Coventry City had failed to finish higher than 17th
in any of the previous five seasons in the Championship. Therefore with a lack
of investment and an over-reliance on promising but raw youngsters it was
hardly surprising that the Sky Blues had a tough season which culminated in
relegation to the third tier of English football for the first time since 1964.
Manager Andy Thorn who had lifted the gloom somewhat at the
back end of 2010-11 had to manage without some of the key players he had
inherited including King, Westwood, Turner, Gunnarsson and latterly Jutkiewicz.
He also had no luck on the injury front with players like Clarke, Deegan, Wood,
McPake, Cameron and Baker missing big slugs of the campaign.
Points:
The team gathered only 40 points in finishing 23rd (the lowest
finishing position in the club’s history). Only once since three points for a
win was introduced in 1981 has a Coventry team recorded less points, in 1995-96
under Ron Atkinson, but that was from only 38 games (and we weren’t
relegated!). Under the pre-81 points system only 31 points would have been
gained it wouldn’t have been the worst season ever – that was in 1919-20 when
only 29 points were gained (from 42 games) and the club avoided re-election
only through bribing their final day opponents.
Home Form: The home record was won 8, drew 7, lost 8.
The goals scored (28) and conceded (26) were almost identical to 2010-11
(27-26) – only the second positive home
goal difference since 2006-07. Between Boxing Day and April the team lost only
one home game in nine in their efforts to avoid relegation.
Away Form: The away form proved to be the Sky
Blues’ undoing with only one win all season (at Hull at the end of March). They
were the last of the 92 league clubs to register an away victory. The final
record was won 1, drew 6, lost 16 in other words nine points out of a possible
69 compared with 23 in 2010-11. This was the second lowest away points since
three points were introduced in 1981 – the worst was in 1999-2000 when only
seven points were gained, but from 19 away trips. Next season we will be
visiting our ultimate bogey ground, Preston, again. We have never won a league
game there. The run of 20 away games without a win was just two short of the
modern record set in 1999-2000 when they went the whole season without an away
win. The run of 10 away defeats was the worst by the club since 1929-30 and one
short of the all-time club record set in 1925-26.
Wins: City
won only nine games in total – one more than the record set in 1995-96 and
equalled in our Premier League relegation season (2000-01) but it is the club’s
lowest in a 46-game season.
Defeats: The Southampton defeat was the
24th of the season and set a new club record, ‘beating’ the 22 suffered in
previous relegation seasons (1924-25 and 1951-52) as well as 1984-85 and
2006-07.
Biggest win: The team failed to beat anyone by more
than a two-goal margin therefore the biggest win of the season was the 3-1
victory over Middlesbrough in January. For the second season running they
failed to score more than three goals in a game.
Biggest defeat:
Despite City’s lowly position throughout the season nobody thrashed
them apart from Southampton. The Saints were the only team to score more than
three goals against us (4-2 at home and 4-0 away) with the final day hammering
counting as our biggest defeat.
Goals: The goals total of 41 tells the story of our
season. This was the lowest in the division and only League Two Macclesfield
scored less in the Football League. The lack of goals was the single biggest
reason why City were struggling all season. It was the club’s lowest goals
total in a 42 or 46 game season since 1972-73. This is a strange fact as that
was the season we signed Colin Stein and Tommy Hutchison and everybody has
rose-tinted memories of that time! 65
goals were conceded was better than six other Championship teams but only once
in the last 25 years have City conceded more (75 in 2004-05).
Final position:
The final position of 23rd means that the Sky Blues finished in
the top ten only once in eleven years of second tier football. They are the
only club, bar long-serving Premiership clubs and recent promotees from the
Conference, not to have been promoted or reached the play-offs since the
play-offs were introduced in 1987 nor to finish in the top six of a division.
Leading scorers: Lukas
Jutkiewicz and Gary McSheffrey were joint top scorers with 9 goals. The Juke’s
all came in the league in 25 games whilst Gary scored eight in the league and
one in the FA Cup.
Doubles:
For the first time since 1999-2000 the Sky Blues failed to ‘do’ the double
over any team. This is only the third time in the last 25 years this has
happened. Five clubs, Southampton,
Leicester, West Ham, Ipswich and Millwall achieved the feat against City. City have
played the Saints in almost 50 seasons and this was the first time they have
done the double over the Sky Blues.
Appearances: Joe Murphy started every league game but did
not complete two games (Derby and Nottm. Forest). His replacement Chris Dunn
was unbeaten and has yet to concede a league goal! Murphy is only the third
City player to start every league game in a season since City were relegated in
2001 – Westwood in 2009-10 and Keogh in 2010-11 were the others. But for his
red card in the penultimate game Richard Keogh would surely have completed a
second successive season of playing in every minute of every league game – a
great achievement. Six players failed to start a league game but made
substitute appearances (Freddy Eastwood, Shaun Jeffers, Chris Dunn, Josh
Ruffels, Will Roberts and Joe Henderson).
Players used: Thirty one players were used in league
and cup games. Of the 31, 12 players made their debuts during the season, three
of them loan players (Gary Gardner, Alex Nimely and Oliver Norwood) and 11 of
them came from the club’s academy – a remarkable achievement by Greg Rioch and
his team. In addition to the 31 players used, two more, Lee Burge and Callum
Wilson sat on the bench as substitutes but were not used.
Records:
Gary McSheffrey reached 238 appearances by the end of the season and is in
33rd place in the all-time chart, level with 1920s legend Jimmy Dougall and
close behind players such as Chris Cattlin (239), Alf Wood (246) and Harry
Roberts (249). McSheffrey also crept up to 10th place in the club’s
all-time goalscorers list having now scored 70 goals for the club. He is just
behind Dion Dublin (72) and George Hudson (75)in the all-time scorers chart.
Conor Thomas’ goal at Blackpool made him the fifth youngest City scorer of
all-time. Hermann Hreidarsson became the fifth oldest City debutant when he
made his debut v Middlesbrough.
Substitutes: Three players each made the most
substitute appearances (10).Bigirimana, Platt and Christie. Gary Deegan and
Cody McDonald both came off the bench twice to score goals.
Average attendance:
Home 15,121 (2010-11 16,307), down 7.2%. Away 17,619 (2010-11 16,311),
up 8%. The home average attendance was the lowest since the penultimate season
at Highfield Road, in 2003-04 when the average was 14,632. The away average was
boosted by Championship newcomers West Ham and Southampton who both had over
30,000 for City’s visit.
Highest home
attendance: The biggest league crowd was 22,240 for the visit of Birmingham City in March.
Lowest home
attendance: Only 12,054
attended the midweek visit of Crystal Palace in March – the lowest league crowd
at the Ricoh and the lowest City home league gate since September 2004 when
11,968 went through the Highfield Road turnstiles for the visit of Gillingham.
The Reading home game in September attracted 12,309 – the lowest for a Saturday
home game since the stadium opened in 2005.
Highest away
attendance: The biggest away crowd was at West Ham’s Upton Park on New
Years Day – 34,936. On the final day of the season a ground record crowd of
32,363 watched City at the St Mary’s Stadium. I believe this is the first time
City have set a ground record crowd at a League ground since they played at
Torquay in the FA Cup in 1948.
Lowest away
attendance: 8,426 v Doncaster. Expect many crowds lower than this next
season.
Won from behind:
(0) For the second season running City failed to come from behind to win a
game all season. The last time the Sky Blues came from behind was at Watford in
September 2009 and you have to go back to January 2009 (v Blackpool) for last
winning home comeback. On six occasions they did concede the first goal
but won a point.
Lost from in
front: (7) Crystal Pal (a),
Burnley (h), West Ham (h), Blackpool (a), Ipswich (h), Bristol City (a) plus
Southampton (FAC h). In a further five games City took the lead only to be
pegged back for draws.
Hat-tricks:
(0) No City player scored a hat-trick , in fact only one, Gary
McSheffrey, managed more than one goal in a game, versus Leeds and they were
both penalties.
Opposing
hat-tricks: (0) None. Darius Henderson (Millwall), Michael
Chopra (Ipswich), Emile Siclair (Peterborough), Andy Gray (Barnsley) and Ryan
Lowe all scored two in a game.
Own goals: For
City: (3) Matthew Bates (Middlesbrough h), Liam Cooper (Hull a)
and Jon Stead (Bristol City a). Jon Stead scored at both ends, the first time
this has happened in a City game since Luton’s Croatian Ahmet Brkovic did it in
City’s 3-1 defeat at Kenilworth Road in December 2006.
Own goals: By
City: (3) Cranie (Ipswich a), Keogh (Brighton a) and McDonald
(Cardiff a).
Penalties: For
City: (4) Jutkiewicz, Clingan and McSheffrey (2) scored from the
spot. Three penalties were missed: Jutkiewicz (Reading h), Clingan (Leicester
a) and McSheffrey (Millwall h) .
Penalties: Against
City: (4) Gray (Barnsley a), Halford (Portsmouth a), Ambrose
(Crystal Palace h) and Hayter (Doncaster h).
Noel Hunt (Reading h), Lee Martin (Ipswich h) and Neil Danns (Leicester
a). Danns also missed a penalty against City in 2010-11 whilst playing for
Crystal Palace. Murphy saved Martin’s effort but could not stop Chopra scoring
the rebound.
Fastest Goal
scored: 2 minutes: Gary McSheffrey scored in the second minute of the
home game with Reading in September.
Fastest Goal
conceded: 3 minutes: Peterborough’s Emile Sinclair in the game
at the Ricoh in April.
Red cards: Coventry:
(3) Baker (Leicester h), Bigirimana (Burnley h) and Keogh (Doncaster h)..
Red cards: Opponents:
(6) Vassell (Leicester h), Thomson & Arca (Middlesbrough h), Konchesky
(Leicester a), Mutch (Birmingham h) and Pitman (Bristol City a). In four of
these five games City failed to beat their 10-man opponents.
Television: City appeared on live
television three times, at home to Derby (Sky) and away to Ipswich (Sky) and
Southampton (BBC).
Cup form: City
were unable to win a single Cup tie in 2011-12 – the first time the club have
gone out at the first hurdle in both competitions since 1992-93 when they lost
to Norwich in the FA Cup and Scarborough in the League Cup. Next season City
will play in the First Round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1963 and be
unseeded in the League Cup first round.
Man of the Match: The final tally of Andy
Turner’s Man of the Match awards was: Jutkiewicz and Keogh 6 each; McSheffrey,
Clingan, Norwood and Nimely 4 each.
Miscellany: Cov Kids: On Saturday at
Southampton the Sky Blues starting line up contained four Coventry-born players
–I believe this is the first time this has happened in the club’s league
history. Earlier in the season, against Southampton at home, the game finished
with four Cov kids on the pitch but we have never seen it in a starting eleven.
The four were Jordan Clarke, Jordan Willis, Conor Thomas and the ‘old man’ Gary
McSheffrey.
Youngest ever team: Lots of readers assumed that the
team at Southampton must have been the club’s youngest ever. I can confirm it
wasn’t. Geoff Moore keeps records of such happenings and told me the average
age of the side that finished the game (which was slightly younger than the
eleven who started) was 22.9 years whereas the record youngest was in 1980 at
Manchester City with an average age of 21.2. Despite all the youngsters in the
current side, Murphy and Baker are 30 and 29 respectively, whereas the oldest
member of the 1980 side was Harry Roberts at 25.
My column has now finished for the season and apologies to
anyone whose questions I haven’t answered, I will hold them over until August.
If you have any questions please email me at clarriebourton@gmail.com
With many thanks to Paul O’Connor and Kevin Monks.
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