Ian Gibson An Obituary

Last updated : 26 May 2016 By Steve Payne

Sad to hear of the news of the passing of Ian Gibson who is a true Sky Blue Legend so what did he do to give him such a high status with Coventry City fans? 

Ian Gibson was born in Newton Stewart a small town between Dumfries and Stranraer.  The five foot five and a half inch player attracted the attention of Division Three Accrington Stanley and progressed rapidly through their youth system.  He was a rising star to such an extent that he was give his debut by their manager, George Eastman Senior in the 58-59 season.  The debut came at home to Norwich on the 23rd of March in a 2-0 defeat, the midfielder made the headline at being just 15 years 358 days old still a club record.  He played eight more times for the team and scored three goals.

 

His appearances attracted attention and surprisingly he was sold to Bradford Park Avenue a mid table Division Four team.  His first season at the club saw them again end mid table but with a very good home record of only one defeat.  The 60-61 season was a great one for the club as six consecutive wins in April saw them grab 4th place and promotion.  The following season Bradford finishing 11th but the form of Gibbo was attracting bigger fish and in March of that year 2nd Division Middlesbrough paid

£30,000 for him.  Gibbo had scored 18 goals in 88 games.

 

At Middlesbrough, under Bob Dennison things were looking up for Gibbo and things went well spending most of the time in mid table but four wins and two draws in their last six games meant the club ended 4th only three points behind the promoted teams.  Unfortunately, that’s as good as it got as Borough entered a decline the following season only one win on their travels meant a mid table finish.  The 64-65 season was a fraught one for Middlesbrough losing twice to Division Two new boys Coventry City the North East club spent the season in the lower reaches.  They went into the last game still with a mathematical chance of relegation but results else where meant they have survived.  They were not so lucky in the season up to England hosting the World Cup, where their ground Ayesome Park would host some games.  In the penultimate game of that season they stood two places and three points above the drop zone when they visited Highfield Road with City still had an outside chance of automatic promotion, the hosts won 2-1 with Gibbo scoring for the visitors and impressing the City manager Jimmy Hill.  The final game they lost at relegation rivals Cardiff 5-3 and were relegated.  He scored 44 goals in 168 games.

 

After just missing out on promotion the previous season Jimmy Hill made himself busy by raising the cash for the next campaign, out went Alan Harris, John Sillett, Bob Wesson and the bulk of that money went on one player, Gibbo.  He was signed for a record fee of £55,000.  On joining, Gibbo said “I am certain I’ll be happy here”.  Gibson made his debut on the first day of the season a 1-0 home win against Hull City.  His first goal came in game nine a 3-0 home win against Bury.  Things were going well until early October and two defeats in a row, a 3-2 reverse at Preston and a 2-1 defeat at Carlisle. 

After the Carlisle game it was obvious who the manager blamed for the defeats, Ian Gibson, the manager thought he gave two uninspiring performances.  JH ripped into Gibbo in a verbal blast saying “It seems to me you are more interested in the result of the three o’clock race at Kempton Park than you are in ours at the same time on a Saturday”, or words to that effect. 

Gibbo immediately put himself on the transfer list and his City career looked like it had ended.  Gibbo was left out.  City then had a replay in the League Cup at home to Third Division Brighton and City were embarrassingly knocked out of the competition with the home fans turning on Hill, singing rude things about him and chanting the “Gibbo” for Ian Gibson. 

After that still without Gibbo the form picked up with wins in three of the next four league games where City climbed from 10th to 5th in Division Two.  Then City lost two games in a row.  With a few injuries Jimmy Hill decided to heal the rift as no club could afford to play their most expensive player in the reserves.  Hill called Gibbo into his office and said “Do you want to play?  If you do you must understand

the reasons why you had been left out, did you want that chance?”  Gibson said he wanted to play but preferred to be left on the transfer list and was recalled for the Cardiff game at home.  Gibbo was on fire now seemingly fully committed he scored twice to the delight of the crowd in a 3-2 win.  Better was to follow as he scored again away to leaders Wolves in a 3-1 win before scoring again in a 5-0 demolition against league leaders Ipswich.  City moved into second place and looked ever inch a team that could win promotion.  Injury problems only meant he played once in the next four league games but scored again against Rotherham United in a 4-2 win.  Gibson returned to the North East to score in a 4-3 cup defeat before settling back down and from early January only missed one game as City raced for promotion.  Then the big game a massive 51,455 packed into Highfield Road as City had already won promotion but were chasing Wolves for the title.  With City trailing Gibbo had a hand in the leveller touching the ball on to Ernie Machin to level.  Now Gibbo was running the game when John Tudor passed to Gibbo he moved on flicked the ball over the defender, ran around him to smack the ball past the keeper to give City the lead.  Near the end of the game Gibbo combined with Machin to set up Ronnie Rees and City won 3-1.  Another goal followed at Ipswich before City secured the title, Gibbo was no longer on the transfer list.  So City were in the top flight but injuries restricted his appearances.  His first game in the top flight came at Newcastle in a defeat.  His best run came in the winter playing 13 league and cup games but without a goal as City just about survived.  The following season it seemed that Gibbo’s injury problems were behind him all but three of the first 21 league games scoring his first top flight goal in  draw at Burnley after a great run and rounding the keeper.  He followed that

up with another goal against Newcastle this time a well struck shot in only City’s second win of the season.  By this time City were still struggling near the bottom of the table as a half volley earned a point at home to Everton.  Near the end of September on a hard pitch at home to Ipswich Gibbo injured his knee and had to go off he missed the rest of the season.  He was back fit for the 69-70 campaign with no real sign of his injury problems only missing 13 league games.  If City fans thought this was to another struggle they were in for a very nice surprise as Gibbo and his team mates were a lot harder to beat eventually ending up in 6th place out highest ever position.  Gibson played his part but only scored one goal away to Liverpool.  So after 93 games and 13 goals with City fans looking forward to playing in Europe he was surprisingly sold for £35,000 

 

Cardiff City were the team that bought him a team that he always seemed to play well against.  He was signed by his former Bradford Park Avenue manager Jimmy Scoular.  In his first season at Ninian Park he helped Cardiff to third in Division Two

but in those days only the top two went up the Bluebirds missing out by three points.  He also played in Europe as Cardiff; thanks the Welsh Cup were in the Cup Winners Cup.  Cardiff reached the last 16 and took on mighty Real Madrid, in front of over

47,000 fans at home they won the home leg 1-0 but lost 2-0 in the return leg, the Spanish side lost to Chelsea in the final.  He did land an honour playing in the Welsh Cup final against Wrexham he scored two of the three goals in the home leg to secure the cup and European football for Cardiff again.  The 71-72 season he only missed one game but it was a struggle as Cardiff avoided relegation by two points, knocked out of Europe in the first round on penalties against Dynamo Berlin and lost to Wrexham in the Welsh Cup final.  He played nine games in the next season before being sold to Bournemouth where he was beset by injuries again only playing twenty times in two season before retiring from professional football with an injury.

He moved to South Africa to play for a team called Highlands Park a short spell in Johannesburg he moved to Whitby Town before a return to South Africa to play for Berea Park.  He continued to travel and in 1983 was in the Falkland Islands working on government contracts.  Gibbo was included in City’s Hall of Fame and was a regular on Legend’s Day a true City great.