The Coventry City Diamond Club celebrated Christmas with its lunch today at the Ricoh Arena.
183 members and guests including former players Ian Wallace, Ken Brown, Brian Nicholls, Ronnie Farmer, Lol Harvey and John Sillett who is the President of the club for City supporters with fifty years or more service, along with Former Player Association Committee Members Mike Young and Frank Pritchard and Jon Strange, Chairman of the Coventry City London Supporters Club, were greeted by Chairman Tom Dentith before those present in the Eon Lounge enjoyed an excellent lunch.
Entertainment was provided by the Blue Coat School Choir and Concert Band who performed a number of songs and received a standing ovation from the members and guests.
The Diamond Club is noted for its speakers and today was no exception with the first speaker being Owen Davies, the manager of Tescos at Arena Park. The Cambridge based man who has been in the job five months informed everyone about the store which is in the top ten of Tescos stores in the country.
Next up was former City player and manager John Sillett, who had admitted that he was glad he had his stint as manager when he did.
Sillett who was at City's defeat to Portsmouth last Saturday said that he felt sorry for Andy Thorn who has had no luck but the football City were playing in building from the back was the type of football that he wanted to see them play.
He felt that the youngsters in the team were tremendous and were doing well in very difficult circumstances and able to take the pressure of playing in a team which was not winning every week.
Ever the optimist, he said: "We have still got a chance to be one of the best clubs in England and we have a chance to prove that. "Let's hope those decisions at Christmas are made."
Bouquets were presented to Eileen Dentith, wife of Chairman Tom and Treasurer Maureen O'Neill, by Ian Wallace and Dietmar Bruck to thank them for all their work with the Diamond Club.
Next to speak was Ian Wallace. A man who knows he is always amongst friends in Coventry, had a bit of a hair-raising flight from Glasgow last night but was here in one piece to tell those present that he had never seen City lose in 12 matches over the last three years.
He said that despite the club having their worst start to the season for some years and current worst league position, he said that everyone had to have faith like we have done over the years and such is the nature of the clb that it will always survive.
His happiest days were at Coventry, despite a big money move to Nottingham Forest, where he had European football. He spoke about the City players then doing everything together, playing golf, fishing etc, and said the comaraderie was second to none, something which does not happen nowadays.
He finished by paying tribute to Jimmy Hill and his legacy which laid the foundation for Coventry to live on.
With the speeches over, the bingo, which had John Sillett declaring "that was a good year" when ball 87 was drawn out and raffle took place before the members and guests left having had another Diamond afternoon.
Pictures copyright and courtesy of Pete Chambers