caludon Castle pupil, who met his wife Majorie over 45 years at the Locano on one of their famous Sunday nights.
Gould, whose first City game as a supporter was in the 53/54 season, admitted that he loved his playing days more than management which he found challenging and told tales of having to sweep the old Highfield Road terraces and the players collectively pocketing any cash they found.
Something that stuck with him throughout his career, was being told by Billy Frith that he has too slow as did the words of Jimmy Hill, who once before a game with Ipswich that he fancied Gould for a hat-trick and twenty minutes later, Gould, who can now be heard on Talk Sport, had scored three times.
He described Jimmy Hill as a special man, one that he owes so much to and a man Gould had stood up to as a sixteeen year old when asked to play in a Sunday afternoon game for City but refused as it was the only time he could spend with his dad who was in hospital.
Gould, who remembered fondly Ernie Machin, George Curtis and the Hungarian coach brought in by Jimmy Hill, as well as poking fun at Dietmar Bruck and Ronnie Farmer, said that his first goal was against Mansfield Town and his best goal ever was in a 2-2 draw against Manchester City at Highfield Road.
Upto the present day and Bobby Gould, who applied for the Coventry City manager's job recently, feeling he had the energy, felt that it was a said situation at the club, hoped we get out of it and admitted that there are still lots of questions to be asked before he conducted an auction for a signed Keith Houchen photo and hilariously called the bingo, won by Dietmar Bruck, adding to an already memorable afternoon and one of the best Diamond Club lunches for a while.
Pictures copyright of Pete Chambers