The Old Five (2 Viewers)

Joy Division

Well-Known Member
I was reminiscing with my mum the other day about my Grandad who passed away in the late 90's, he used to go to city games regularly in the 50's, 60's and 70's but although never lost interest in the club he found he didn't enjoy going to games from the 80's onwards. One thing that always sticks out in my mind is that every other saturday after a home game we would pop round to his house for tea and he would always ask "how did the old five get on today?". He'd never refer to us as Coventry, Sky Blues or City etc just The Old Five. As a kid at the time I never really picked up on it, I just understood it that he was referring the the football club as one of the many strange things he used to say. But with that conversation with my mum she tells me that when he did go to the football in the 50's and 60's she remembers all his friends referring to us as the old five whenever they came round.

I've found a bit of info relating to this on the historical coventry forum but not a huge amount. Does anyone have anymore info on the background of this or does anyone still use this term? Apparently there used to be an Old Five chant?
 

SkyBlue_Bear83

Well-Known Member
Yea someone said it was because we scored 5 most weeks (or alot of the time) under Jimmy Hill when we were rising through the divisions under him.
 

rupert_bear

Well-Known Member
Back in the mid 1930's we had an excellent team run by manager Harry Storer and it is said but for World War 2 would have got into the then first division. We had free scoring forwards at the time and regularly put 5 passed apponents. My old man told me we had a superb team in those days, fucking prat that Hitler bloke !!
 

Joy Division

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the replies so far, would be really interested to hear any more stories.

I just really like phase 'the old five', I think its so important to keep links to the past and would love to see this term return as a regular connection to the club
 

skybluesam66

Well-Known Member
i seem to remember reading somewhere it was actually due to a forward line we had at some point - 5 forwards who used to terrorise defences - and became known as the old 5

on that basis, i wonder if the 6 forwards we had attacking for the equiliser on tuesday will ever be known as the old 6
 

bezzer

Well-Known Member
I was always lead to believe the 'Old 5' was a reference to City scoring 5 goals.

I remember in 77/78 when we beat Norwich 5-4. I was on the Kop with my Dad and all the old fellas were holding their hands up and chanting 'The old 5, the old 5' when Wallace (I think) got our 5th.
 

Citysince47

Well-Known Member
The term "old 5" refers to the forward line of the 36 37 season who regularly scored 5. Clarrie Bourton was the centre forward. Got the best goalscoring record of (I think) 46 in that season alone. Pity we couldn't clone him or George Hudson
 

Monners

Well-Known Member
Have heard the chant "Wew want the old five!" on occassions back in the 80's and even the 90's. My dear departed father used to mention the old five on occassions, so it was pretty well known (until I started to watch us of course)
 

Houchens Head

Fairly well known member from Malvern
I've been a City supporter since my first game 51 years ago and always remember being in the crowds and blokes around me shouting "Come on City! Give it the old five!" I always knew this refered to the fact we regularly scored 5 goals against the opposition. I also remember when I use to watch Cov rugby (in the days of David Duckham et al) at Coundon Rd (if city were away) and whenever there was scrum, the shouts of "Go on lads! Push 'em up the precinct!" Great days!
 

oldfiver

Well-Known Member
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/INCONSISTENCY+HAS+BECOME+PREDICTABLE.-a0322521252

One would have thought City's team of the early 1930s would have scored more away goals - between 1931 and 1936 Harry Storer's team scored 100 goals in four out of five seasons but Storer's team's strength was at home where they scored 70 or more goals in those four seasons.

The best away haul by the "Old Five" team was 34 in 1931-32 (Clarrie Bourton's golden season when he scored 49 league goals) when ironically they won only one away game all season.
 

mrtrench

Well-Known Member
We should reignite the tradition and call ourselves 'The Old Nil'.
 

Johhny Blue

Well-Known Member
i seem to remember reading somewhere it was actually due to a forward line we had at some point - 5 forwards who used to terrorise defences - and became known as the old 5

on that basis, i wonder if the 6 forwards we had attacking for the equiliser on tuesday will ever be known as the old 6

It makes for exciting finishes even if we lose a few. Way better than desperately hanging on to a 1-0 for the last 80 minutes
 

Gint11

Well-Known Member
My old man talked to me about this all the time! Said we used to stick 5 past teams on a regular basis. Such decline since. Surely we can't be shit forever or can we........


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Gazolba

Well-Known Member
Yea someone said it was because we scored 5 most weeks (or alot of the time) under Jimmy Hill when we were rising through the divisions under him.

It predates the Jimmy Hill era by decades. My father used to use that expression in the 1950's. I asked him about it once and he said in the old days, it was common for Coventry to score five goals in a game (I know we can only dream about that today). My father was still saying "Up the old 5" long after most people knew what he was talking about which is quite sad really.
 

phildownunder

Well-Known Member
Yes as others have pointed out this goes back to the exploits of the City team in the 1930s which regularly scored that many with Clarrie Bourton in particular, but also the likes of Jock Lauderdale and Billy Lake who were in the side at the time.

For anyone interested my source for this info was the book '100 greats Coventry City Football Club' by George Rowland.
 

Wheelfass

Well-Known Member
Yes it refers to the amount of times in the 30s that we scored 5 goals. I have it printed on many of the back of many of my City shirts. My Dad always used to shout "C'mon the old five" at least once at each game as a sort of tradition and I do the same now just to carry it on. It sometimes gets a giggle if we are losing with just a few minutes remaing.
During the 60s and on a free Saturday my Dad and his Brother took me and my cousin, a couple of very young lads at the time, to experience a first division game at Vile Park where Vile were playing Fulham. True to form my cousin and me sat in the stand and shouted C'mon the old five throughout the game.
 
I was reminiscing with my mum the other day about my Grandad who passed away in the late 90's, he used to go to city games regularly in the 50's, 60's and 70's but although never lost interest in the club he found he didn't enjoy going to games from the 80's onwards. One thing that always sticks out in my mind is that every other saturday after a home game we would pop round to his house for tea and he would always ask "how did the old five get on today?". He'd never refer to us as Coventry, Sky Blues or City etc just The Old Five. As a kid at the time I never really picked up on it, I just understood it that he was referring the the football club as one of the many strange things he used to say. But with that conversation with my mum she tells me that when he did go to the football in the 50's and 60's she remembers all his friends referring to us as the old five whenever they came round.

I've found a bit of info relating to this on the historical coventry forum but not a huge amount. Does anyone have anymore info on the background of this or does anyone still use this term? Apparently there used to be an Old Five chant?

The "old five" embraced a golden era of pure goal gluttony covering primarily 1930/1931 - 1935/1936 seasons thus:

30/31: 1 old 5 plus (2x6, 1x7)
31/32: 4 old 5, plus (2x6, 1x8)
32/33: 3 old 5, plus (2x6, 1x7)
33/34: 5 old 5, plus (2x7, 1x9)
34/35: 3 old 5, plus (2x6)
35/36: 2 old 5, plus (2x6, 1x7, 1x8)

The prime reason for this goalfest was almost entirely due to the electric form of Clarrie Bourton who scored 171 league goals in 228 games over this period.

Therefore the Old 5 does have factual roots and will be forever revered never to be equalled methinks.
 

singers_pore

Well-Known Member
I remember being in the West End in the 1980s, on the rare occasions we scored 3 or 4 goals, there would always be some shouts from the older fans for The Old Five.
 

oldfiver

Well-Known Member
Therefore the Old 5 does have factual roots and will be forever revered never to be equalled methinks.[/QUOTE]

<<<<< Well that's good news :)
 

Gint11

Well-Known Member
My old man regularly talks about 'the old 5' and he is referring to when City used to put 5 past teams all the time


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