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.

4-0 half time leads and sky high attendances

Last Saturday's defeat at Norwich's Carrow Road was a disappointing and frustrating end to a mixed festive campaign for the Sky Blues, especially the nature of the loss with two goals conceded in added time. The final summary of the Christmas/New Year period was one win, two draws and two defeats but the margins in several games were so thin that with just a little luck it could have been four wins and one defeat. The horror show at Fratton Park on the Saturday before Christmas was the only game in which City weren't in with a good chance of taking three points. However the history books will show an overall mediocre record.

The outstanding performance and result was the 4-0 Boxing Day victory over Plymouth Argyle which helped precipitate Wayne Rooney's departure as the Devon club's manager. All four goals came in a stunning first half - the second time City have achieved this feat in 2025, the other being the 5-0 victory over Rotherham in March.

Coventry scoring four in a first half is not as rare as one might think and the Plymouth occurrence was the sixth in the last ten years, three of them coming in that exciting Tony Mowbray season of 2015-16. That was when his team looked certainties for promotion from League One at Christmas but collapsed in the New Year and finished eighth. There were three other instances at Highfield Road in the early 2000s, including the final game at the old stadium, but it never happened in the top flight years (1967-2001). Before 2001 you have to go back to a League Cup tie in 1964 when City led First Division Sunderland 4-0 at half-time but conceded two in the second half. Possibly the most interesting happening was in April 1963 when City led Halifax Town 4-0 at the break with debutant George Hudson having scored three of the four. The Yorkshiremen staged a brave fightback and Jimmy Hill's team were clinging on to a 5-4 lead by the final whistle.

                                                                     George Hudson

The biggest ever half-time lead occurred in 1933 when City lead QPR 7-0 but that was also the final score.

The last ten 4-0 half-time leads before Plymouth were:

Rotherham 2023-24 (final score 5-0)

Cheltenham 2017-18 (6-1)

Bury 2015-16 (6-0)

Crewe 2015-16 (5-0)

Gillingham 2015-16 (4-1)

Derby 2004-05 (6-2) 

Preston 2003-04 (4-1)

Rushden 2002-03 (8-0) League Cup

Sunderland 1964-65 (4-2) League Cup

Halifax 1962-63 (5-4) 

All except Cheltenham were at home.

On the other side of the coin the Sky Blues have only been on the losing side to a 4-0 lead in the last 50 years, the last time was at Luton in 2021-22 when the final score was 5-0.

Finally a mention of the CBS attendances. The gate at the Boxing Day game was 29,420 which is the biggest Boxing Day gate since 1972 when West Brom provided the opposition at Highfield Road and 31,545 watched a 0-0 draw. It was also the sixth largest crowd at the CBS and the second largest number of home fans (28,237) only bettered by the Johnstone's Paint (EFL trophy) game with Crewe in 2013.

Lions tamed again at the New Den

Frank Lampard got his first victory as Coventry City head coach at Millwall last week with a gutsy display in challenging weather conditions at the New Den. Ephron Mason-Clark's second half goal their third win in five visits to New Cross following the 2-1 win in 2020-21 and the 3-0 last season. It's a massive turnaround in City's fortunes in that part of South London – prior to 2020 they had won only twice in 20 visits at either the Den or the New Den (they moved in 1993), stretching back to 1955. Even in the title-winning seasons of 1963-64 and 1966-67 Jimmy Hill's team failed to win at the intimidating old stadium in New Cross. In 1963-64 Jimmy's team drew 0-0 at Cold Blow Lane in a game where City's penalty king Ron Farmer had the only penalty miss of his career. Then, three years later, the Sky Blues lost an early season game 1-0 in their Second Division title season. The only wins in that run came on Boxing Day 1955 when goalkeeper Reg Matthews, soon to be capped by England, put on a brilliant display to thwart the South Londoners and then post-match got embroiled with Millwall fans abusing City's players as they boarded their coach to return home. City won the game 2-0 with goals from Alan Moore and Ken McPherson. Then in 2015 Tony Mowbray's exciting young team won there 4-0 with goals from Adam Armstrong (2), Ruben Lameiras and Jim O'Brien. 

My story about former Coventry City youth player Johnny Stevenson playing for Australia in the 1970s I had emails regarding teammates of Stevenson. Jon Strange asked me about Trevor Smith who played on the left wing in the team but never made the first team. Birmingham-born Trevor, namesake of a famous Blues centre-half from the 1950s, was only 15-years-old when he was a regular in the 1969-70 youth team and went on to play in the youth team for three seasons. He was released by Coventry in the summer of 1972 and joined Walsall but made only three appearances for the Saddlers before dropping into non-league. Over the next few seasons he played for Kidderminster, Cheltenham, Warley Borough, Lye Town, Stourbridge, Bromsgrove, Alvechurch, Oldbury United and AP Leamington.

Another member of that memorable youth team of 1969-70 was Alan Green who was also 15-year-old at the start of that season. Philip Burton pointed out that he won an international cap for his adopted country, USA. Alan, a member of the England Youth team that won the European Championships in 1972, made over 100 first team appearances for the Sky Blues between 1972 and 1979 before moving to the States playing for Washington Diplomats, Jacksonville Tea Men, Golden Bay Earthquakes and New York Cosmos. In 1983 he obtained American citizenship and the following May won his one and only cap against Italy at New York Giants Stadium, a 0-0 draw. He was up against Italian legends such as Franco Baresi, Gaetano Scirea, Roberto Mancini and Marco Tardelli.

For those of you struggling about what to buy your Coventry City-mad loved ones I can recommend three books recently published. First, Michael Keane's 'A Season To Remember '– the story of the 1986-87 season, the season when City stunned the football world by winning the FA Cup. People forget that it was more than the Cup winning season and that John Sillett and George Curtis turned the club's fortunes completely around by playing flowing attractive football and finished in the top half of the First Division for only the fourth time in 20 years. The team won 14 home games, more than any other season in the last 57 years! The book superbly covers the season, match by match.

Talking about 1987, Dave Bennett's biography entitled 'Benno' has recently been published by Pitch Publishing. Co-written by Rich Chamberlain, the book reveals a lot of detail about Dave growing up in Manchester and his early career at Manchester City. With some fascinating stories about the '87 Cup run it's well worth a read.

Finally, Steve Phelps, another regular writer on all things Coventry City, has published an updated version of his 'On This Day'. There is at least one story for every day of the year in diary form and covers all the major events in the club's history. It is an excellent stocking-filler for Sky Blue supporters. 

Coventry City's international managers

After three weeks of speculation Frank Lampard has been named as the new Coventry City head coach and takes charge of his first game today at home to Cardiff City. Frank, of course has had an illustrious playing career playing almost 900 games and scoring over 200 goals as well as winning 106 full caps for England. His appointment is probably the highest profile one since Ron Atkinson arrived in 1995, and for a time helped the club hold their head above water in the Premier League. Time will tell whether it is a good decision as Frank has the ghost of Mark Robins and his seven years of success looking over his shoulder.

He is the 42^nd City manager/head coach (excluding caretaker or interim managers) since the club joined the Football League in 1919. He is also the 17^th former international to sit in the boss' chair and the eighth former England international. Of the 17 only one, Roland Nilsson, can top Frank's number of caps. Roland won 116 caps for Sweden in a dazzling playing career.

                                                Roland Nilsson, City's most capped manager

The seventeen former internationals are as follows:

Roland Nilsson (Sweden) 116 caps

Frank Lampard (England) 106

Terry Butcher (England) 77

Iain Dowie (Northern Ireland) 59

Gary McAllister (Scotland) 57

Phil Neal (England) 50

Gordon Strachan (Scotland) 50

Noel Cantwell (Republic of Ireland) 36

Chris Coleman (Wales) 32

Steven Pressley (Scotland) 32

Don Howe (England) 23

Gordon Milne (England) 14

Peter Reid (England) 13

Joe Mercer (England) 5

Harry Buckle (Northern Ireland) 3

Harry Storer (England) 2

Eric Black (Scotland) 2

Ed Blackaby is regularly in touch with tit-bits about Coventry City's history and recently came up with a fact that was new to me. It concerns Johnny Stevenson, a young Scottish player who was on City's books in the late 60s/early 70s. He was the nephew, through marriage, of City forward at the time, Gerry Baker. Johnny, a midfielder, was part of probably City's greatest ever youth team which included Dennis Mortimer, Alan Green, Bobby Parker and Jimmy Holmes. The team reached the FA Youth Cup final in 1970 only to lose to Tottenham after a two legged final and two replays. Johnny was one of only three members of that team who didn't progress to the first team (David Icke and Ivan Crossley were the others) In those days I used to attend youth games when they were held at Highfield Road and remember the memorable performances by that team. They beat Brentford 13-0 and Shrewsbury 6-0 with Johnny scoring a stunning donkey kick goal a few weeks after Ernie Hunt did it in 1970, before it was outlawed. 

Ed reminded me that Johnny moved back to Scotland after being released in 1972 and played for Hearts for three seasons and briefly for St Johnstone before emigrating to Australia. The surprising information is that he played two games for the Australian national team in 1978 whilst appearing for Sydney City. In 1978 he was selected to play against Greece and the following year against Yugoslav club side Partizan Belgrade. The latter game probably doesn't count as a full international as it was against a club side. We can however say that Johnny was an Australian international.

                                     The 1970 youth squad

It reminded me of another former Coventry City player, full-back Terry Springthorpe, who emigrated to the US in 1951 (months after a big money move from Wolves) and in 1953 was capped by the USA against England!