It's now official,
Coventry City are relegated to League Two (tier 4). Good Friday's 1-1
draw with Charlton Athletic meant that the Sky Blues were unable to
catch the sides immediately above the four relegation places. The
draw finally put City fans out of their misery – most of them have
known for weeks that relegation was inevitable, probably before Mark
Robins arrived to offer a small glimmer of hope. At least he got the
team winning a few home games and showing a bit of passion. I think
most fans realised that Robins was brought in to start the planning
for next season and over the few weeks he has seen performances over
a wide range of the spectrum – from gritty wins over Port Vale and
Bristol Rovers to capitulations at Rochdale – to be clear where the
problems lie.
So, next season the Sky
Blues will play in the fourth tier of English football for the first
time since 1959. That was the first season of that division and City
were there through a reorganisation of the league and not as many
believe through relegation. Up until 1958 the Third Division
consisted of two regional leagues (North and South) and when the 92
clubs voted to reorganise these divisions into a Third and Fourth
league, it was decided that the top half of the Third North and the
Third South would comprise the new Third Division and the bottom half
of the two old leagues would make up the new Fourth Division. City,
by virtue of finishing 19th in Division Three South were
put in the new Fourth Division. Strictly speaking therefore, City
have never been relegated to tier 4 before!
In 1958-59 City, under
the management of Billy Frith, had a poor start with only one point
from their first three games leaving them in 23rd place. A
run of 15 games with only two defeats saw City surge into the
promotion race and in early December they hit the top. A slight dip
in March saw Port Vale overhaul them and win the title with over
28,000 watching the teams meeting at Highfield Road. Frith's team
finished runners-up with York City and Shrewsbury also promoted. The
success was based on an excellent home record with 18 victories and
just one defeat, and the best defence in the division with only 47
goals conceded against 84 scored.
Fans are already
looking at the likely opponents next season and although Doncaster,
Plymouth and Portsmouth have clinched automatic promotion, it's not
clear who will be in the play-offs with eleven clubs still capable of
qualifying for places 4 to 7. At the foot of League Two there is a
scramble to avoid the trapdoor and any two of nine teams could lose
their league status. So at this stage it's only certain that we will
be visiting Chesterfield (already relegated from League One) and
Notts County. However it's fairly clear that there will be first
league visits for the Sky Blues to Barnet, Morecambe and probably
Cheltenham and Wycombe. The whole picture will be a lot clearer after
today's games but it seems that City will also be making their first
league visit to Accrington since 1960 (when Stanley played at their
former ground, Peel Park) and first time to Lincoln since an FA Cup
game in 1963.
Easter Monday offered
the Sky Blues an opportunity to end the Spotland curse but they
spurned it, losing 2-0. They have never won at Rochdale in nine
league and cup visits stretching back to 1920 when Dale were a
non-league side and defeated Second Division City 2-1 in an FA Cup
replay.
Several readers
believed that City are the first team that has played in the Premier
League to be relegated to the fourth tier but this is untrue –
Bradford City, who were relegated from the Premier League with the
Sky Blues in 2001, had four seasons in League Two and Portsmouth were in the Premier league as recently as 2010. The statistic that
is true is that City are the first of the original members of the
Premier League to be relegated to the fourth tier. Another original
member, Oldham, seem to have done enough to avoid being relegated but
Swindon, Premier members in 1993-94, are looking very precarious in
22nd place.
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