19831210 Coventry City 4 : 0 Liverpool - Canon League First Division - FULL MATCH

FULL MATCH - This is the first time the full match has been made available to the public. The story behind this goes as follows: On Saturday 10th December 1983 the BBC were at Highfield Road Stadium to film the Match of the Day programme to be broadcast that night. As there was only the Main Stand Gantry until the early 1990's, there was limited room available. As a result I was unable to film the match, so I liaised with the BBC Video Technical Unit to supply CCFC with an audio and video feed to record and send the game live throughout the ground TV's.

I had the master tapes (U-Matic Low Band Format) from that day, the whole match has never been broadcast and I am sure the BBC erased their master tapes, as the only highlights have ever been seen on sports channels and on YouTube.

The BBC who recorded my master tape turned on the record at the beginning of the first and second halves about 30 seconds into the broadcast. As a result I didn't want to edit the master without these missing bits being included. I have pieced the footage together so here is the full classic game for the first time on YouTube on my channel (@deanlander) and eventually on Sky Blue Archive.

In 2007 I downloaded the goals of the match in a 10 minute window (which was the max limit downloaders were allowed in those days). The quality then was inferior to what it is now. To date it has had over 26K views.

Source: BBC TV (Master tapes submitted to CCFC) for Match of the Day.
Commentator: John Motson

The team sheet is on the video.

Below is a review of the match taken from the 'Coventry City Former Players Association' website:

The MOTD cameras joined 20,649 fans (20,586 in some reports) at the home of CCFC (Highfield Road Stadium) to record a fantastic City performance as the home team stunned the Champs with a clear four goal victory! This was City’s best display for years as Nicky Platnauer netted with a stooping header forced past Bruce Grobelaar after Gibbo (Terry Gibson) caused panic in the Reds’ defence after just 45 seconds to set things up.

Terry’s goals followed in a well spaced way. His first was netted nineteen minutes in with a poacher’s goal off the post after sliding in. His second came just on half-time with a close range screw after good work by Dave Bamber and the coup-de-grace to make it 4-0 with just six minutes before the ref blew the final whistle, taking advantage of a kind bounce to get past future Sky Blue ‘gaffer’ Phil Neal and run on to put it past the Reds’ South African ‘keeper Bruce Grobelaar. Terry might have had more missing several other chances so much did he torment the Liverpool side that day!
This was Gibbo’s first ever hat-trick and the first treble conceded by the Reds since Keith Weller did it back in 1972 for Leicester City. The Reds’ boss, Joe Fagan, was of the opinion that, in this form, the Sky Blues could be title contenders!

Coventry City Manager: Bobby Gould
Liverpool Manager: Joe Fagan

For more information about this match and more, please click on www.skybluearchive.com


Edited by Dean Lander (CCFC Video Unit) in September 2025. This match was recorded in stereo. The game had replays only for the goals except there was no slow mo replay for Terry Gibson's last goal for his hatrick. I have included this and extra replays along with titles to enhance the viewing experience.

Dean Lander/Sky Blue Archive/‪@mrviewsky‬
September 2025