By scoring City's late
equaliser in a classic local derby nineteen-year old Aaron Phillips
joined two select bands. Firstly, he became only the third City
player to follow his father by scoring a first-class goal for the Sky
Blues. His father David scored 11 goals in 122 games for the club
between 1986-1989 with his first coming at Old Trafford in a 1-1 draw
in October 1986 which turned out to be Ron Atkinson's last game in
charge of United before the appointment of Alex Ferguson.
The two other father
and sons to achieve this feat are Ted & Dudley Roberts, and Tony
& Mark Hateley. Ted Roberts scored 87 goals in 223 games between
1937 and 1952 with his first goal scored on his debut in a 4-0 home
win over Bradford Park Avenue. Son Dudley played only 16 games but
managed six goals including two in his home debut, a 3-1 win over
Charlton in 1965.
Tony Hateley
Tony Hateley didn't
have a happy time at Coventry and managed only four goals in 17 games
in 1968-69 with his first coming in a 1-1 home draw with Manchester
City. His son Mark was far more successful scoring 34 in 111 games
although it took him 17 games before getting off the mark with two
goals in the epic 5-0 League Cup quarter final win over Watford in
1980.
Aaron, who has yet to
start a competitive game, also joined a group of players who have
scored a first class goal before they had made their full starting
debut. By my reckoning 18 players have achieved this feat, the last
before Aaron being Mathieu Manset in the 4-4 home draw with Preston
this season. Others to achieve this feat in recent seasons include
Callum Wilson, Zavon Hines (currently starring for Dagenham &
Redbridge), Wayne Andrews, Michael Mifsud & Don Hutchison.
Strangely neither Andrews & Hines ever started a game for the
club. Older players to have achieved it include Peter Ndlovu (at
Highbury in 1991), Mick Harford, Viorel Moldovan (in the famous Cup
win at Villa in 1998) and Les Cartwright (the first substitute to
score on his debut).
Last week's comments
regarding City's largest away followings prompted a lot of replies
with great memories of large away days, many of them remembering the
glorious1960s. As I said last week there were no official figures
until recent seasons so all I have to go on are estimates quoted in
Coventry Telegraph match reports which, in the case of all-ticket
games, were based on actual ticket sales. Steve Pittam thought there
were 20,000 City fans at St Andrews in January 1967 but Nemo's match
report estimated City's following at 10,000 (in a gate of 36,000).
Steve also thought we had a similar number at Molineux in April 1970
when we clinched our European place with a 1-0 win. The total
attendance that night was only 23,000 and the City following was
estimated at 7,000. Jim Bimbi remembers a large contingent at
Huddersfield in May 1966 when City had an outside chance of promotion
but Nemo's estimate was 3,000. Jim did however mention games at
Liverpool in the League Cup in 1977 (estimate 10,000) and at West Ham
in the same competition in 1981 (10,000 tickets sold). Robert Yates
mentioned two games from the 1966-67 Second Division championship
season, at Molineux & St Andrews, but City's away followings
didn't really take off that season until the latter part of the
season and although there were 10,000 at St Andrews there was a much
smaller contingent at Wolves in a 27,000 crowd. Several readers
mentioned a game at Peterborough in 1964 when the Sky Blues were on
the verge of the Third Division championship and it seemed that the
whole of Coventry was on the road to Peterborough. The estimate was
that 12,000 fans made the trip in a total attendance of 26,300. David
Brassington remembered that night at Peterborough and thought the 0-2
defeat signalled the end of City’s promotion hopes. David also
remembers a massive away following of Manchester United fans at
Highfield Road in 1976. In David’s words ‘United won 2-0 and such
was their fans ghastly reputation at the time that many City
fans just gave it a miss. The old West End, usually the City’s
stronghold was completely taken over by THEM. Just to complete my
misery I had to travel back to London in a train packed
with them.’
So, as I wrote last
week, the biggest City followings were in 1987 (the two games at
Hillsborough and the two games at Wembley) and the biggest in the
league was probably the game at Villa Park in 1937 (20,000 in a gate
of 68,000), followed by the 15,000 that trekked to Wolves in January
1966.
The best overall season
for away league followings was 1963-64 when approximately 81,000 City
fans travelled to 23 away games, an average of 3,500 per game. That
included the 12,000 at Peterborough, 8,000 at Millwall, 7,000 at
Luton & 6,000 at Watford. This season's average is currently just
over 1,800 and whilst it is heading for the best for many years it
will not better 1963-64.
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