Jim's column 25.1.14

The perception of many City's fans is that historically City have always conceded more late goals than they have scored so I thought it worthwhile doing some research on the subject. The table below shows that in the last two seasons in the Championship (under Aidy Bothroyd & Andy Thorn) the side conceded far more late goals than they scored.

Goals scored after 80 minutes (all games)

	By City	By Opponents
2009-10 (Coleman)	11	7
2010-11 (Bothroyd/Thorn)	6	8
2011-12 (Thorn)	6	17
2012-13 (Thorn/Robins/Pressley)	18	11
2013-14 (Pressley)	15	13

Some fans will remember conceding late goals in those seasons to lose at Crystal Palace, Blackpool, Ipswich and at home to Norwich & Burnley to name but a few. In League One however City have definitely outdone their opponents. This season those 15 late goals for the Sky Blues have on 11 occasions resulted in wins or draws, and we are only just past the halfway mark of the season. Of course late goals that count for something (a win or draw) send the fans home buzzing - the late equalisers at Wolves, Preston at at home to Preston all seemed like victories at the time not to mention the late winners at Barnsley, Rotherham, MK Dons and at home to Hartlepool, Bristol City & Gillingham. On the other side of the coin it is clear that City are still vulnerable to late goals themselves. Of their four away league defeats, three have been because of goals after the 80 minute mark (Crawley, Port Vale & Swindon) plus the League Cup exit at Orient.

Dean Nelson, an avid City fan who has an amazing collection of videos & clips of City games not to mention hundreds of film clips of old Coventry, has been in touch asking for more information on a little-known City friendly game in 1963.

The winter of 1962-63 was the worst in living memory and City didn't play a game between Boxing Day and the last week in February. Game after game was called off because of snowbound or icy pitches as the country virtually ground to a halt. At the end of January after the coming Saturday’s game at Shrewsbury was postponed manager Jimmy Hill grasped the nettle. A call to Manchester United’s manager Matt Busby resulted in a hastily arranged friendly in Dublin. Hill always seeking publicity for the club, had realised that Ireland was far less badly hit by the weather and using his contacts in the Fair isle organised this tasty friendly. Hill had first tried Joe Mercer at Aston Villa but Joe’s players were worried about getting injured. Busby however was more adventurous and, like Hill, was desperate for his team to get some competitive play, and duly put out his strongest team including his expensive forward line of : Johnny Giles, Albert Quixall, David Herd, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton. On a day when only four games were played on the English mainland City and United met at Shamrock Rovers’ Glenmalure Park in a game that belied the two division’s difference in the club’s status. With United’s stars rattled by City’s enthusiasm City recovered from an early Quixall goal to lead 2-1 at half-time thanks to goals from Ronnie Farmer and Jimmy Whitehouse. With Willie Humphries and Ronnie Rees giving Shay Brennan and Noel Cantwell an uncomfortable afternoon and Brian Hill marking Law like a limpit City had chances to increase their lead. Bobby Charlton finally saved United’s red faces nine minutes from time with an equaliser but Coventry City had made an impression, and made a few bob from a 15,000 crowd.

The following Saturday, again after another early postponement (a home game with Port Vale) City flew to Cork to play Wolves in a friendly. Whilst not the force they had been in the late 1950s, Wolves were in the top six in Division One (higher than Manchester United) and fielded experienced internationals Ron Flowers and Peter Broadbent. On a miserably wet day, the muddy pitch suited Wolves’ style perfectly and although City had chances in the first half, Wolves’ strength and experience told and they ran out 3-0 winners in front of a drowned crowd of 6,500.

Last week I wrote a tribute to Albert McCann and David Selby, an Essex-based City fan who is also a director of Chelmsford City reminded me that Albert played for Chelmsford. David writes: 'He was released by Portsmouth in 1974 and went to play in South Africa where he no doubt played with Bobby Kellard, who was also in South Africa at the time. He made his debut for Chelmsford City in February 1976 some 6 weeks after Kellard had taken over as City Manager, as City lost 2-0 at Telford United and went on to make 11 appearances before leaving the Club at the end of the 1975-1976 season. He had originally signed a contract for a month but saw the season out. His second appearance saw City win 3-0 at home to Wimbledon to earn Kellard his first league win as Manager, at the eighth time of asking. He scored 1 goal for City, in a 4-0 home win over Wealdstone in April 1976'. Alberts's son Mark tells me that Albert found the travelling to Chelmsford too tiring and so joined Waterlooville (now Havant and Waterlooville) where another ex-Pompey player Jim Storrie was the manager. 

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