Black Country Blues – local lads who played for the Second City
In the final part of his series, TERRY CHURCH takes a look at those who played for both Birmingham teams
RAISED in the one time mining town of Cannock, Malcolm became a fixture in the Blues line up for twelve seasons from 1959 onwards, after making his debut at the age of 17 in 1959.
He had joined the club on leaving school in 1957. His 350 appearances in the League came almost all in the left half position. Appearances in Cup competitions took his total appearances to over 400.
Malcolm was capped by England at youth level and considered by many to have been unlucky not to to have earned caps for the full international team.
Crossing the City in 1971 to join Villa, his six appearances qualified him as one of the few players to have turned out for both clubs. Post playing, Malcolm turned to coaching and was also employed as Chief Scout by both Aston Villa and Leicester City.
Lee Jenkins
Lee was born in West Bromwich and began his career as an apprentice with Villa in 1977.
The following year he was in the side that reached the final of the FA Youth Cup.
He was capped for England at youth level. He qualified for this study by making three substitute appearances in season 1979-80.
In November 1980 Lee joined Port Vale but was to make only one appearance for them, leaving the club at the end of the season and moving to play his football in Finland with Rovaniemi in the country’s top division, The Mestaruussarja.
In 1985 he returned to England to join Blues but sadly on his debut, and his
one and only appearance in a Blues shirt, he broke an ankle. Leaving St Andrews at the end of the season he returned to Finland to join Finnpa.
Ivor Linton
Ivor started his career at Villa, for whom he made 27 appearances, his first coming as a 17-year old apprentice.
One of his appearances was in the first leg of the 1982 European Cup second round match against Dynamo Berlin, when he conceded a penalty with his first touch! His League games for Birmingham clubs were all in the First Division. He finished with four appearances for Blues and in between played a further 27 times for Peterborough United. After leaving Blues, Ivor had a short spell with Bilston Town before moving to Finland where he initially played for Kasko and then played nearly 250 times for Kraft Narpes over a ten year period up to 1999. Retiring at the age of 39 he returned to his home town of West Bromwich, continuing to play, on occasions, for the Villa Old Boys team.
John Sleeuwenhoek
John was born in Wednesfield, the son of a Dutch paratrooper, joining Villa on leaving school in 1959.
He played alongside Allan Baker and Norman Ashe for both Staffordshire and Birmingham County School sides and the trio went on to progress together at Villa Park.
All three became members
of the “Mercer Minors”, so-called after the manager, Joe Mercer, decided to take the view that if they were good enough they were old enough.
Regular
He was affectionately known as Tulip due to his Dutch heritage. John was a first team regular for six seasons during which he won two caps for England at Under-23 level and also represented the Football
League.
He made over two hundred appearances (scoring a solitary goal!) for Villa before he moved across the great divide to join Birmingham City.
Only making 30 appearances for the Blues, he had short spells at Torquay and Oldham but his career was ended because of recurring knee problems which ultimately caused him to retire at the age of 28. He sadly passed away in 1989 at the tender age of 45.