CCFPA wishes ‘Happy 69th Birthday Today’ to our member, Sky Blues goalkeeping star of the 1970s Jim Blyth who was born in Perth, Scotland on 2nd February 1955.
A fairly frequent visitor to the Ricoh/CBS Arena over the years, Jim spent a decade at Highfield Road from 1982 making over 150 league appearances (and 174 in total) also winning a brace of Scotland Caps whilst with the City. He was signed from Preston North End as a promising seventeen year old and became (with the late Les Sealey) City’s two renowned keepers of the period.
Jim is particularly remembered as part of the wonderfully exciting youthful Sky Blues side of 1977-78 which finished seventh in Division One marshalled by Terry Yorath with the likes of Mick Ferguson, Ian Wallace, Graham Oakey, Jimmy Holmes, Barry Powell and Tommy Hutchison (all current CCFPA members).
A record making move to Old Trafford in 1979 fell through due to an unfortunate back injury and Jim moved to Birmingham City in 1982 before finishing his playing career with non-league Nuneaton Borough in 1985-86.
Jim came back to the Sky Blues as goalkeeping coach under now fellow member Gordon Strachan until his departure in 2001 and did a similar job in Scotland at Celtic (2005) until moving to Middlesbrough (2010) at the Riverside.
In his time Jim has coached a string of International goalkeepers including Artur Boruc, David Marshall and, of course, the Sky Blues own Magnus Hedman and Chris Kirkland (both CCFPA members)
We hope you have a great day today, Jim and look forward to seeing you back once more at a future Sky Blues game and/or an Association event including, hopefully, our upcoming Legends Day 2024 later this month.
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