Bobby Thomas sets a new scoring record

Coventry City’s amazing run of 9 wins in 10 league games came to an end at Derby’s Pride Park on Tuesday night in a game they dominated for large periods but were unable to turn their superiority into goals. The 3-2 win against Stoke had extended the sequence to create a new club record for a 10-game run in a season, beating the record of Noel Cantwell’s 1969-70 team in Division One. There was a 9 wins in 10 run in 1954 but that was over two seasons with victories in the last three games of 1953-54 and six wins and a draw in the opening seven games of 1954-55. In 1954 the club was managed by Jack Fairbrother, an oft forgotten manager who took over from Harry Storer in January 1954 but stepped down nine months later following the tragic death of his wife. At the time Jack resigned City were fourth in Division Three South and probably as close to winning promotion back to Division Two during the miserable period from 1952-58.

The Sky Blues had central defender Bobby Thomas to thank for Saturday’s victory over a Stoke side that gave City a few frights in the second half. Bobby’s late goal was his third in consecutive home games. I can find no previous instance of this other than Elliott Ward in 2008 but two of Ward’s goals were penalties. Bobby has now scored five league goals this season and equals George Curtis’ record of most goals by a central defender in a season (excluding penalties). George only scored 11 league goals in 487 games but in 1965-66 he netted five.

I recently received an email from a Dundee supporter, Dale McDowell who wrote:  I recall going to a Dundee v Coventry friendly match in 1999 as a child however my memory of the night is quite vague. A colleague and I were talking about Gordon Strachan and my subconscious is telling me that despite him being retired as a player and was the manager of Coventry City at the time, he came on as a substitute and played. Am I going crazy?

Dale is not going crazy. Gordon, who had started his playing career at Dundee, came on as a substitute in the 86th minute in a game played on 25th March 1999 (during the international break). City won 1-0 with an early goal from Trond Soltved in front of a 2,500 crowd inside Dens Park. 

The City line up was: 

Combe *: Edworthy (Gordon Strachan 86), Burrows, Telfer, Clement, Shaw, Delorge, Soltvedt (Mooney 80), Whelan, Huckerby, Froggatt (Gioacchini 45). Unused sub: Shilton

*Alan Combe was Dundee’s reserve goalkeeper and played as a guest

The incredible Sky Blues winning run continues

Another away win, the fourth in a row, extended the Sky Blues’ current run to eight wins in nine league games. The latest victims were Oxford United who fought hard but ultimately were unable to stop the Coventry steamroller.

As the media have pointed out it is 55 years since Coventry had such a good run - an incredible record, especially considering where the team sat two months ago. It’s worth looking back to 1969-70 when Noel Cantwell achieved an identical run.  In mid-November 1969 after a 0-0 draw at Burnley in which centre-half Roy Barry had made his first start in a City shirt, the team sat twelfth in Division One. At Turf Moor that day the man Barry replaced club legend George Curtis who came on as an 87th minute substitute in what would be his final appearance for the club.

                                                                     Roy Barry

Seven days later another new signing, John O’Rourke, partnered stand-in striker Maurice Setters up front at home to Newcastle United and a late Ernie Hunt penalty secured the points. After a strong Tottenham side were defeated 3-2 at home City travelled to newly promoted Crystal Palace and, with two Brian Joicey goals, triumphed 3-0. A 3-1 Boxing Day home victory over Ipswich was followed by a 1-1 FA Cup home draw with Liverpool before Manchester City were put to the sword 3-0 with the striking partnership of Neil Martin and O’Rourke clicking into gear.

The FA Cup replay at Anfield was lost and five days later the five game winning league run was ended at Elland Road but City were straight back on the winning trail with a 1-0 win at Hillsborough and a 2-0 beating of Arsenal. The eighth win in nine came in a night game at West Ham’s Upton Park with two Martin goals in a 2-1 win that took the Sky Blues to fourth place in the league table.

The run came to an end at Goodison Park when the league leaders Everton were held 0-0 in one off the finest away performances of the era. Against a rampant Everton side Cantwell set up to frustrate the Toffees and defended with their lives with Roy Barry marshalling his defenders in style. The quality of the performance and enormity of the result made the fans almost forget that the winning run was over. The fans were now dreaming of a European place.

The 11-game unbeaten league run came to a shuddering halt seven days later when Chelsea came to Highfield Road. After Everton Dave Sexton’s side were the outstanding English club side that season and would win the FA Cup. An 18-year-old Alan Hudson and a dazzling Peter Osgood helped the Blues to a 3-0 victory to give City a reality check.

There’s no question that the arrival of Barry and O’Rourke was a major factor in that incredible run and two weeks after the Chelsea game Barry tragically suffered a broken leg against Sheffield Wednesday. 

In his absence City never quite reached the heights of that nine-game run but still did enough to qualify for the UEFA Fairs Cup by finishing sixth at the end of an incredible season - the highest league position that the club has ever achieved. 

1969-70

Nov 22 Newcastle (h) won 1-0 (O’Rourke)

Dec 6 Tottenham (h) won 3-2 (Machin, O’Rourke, Gibson)

Dec 13 Crystal Palace (a) won 3-0 (Hunt, Joicey 2)

Dec 26 Ipswich (h) won 3-1 (Hunt, Martin (pen) Og)

Jan 10 Manchester C (h) won 3-0 (Martin, O’Rourke)

Jan 17 Leeds (a) lost 1-3 (Og)

Jan 28 Sheffield W (a) won 1-0 (O’Rourke)

Jan 31 Arsenal (h) won 2-0 (O’Rourke, Martin)

Feb 11 West Ham (a) won 2-1 (Martin 2)

Six wins out of seven following victory at Hillsborough

The Sky Blues made it six league wins out of seven with their injury-time winner at Hillsborough last Saturday. Ellis Simms, unlucky not to be on a hat-trick after what looked a perfectly good goal in the first half was disallowed, was on hand to pounce when the Wednesday ‘keeper James Beadle failed to catch a long punt. For the second game in a row the team scored an injury-time winning goal, a feat I can’t find a precedent for. Six wins out of seven is the best run by a City team since the League 1 championship season when the last seven games before lockdown yielded six wins and a draw. Saturday’s victory over the Owls lifted the side into seventh place in the table, their highest placing this season.

The performance at Hillsborough wasn’t brilliant and the team rode their luck a bit in the second half but as a friend said to me ‘It’s a sign of a good side to win when they’re not playing well’. I find some of the criticism of the last two performances strange - I remember City’s 1966-67 Division two promotion season and after Christmas, as Jimmy Hill’s team extended their unbeaten run, there were many close shaves with defeat and at times the football was pretty ugly. Opposition managers and some of the media criticised Hill’s tactics and physical approach but the history books record the club won the title and reached the First Division for the first time in their history.

Today Preston North End are in town and City will need to be at their best to end the dreadful run of 22 league games without a victory over the Lancashire team. The last win was in September 2007 when late goals from Dele Adebola and Michael Doyle gave City a 2-1 win.

Another sad passing to report this week. Former journalist and broadcaster Marshall Stewart died aged 88 last month. Marshall was the author of the first book written about Coventry City, ‘Miracle in Sky Blue’, published in September 1967. A thin, but fascinating book covering the club’s rise from Division Four to Division One. Marshall, a Cov kid who was later made a Freeman of the city, had covered the club’s affairs in the now defunct Coventry Standard from the 1950s and later joined the BBC where he was the editor of the Today programme. He continued as a senior editor in broadcasting with LBC, a further stint at the Beeb and with ITV in the Midlands. I remember purchasing his book outside Highbury where City were playing for the first time in September 1967 and my interest in the club’s history stemmed from that book. I got to meet Marshall some years ago and enjoyed his stories of covering Coventry City. RIP Marshall.

John Tudor (24.6.1946- 9.2.2025)

It's sad to report the death at the age of 78 former Coventry City player John Tudor after a long struggle with Alzheimer's. John John was a striker pulled from non-league by Jimmy Hill who played a key part in the 1967 promotion team and the first season in the First Division before going on to have a long and successful career with good spells at Sheffield United and Newcastle United amongst other clubs.

Jimmy Hill’s knack for spotting young football talent is largely overlooked when considering the great man’s career but Coventry City benefited from that skill enormously in the 1960s. He encouraged the development of youth players such as Mick Coop, Willie Carr and Ronnie Rees and had an eye for late developers such as Ernie Machin, Dave Clements and John Tudor. John had almost given up hope of playing professional football after being turned down by numerous clubs including Derby, Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough. He was playing for his local team Ilkeston Town in the Midland League and his manager Jim Raynor recommended him to City in late 1965. City took him on a month’s loan. He made a big impression scoring twelve goals in five ‘A’ team games, including six in one game in March 1966 he scored 30 minutes into his debut for the reserves against Ipswich. A professional contract was forthcoming and within a month of the start of the 1966-67 season he made his first team debut in a 3-0 home win over Bury. John, playing as a double striker with Bobby Gould, didn’t score but impressed with his strong heading ability.

He kept his place in a run of nine games that autumn and after scoring in his second game, at Preston, he netted a further four goals. Back in the reserves he was top scorer with 13 goals in 23 games. He made a further seven first team appearances in the promotion season including deputising for the injured leading scorer Gould in the final three games. Gould was injured in the game at Cardiff and John was thrown into the biggest game in the club’s history against Wolves in front of a record crowd of 51,452. City won 3-1 and although John wasn’t on the score-sheet he constantly caused the Wolves defence trouble with his aerial ability. In total that season he scored nine goals in sixteen games.

One of his most memorable games came in City’s second game in the top flight. An already tough game away to Nottingham Forest was made even harder when captain George Curtis was carried off after just four minutes with a broken leg. Tudor moved back to centre-half and substitute Gould came on to score two goals as City earned an amazing 3-3 draw. According to the Coventry Evening Telegraph ‘Time and time again, his [Tudor] blond head soared up to check Forest’s wave of attacks as he out jumped and almost completely subdued the villain of the piece, Frank Wignall.’ John later remembered it well, ‘Several City players were angry at Wignall’s challenge on George and wanted to do him. It wasn’t hard to mark him as he was running scared after the incident’. Leter that season at West Brom he again played at centre-half, marking the great Jeff Astle. John nullified the threat of Astle and City gained their first away win of the season.

That first season in Division 1 however, Tudor struggled, as did the whole team, and as his scoring dried up he was asked to play in defence during a crisis. He netted only four goals in 39 games but never gave less than 100% as the Sky Blues survived with grit and determination. In November 1968 he lost his place to Tony Hateley and joined Second Division Sheffield United, who had rejected him as a youngster. In total he made 77 appearances for the Sky Blues and scored 15 goals. The fee of £65,000 was deemed to be good business for the club who had spent heavily to stay in the top division.

At Bramall Lane he quickly regained his scoring touch, scoring two goals in each of his first two games. ‘I had wonderful service from two of the best wingers around, Alan Woodward and Gil Reece, and Tony Currie was a wonderful creator of chances too.’ John stayed at the Lane for two years but really made his name after moving to First Division Newcastle in 1971 and playing alongside the legendary Malcolm Macdonald. In five years at St James’ Park he scored 53 goals in 164 games including six against the Sky Blues and became something of a legend himself. The highlight of his Tyneside career was the 1974 FA Cup run, which saw Newcastle reach the final only to lose 0-3 to Liverpool. 

He left Newcastle in 1976 and had brief spells with First Division Stoke City and Belgian club KAA Ghent before being forced to retire through a knee injury in 1978. He returned to the North East and ran a pub in Bedlington, becoming North Shields player/coach for a while as well as assisting Gateshead. Later he returned to his native Derbyshire and ran at pub at Ilkeston. 

In 1994 he moved to Minnesota in the USA to take over the post of Director of Coaching for Tonka United Soccer Association, a non-profit making organisation which “fosters the physical, mental and emotional growth and development of youth” in the Minnetonka [a large suburb of Minneapolis] area through soccer. In John’s time at Tonka United, the soccer programme grew from 17 to over 60 teams and a league, which started with 300 to 400 boys and girls, increased to 2,000 youth participants. John himself held a US Soccer Federation Youth Coaching Licence. He also monnlighted as assistant coach to Minnesota Thunder in the USA ‘A’ League, the country’s Second Division. 

John and his wife Ann continued to live in the Minneapolis area after he retired but were regular visitors to the UK and always fitted in a game at the CBS as well as visiting St James' Park. He was at Wembley for the Checkatrade Final in 2017 as a guest of CCFPA and made his last visit at Legends Day in 2019.

                                        Ann & John at Wembley 2017

RIP John

Swansea hoodoo smashed

The Sky Blues' four match winning run came to a shuddering halt at the CBS Arena on Wednesday evening against top-of-the table Leeds United. Two goals in a first half dominated by the Yorkshire team were enough to take the points and although the Sky Blues improved in the second half they had to rely on goalkeeper Oliver Dovin who made several brilliant saves to keep the score to 2-0.

The winning run was extended to four last Saturday at Swansea, the first victory there since 1950 and the first win over Swansea in 18 games since a Highfield Road win in 1981. It was also a very rare win in Wales where City have often struggled against the four Welsh clubs.

Attendances at the CBS Arena this season have been phenomenal and the current average of 27,086 is the highest since 1969-70, the season that the club finished sixth in Division 1, its highest ever finish. If that trend continues it will be the fifth best season in the whole club’s history.

Wednesday night’s attendance for the Leeds game of 28,008 was the fifth highest home crowd of the season but the largest attendance for a midweek league game since the stadium was opened in 2005. The Sky Blues average is the fifth highest in the Championship, only bettered by Sunderland, Leeds, Derby and Sheffield United. It’s certainly a golden time for Coventry City attendances.

City’s games in the Birmingham Senior Cup get very little publicity and many fans probably don’t realise that the Sky Blues under 21 team reached the final in 2023 and the semi final last season. This season they have cleared the first hurdle in the competition with a 1-0 victory at Stourbridge and face a trip to Dudley in the third round.

Peter Farr, who follows the competition closely, tells me that the last time we played Dudley in the Birmingham Senior Cup was in 1992-93 when the game at Dudley ended 1-1. The replay was also held at Dudley and ended 2-2 and City lost 9-8 on penalties. City struggled to field a team and had 46-year old manager Bobby Gould, assistant manager, 41-year old Phil Neal and coach, 36-year old Harry Roberts in the team. Gould scored one of City’s goals and one of the penalties but Neal missed a penalty in normal time.

There has been a tremendous response to the new history website skybluearchive.co.uk The site gives unprecedented access to in-depth details of every match in the club’s history - not only results and match stats but complete line-ups, highlights, programmes, photographs and reports. There’s also players, managers and staff profiles with their records in a Sky Blue shirt. The aim is to provide a complete historical information resource, offering ongoing updates ensuring every chapter of the club’s history is captured for all time. 

If you enjoy this column and would like to hear more about Coventry City's history you can listen to the Sky Blue History Podcast which is available on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. Claudio Cardellino and I talk about all things Sky Blue. Just search for 'Sky Blue History Podcast'

Blackburn hate playing Sky Blues

Two wins in four days have cheered the Sky Blue fanbase and even got some talking about the play-offs, a fanciful idea if I ever heard one! Having said that the team are only three points worse off than they were at this stage in 2022-23 when they reached the play-offs under Mark Robins. They needed 70 points to get into the the top six then and got 32 points from the 18 games – an average of 1.77 points a game, losing only two of the final 18 matches. To reach 70 points this campaign would require 1.94 points per game, a tall order and there’s every chance that to get into the play-offs will require closer to 75 points.

Tuesday night’s win at Blackburn ensured a first double of the season and the first over Rovers since the 1967 Division Two title side. That season Blackburn had just been relegated from Division One and were one of the strongest challengers to the Sky Blues and fellow promoted team, Wolves. In fact when City travelled to Ewood Park on Easter Saturday were in third place behind the Midland pair and four points behind City who led the division. A Blackburn win that day would have narrowed the gap to two points but a less than thrilling 1-0 victory courtesy of a Bobby Gould goal went a long way towards promotion. City had won the home game in October 2-0 with John Tudor and Gould on target.

City’s recent record against Rovers is impressive. Although it was the first league win at Ewood since 1998 City have now not lost in their last 10 visits with Tuesday’s win ending a sequence of five draws. There was a time in the 1990s when City fans dreaded a trip to Blackburn at a time when Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton were in their pomp. Between 1993 and 1997 Rovers won five successive meetings with a goal tally of 17 to 2. That run ended with a famous FA Cup win in February 1997 when, despite Tim Sherwood giving Blackburn a first minute lead, City won 2-1 with goals from Eoin Jess and Darren Huckerby with Steve Ogrizovic saving a Sutton penalty.

This week’s victory ended a poor record in midweek away games. It was the first such success in a league game since February 2022 when the Sky Blues won 2-1 at Ashton Gate. That night goals from Ian Maatsen and Viktor Gyokeres (with an 89th minute winner) gave City the points. Since then City have failed to win in 13 attempts excluding Bank holiday and play-off games.

I’m proud to announce the launch this week of a new website skybluearchive.co.uk

A group of us have got together to build a website to bring Coventry City’s glorious history alive. It gives unprecedented access to in-depth details of every match in the club’s history - not only results and match stats but complete line-ups, highlights, programmes, photographs and reports. There’s also players, managers and staff profiles with their records in a Sky Blue shirt. The aim is to provide a complete historical information resource, offering ongoing updates ensuring every chapter of the club’s history is captured for all time. 

If you enjoy this column and would like to hear more about Coventry City's history you can listen to the Sky Blue History Podcast which is available on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. Claudio Cardellino and I talk about all things Sky Blue. Just search for 'Sky Blue History Podcast'

If you have a question about the history or statistics of Coventry City or have a suggested topic for the podcast please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on X/Twitter @clarriebourton

Penalty shoot-out hoodoo ended

Coventry City progressed to the fourth round of the FA Cup with a penalty shoot-out victory over Sheffield Wednesday at the CBS Arena last Saturday evening. The victory ended a dreadful run of shoot-out defeats stretching back to 2019. Since then the Sky Blues had lost five in a row including the last two infamous ones at Wembley Stadium.

It was the 18^th penalty shoot-out that the club have been involved in since the first in a Simod/Full Members Cup at Reading in 1988 although the vast majority have taken place in the last 12 years. Before last Saturday City had lost five shoot-outs in a row, two in the FA Cup, one in the League Cup, one in the playoff final and one in the EFL Trophy. The last victory had been in an EFL Trophy game at Walsall in 2019. It was the first FA Cup tie that City have won in this manner following defeats to Sheffield United (1998), Birmingham (2020) and Man United (2024).

Once again Josh Eccles was on target and he has now scored his last five penalties in shoot-outs – more than any other City player.

The full list of penalty shoot-outs that the Sky Blues have been involved in are:

1987-88 Reading (a) (Simod/FM Cup) Lost 3-4

1997-98 Sheffield U (a) (FA Cup) Lost 1-3

2001-02 Peterborough (a) (League Cup) Won 4-2

2012-13 Burton Albion (h) (EFL trophy) Won 10-9

2012-13 Sheffield U (h) (EFL trophy) Won 4-1

2013-14 Leyton O (a) (EFL trophy) Lost 2-4

2015-16 Rochdale (a) (League Cup) Lost 3-5

2015-16 Yeovil (a) (EFL trophy) Lost 3-4

2016-17 Swansea U21 (a) (EFL trophy) Won 4-2

2017-18 Walsall (a) (EFL trophy) Won 4-3

2018-19 Forest Green (h) (EFL trophy) Won 4-2

2019-20 Walsall (h) (EFL trophy) Won 5-4

2019-20 Forest Green (EFL trophy) Lost 7-8

2019-20 Birmingham (a) (FA Cup) Lost 1-4

2020-21 Gillingham (a) (League Cup) Lost 4-5

2022-23 Luton (Play-off final) Lost 5-6

2023-24 Manchester U (FA Cup) Lost 2-4

2024-25 Sheffield W (h) (FA Cup) Won 4-3

There was an excellent attendance of 20,906 at the CBS Arena, albeit boosted by almost 5,000 Wednesday fans, and was the largest the club have had for a home Third Round tie since 1981when over 22,000 watched a Third round replay with Leeds United at Highfield Road.

Now the Sky Blues move on to the fourth round and face Premiership club Ipswich Town who defeated Bristol Rovers last weekend. City have only been drawn against the Suffolk side once in their FA Cup history, in the second round in 2019-20. The teams met at St Andrews and Will Keane gave the Tractor Boys the lead before substitute Callum O'Hare scored an equaliser in added time. In the replay the Sky Blues ran out 2-1 winners with first half goals from Jordan Shipley and Max Biamou sealed a third round tie with Bristol Rovers.