Coventry City's impressive season has seen long-held records
falling and after the last home game against Notts County the goal scoring
feats of Messrs Clarke & Wilson came under the spotlight. Both
strikers clocked their eleventh league goals of the season before Callum scored
again at Wimbledon in the FA Cup. Steve Phelps wondered when two City players
last reached 20 goals in the same season. The answer is the Third Division
championship season of 1935-36. In that momentous season City scored 102 league
goals, 75 of them at home & the great Clarrie Bourton netted 23 and winger
George McNestry hit 20. A third player, Les Jones, managed 19! It also happened
on three other occasions prior to that, in 1925-26 (Paterson 25, Herbert 22), 1926-27
(Herbert 24, Heathcote 21) and 1934-35 (Jones 25, Bourton 24).
In 1962-63 two City players topped 20 goals; George Hudson
(30) & Terry Bly (25). however 24 of Hudson's goals were scored when he was
at Peterborough, his previous club. The best haul of the modern era (post-1967)
was the Ferguson/Wallace partnership of 1977-78. Ian Wallace scored 21 &
Mick Ferguson 17 in a season that the team netted 75 league goals &
finished seventh in the old First Division & missing out on a European
place only because Arsenal lost the FA Cup final.
After a golden few weeks when he netted 6 goals in 6 games
Leon Clarke has now scored 19 goals in 27 league games for the Sky Blues, one
of the best scoring starts ever by a City player. He ranks 3rd equal in the
best starts ever, level with Terry Bly (1962-63) just behind Micky Quinn (20 in
27 in 1992-93-94) but way behind the immortal Clarrie Bourton who netted 34
goals in his first 27 league games for the club in 1931-32. Leon's record is
however better than that other legend George Hudson who netted 17 in his first
27 games.
The 3-1 FA Cup victory at Wimbledon was City's first away
win in the competition since they won 1-0 at Torquay United in 2009. Elliott
Ward got the late winner that day but City have failed to win in 4 FA Cup trips
subsequently, drawing twice (at Blackburn & Portsmouth) & losing twice
(at Birmingham & Tottenham).
Reader Alan Ward alerted me to a statistical milestone
approaching for the club. Since joining the Football League in 1919 the Sky Blues
have won 3999 points and a win or draw at Bradford tomorrow will see them reach
the milestone.
In those 94 years the club have played 87 seasons of league
football (World War 2 took seven seasons out) in seven different divisions. For
the first 55 seasons there were only two points for a win but since 1981-82
there have been three points for a victory. Their full record in those 87
seasons is:-
Played. Wins. Draws.
Losses. Goals for. Goals against. Points
3727. 1308. 975.
1444. 5175.
5390. 3999
The club took 24 seasons to reach 1000 points, 22 seasons to
get to 2000, 22 seasons to get to 3000 and only 19 seasons to get to 4000
however with the different points systems it is a fairly meaningless exercise.
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