The honour of playing in the 1987 replica shirts did little
to inspire the current Coventry City team to great heights and the club’s FA
Cup run ended with a wimper almost before it had started. Since the club moved
to the Ricoh Arena in 2005 City have won only four of the ten home FA cup ties,
losing five of them, a pitiful record and a far cry from the excellent FA Cup
record at Highfield Road. Between 1972 and 2005 the Sky Blues lost only four of
41 home ties in the competition. It is a similar story in the League Cup with
two wins and three defeats since the move to Longford seven years ago. Years
ago Birmingham City fans used to say St Andrews was cursed by a gypsy – I am
beginning to wonder if the Ricoh is cursed because City seem incapable of
beating all but the poorest sides there.
The Cup defeat at the hands of the Saints, the second of the
season against a well-marshalled but hardly outstanding Championship side,
means the Sky Blues have only reached the fifth round of the trophy twice in
eleven seasons – a dreadful record when the club’s overall FA Cup history is
considered. Over a hundred years ago the club carved out a giant-killing
reputation by reaching the quarter-finals as a non-league side, beating two
First Division clubs on the way, which was talked about in the city for years.
Then in 1963 Jimmy Hill’s team sparked the Sky Blue Revolution by reaching the
last eight as a Third Division club. Even under Iain Dowie and Chris Coleman
the club pulled off shocks in the Cup competitions – frankly, it is hard to see
the current side pulling off any shocks anywhere, whether in league or cup. One
consequence of relegation this season would be City having to start their FA
Cup campaign at the First Round stage for the first time since 1963-64. More
potential banana skins for our beloved team!
Dean Nelson alerted me to two former City players plying
their trade as managers in Scotland. Dean spotted former City defender Jim
McInally as manager of Third Division Peterhead who faced Celtic in the
Scottish Cup last week. City bought Jim from Nottingham Forest in 1986. He was
one of three signings manager Don Mackay was allowed to make after the sale of
Terry Gibson to Manchester United. The blond full-back played only five games
in a City shirt and was never on the winning side. He is best remembered for
scoring the best headed own goal I've ever seen in a 0-3 defeat at Arsenal.
When John Sillett & George Curtis took over they managed to sell him and
fellow Scot Dave Bowman to Dundee United, where they both had successful
careers. Within a year Jim won the first of 10 Scottish caps and between 1986
and 1995 went on to play almost 300 games for Dundee United. Since retiring in
1999 Jim has been a coach at Celtic and manager at Irish club Sligo Rovers,
Greenock Morton, East Stirling and since October Peterhead. Sadly his team
failed to make an impression on the mighty Celtic and lost 0-3.
The other ex-City man managing north of the border is Colin
Cameron. Former Scottish international Colin spent the 2006-07 season at the
Ricoh after joining on a free transfer from Wolves but was released in 2007
whereupon he joined MK Dons. He returned to Scotland in 2008 and appeared for
Dundee and Arbroath before joining Cowdenbeath as player/assistant manager in
2010. Last summer he was promoted to player-manager after Jimmy Nicholl left to
join Kilmarnock and is doing a great job as Cowdenbeath are top of Division Two
and have lost only twice all season. Despite being 39 years old, Colin has been
a regular in the team and on 2 January scored his first goal of the season in
the 4-0 thumping of East Fife. Last weekend his team gave Premier League Hibs a
fright in the Cup before going down 2-3.
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