Coventry City’s first home game on Tuesday evening was
watched by a half reasonable crowd of 12,621, a thousand or more than I was
expecting. A good away following of over 1500 from Sheffield ensured that the
crowd did not set an all-time Ricoh low but I suspect that unwelcome record
(12,054, set last season v Crystal Palace) will be tested in the weeks to come,
and possibly today when Bury are in town. The last time the Shakers travelled
to Coventry was in the autumn of 1966 when goals from Bobby Gould, Ian Gibson
and Dave Clements gave City a comfortable 3-0 win.
I noticed with interest City’s first two away attendances.
At Dagenham & Redbridge for the League Cup game the gate was 1,904, the
lowest ever crowd for a City game in a competition which City have competed in
since 1960. City’s following in East London of 580 made up 30% of the crowd.
The previous lowest was a second round tie at Rochdale in 1991 which attracted
2,288 spectators. It was also the lowest crowd to watch a City competitive game
since 1,086 turned up at Highfield Road to watch a Full Members Cup game
against Millwall in 1985. The pitifully low crowd was mainly due to the fact
that there was nothing at stake as neither side could progress in the
competition.
Then on Saturday the crowd for City’s first ever competitive
game at Yeovil was 6,006 and, despite it being Yeovil’s biggest home crowd for
almost two years, it was the lowest league crowd for a City game since December
2010 when there were 4,397 for the game at Scunthorpe. City’s away following of
2,136 was 35% of the crowd. I think we will see away crowds smaller than 6,000
as the season progresses.
Kevin Malaga’s debut on Tuesday night meant that nine
Coventry players have made their debut in club colours in the first three
games. It is not quite a club record – in 2003 manager Gary McAllister unveiled
ten new players in the first three games. The ten, some of whom went on to
become stars at the Ricoh, were: Scott Shearer, Stephen Warnock, Steve Staunton,
Patrick Suffo, Graham Barrett, Michael Doyle, Andy Morrell, Dele Adebola, Yazid
Mansouri and Claus Jorgensen.
Last week I mentioned that it was 50 years to the day that
City had worn their sky blue kit for the first time in a competitive game and I
received several comments. One reader, Kevin Ring, remembered the Notts County
game well and wrote:
I can hardly believe it is 50 years. I recall the night
before - I couldn't sleep for excitement (I was 11 years old). The 22,000+
crowd was more than double the average & that new forward line really
caught the imagination. Curiously what I recall most is a chap at the top of
the stairs at the side of the main stand (Swan Lane side) which led to the
'Paddy Ryan Fighting Fund' office shouting down to someone, 'the good times are
back' as we went through the turnstiles. How right he was.
The chap at the top of the stairs was probably harking back
to the 1930s when City had last had ‘good times’ and I think most City fans of
today can relate to that. Let’s hope the good times are just round the corner
for the new Sky Blues. If you want to read more memories of that golden season
50 years ago I am serialising it this season in the club programme.
Knowl who runs the excellent GMK website asked me to list
Coventry City’s leading league goalscorers over the last ten years in the
championship. Here it is:
2. Stern John 26
3. Clinton Morrison 21
4. Michael Doyle 20
5= Leon Best 19
5= Dele Adebola 19
7 Lukas Jutkiewicz 18
8= Freddy Eastwood 17
8= Andy Morrell 17
10 Michael Mifsud 16
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