Most Coventry City
supporters will be relieved that the 2016/17 season is over.
Statistically it has been not just the worst season in living memory
but the worst since the club was elected to the Football League in
1919. After a good 2015/16 season, spoiled by a poor recruitment
programme in the January window, expectations were high that some
shrewd transfer activity would see an assault on the top six but it
never materialised. The team started badly and despite a good October
lifting spirits, the wheels came completely off in December. There
were few highlights with the majority coming in the much-maligned
Checkatrade Trophy which the Sky Blues, rejuvenated by the arrival of
Mark Robins, the fourth manager of the campaign, won in style on a
magical day at Wembley. Most City fans however would have swapped
that day for safety in League One but it was not to be and the club
now faces fourth-tier football for only the second time in the club's
history and for the first time since 1959. That sole season in the
basement league ended with the club promoted and we can only pray for
a repeat.
Games:
Coventry City played 59 competitive games this season, 46 league, 3
FA Cup, 2 League Cup & 8 Football League Trophy (Checkatrade
Trophy) .
Points:
The Sky Blues gathered 39 league points during the season. This was
thirty less than in 2015/16 and the lowest total since the club were
relegated from the Premier League in 2001 when they collected 34
points (from 38 games). 25 defeats were suffered the highest number
since the club joined the league. The club have the unenviable record
of being the only FL club not to have reached 70 points in a season
since that three points for a win was introduced in 1981.
Home
Form: By
City's standards, the home
record wasn't that bad: won 8, drew 7, lost 8. The eight defeats came
in a run of 10 games between November and March sandwiched between
two unbeaten runs of eight and five games respectively. Amazingly
Tony Mowbray was unbeaten at the Ricoh and Robins, after losing his
first two home games was unbeaten in the final five. 31 home points
were won – more than in 2012/13 and 2014/15.
Away
Form: The
away record: won 1, drew 5, lost 17, earned only 8 points, the lowest
total since 1999/2000 (supposedly the season of the Entertainers)
when Gordon Strachan's team failed to win away.
The 17 defeats was the worst
since 1925/26 when 18 losses were incurred. It
was another depressing visit to
Swindon (last league win there was in 1960), and Rochdale (where City
have never won in ten visits now).
Wins:
In total therefore, only nine victories were recorded – equalling
the total in 2011/12 as the lowest number since the club left the
Premier League in 2001. In fact, if you count the Swansea penalty
shoot-out as a victory, the team won more Cup games (10) than league
(9).
Biggest
win: The biggest league
win of the season was 2-0 at home to Chesterfield and at Port Vale.
In
the Checkatrade Trophy they beat Brighton 3-0.
Biggest
defeat: The 1-4 losses at
Oxford and Bristol Rovers were the heaviest league defeats. In the
League Cup however Norwich beat the Sky Blues 6-1. The
defeat at Oxford was the biggest league loss for over two years and
the first time they had been 0-3 at half time since 2013.
Goals
for: The goals for total
of 37 was the lowest since 1999/2000 when Strachan's team scored 36
but from only 38 games. For a 46-game season it was the club's
lowest ever. City, amazingly, failed to score more than two goals in
any league games for the first time ever. Of the 72 FL clubs only
Oldham, with 31 goals, scored less.
Goals
against: City conceded 68
league goals, less than the 77 let in during 2013-14 but the goal
difference of minus 31 was the worst since 1919-20 (-38) . The team
kept ten clean sheets in the league, better than three of the
previous five seasons, but only two away from home. Reice
Charles-Cook kept four and Lee Burge six.
Final
position: The final
position of 23rd was fifteen places lower than 2015/16 and confirmed
the club's third relegation of the 21st century (after 49 years
without one). The highest position occupied during the campaign was
18th following a victory over Chesterfield on 1 November. City are
the only club, bar long-serving Premiership clubs and recent
promotees from the Conference, not to have been promoted or reached
the play-offs since the play-offs were introduced in 1987 nor to
finish in the top six of a division. The club were bottom of the
league table for 14 consecutive weeks from 14 January to 22 April –
the worst run since 1919/20.
Leading
scorers: George
Thomas was leading
scorer with nine goals, five in the league and four in the
Checkatrade. Marvin Sordell was runner up with seven goals (4
league, 3 cup). Since 1919 no City league top scorer has scored so
few goals. The previous lowest was six goals. In 2000/01 messrs
Hartson, Hadji and Bellamy were joint top scorers with six and in
2014/15 messrs Samuel, Nouble and O'Brien were joint top scorers with
six. Fifteen different players were on the score-sheet during the
season.
Doubles:
City achieved only one double- over Port Vale - but on the other hand
seven clubs did the double over City (Swindon, Bradford City,
Southend, Scunthorpe, Sheffield United, Fleetwood and MK Dons). This
equals the record set in 1985-86 under Don Mackay. For Scunthorpe it
was the second season running that they have done the double.
Appearances:
For
the sixth season running no outfield player was an ever present in
the league – the last to do so was Richard Keogh in 2010-11. The
two Jordans, Willis and Turnbull, started the most league games –
36 starts. They both also started 46 competitive games. Jodi Jones
was involved in 34 league games (11 starts and 23 substitute
appearances) and 45 games in total (15 starts and 30 substitute
appearances).
Players
used: Forty players were
used in league and cup games - one more than in 2015/16, the fourth
highest in the club's history and four short of the club record of 44
in 2002-03. Of the 40, 23 players made their debuts during the season
(one less than the previous season) and one, Devon Kelly-Evans, only
appeared in a cup game. Eight loan players were used (two less than
in 2015/16). In addition to the 40 players used, two more, Corey
Addai and Jordan Thompson, sat on the bench as substitutes but were
not used. Michael Folivi, the loanee from Watford finally got his
debut at Scunthorpe and came on for three minutes. This means he has
the second shortest career of a first team player behind Lee
Hildreth who played for one minute in the final game of the 2006/07
season. In the last three seasons 72 players have made their City
debuts – that is more than the total number of debutants for the
whole decades of the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Home-grown
players: Of the 40
players used 15 of them were home grown products of the Academy. It
is now more than six years that a City team did not include a
home-grown player. On two occasions in the Checkatrade Trophy eight
academy products represented the club and at Wembley seven took part.
Dion and Devon Kelly-Evans
became only the second pair of twins to play for the club (Lee and
Craig Middleton were the others) and they were the first pair to be
on the pitch together when Devon came on as a substitute against
Norwich in the League Cup.
Records:
Jordan Willis took his total appearances to 127 & is now 109th on
the club's all-time appearance chart, level with Brian Nicholas and
Elliott Ward, and one behind John Sillett. No other player has
reached 100 appearances for the club.
Substitutes:
Jodi
Jones made
the most substitute appearances (30, 23 league and 7 cup). The league
total is only one short of the record in one season, set by Andy
Morrell in 2005-06. Kyel Reid was the most substituted player (15
times). Eight substitutes came off the bench and scored: Ruben
Lameiras did it twice (Norwich LC a and Northampton CT h) and the
others were Andre Wright (Wimbledon h), Andy Rose (Chesterfield h),
Marcus Tudgay (Oxford a), Kwame Thomas (Oldham a), Ryan Haynes 2
(Wycombe CT a) and Gael Bigirimana (Wycombe CT a). Haynes is only the
fifth City player to score two after coming off the bench and the
first since Chris Maguire at MK Dons in 2013.
Average
attendance: Home 9,203
(2015/16 12,570), down 26.7% & the eighth highest in League One.
Away 8,163 (2015/16 7,665), up 6.5% & the sixth highest in the
division. If away fans are stripped out, City's average home
following was 8,243 down 29% from 11,633.
Highest
home attendance: The
biggest league crowd was 11,946 for the Bristol Rovers game in March
but this was boosted by over 4,000 Rovers' fans. This is the lowest
top gate in the club's league history. If away fans are stripped out
the biggest crowd was for the opening home game v Shrewsbury when
there were 9,766 home fans in the 10,296 crowd. There were seven
home cup-ties and the largest crowd was 11,672 v Wycombe in the
Checkatrade Regional final game.
Lowest
home attendance: The
lowest league crowd of the season was 7,646 for the Southend game in
March. This was not the lowest league crowd at the Ricoh - in 2014-15
only 6,885 watched a midweek game versus Scunthorpe. Cup crowds
however were generally very poor with 4,976 watching the League
Cup-tie with Portsmouth, the club's lowest home attendance since the
competition started in 1960. In November only 2,175 watched the FA
Cup replay with Morecambe – the lowest home gate in the competition
since before the First World War (Sixfields apart). In the
Checkatrade Trophy there were three attendances just over 2,000 but
the Crawley game attracted 1,338, the lowest crowd at a home
competitive game (Sixfields apart) since 1985.
Away
followings: For
league games City’s away following averaged 814 (2015/16 1,339), a
drop of 39% and the lowest since 2010/11. The best following of the
season was 1,981 at Walsall, closely followed by 1,956 to Swindon on
the opening day. Of course, City's following at Wembley surpassed
everything with 43,268 the official number who attended. The smallest
was 209 for the midweek trip to Bury which was the smallest since a
Monday night game at Ipswich in 2011 when 185 brave souls attended.
Bristol Rovers brought 4,069 fans to the Ricoh in March, the largest
league away following since Birmingham brought 5,700 in March 2012.
At the other extreme, Fleetwood brought only 121 fans to the league
game while Crawley brought just 57 for the Checkatrade tie, the
lowest away following since the Ricoh opened in 2005.
Highest
away attendance: The
biggest away league crowd was at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane
(24,334).
Lowest
away attendance: The
smallest away crowd was 2,611 at Bury
in March. and the fifth lowest away league crowd since the war. At
Morecambe in the FA Cup the crowd of 1,732 (including 546 City fans)
was the smallest away crowd in the competition since 539 watched City
at Glossop in 1914. At Wycombe in the Checkatrade Trophy (FLT) there
were only 912 present and 250 of them came from Coventry. It was the
lowest crowd to watch the Sky Blues in that competition and the
smallest to watch any City away game since April 1930 when 683
watched a 2-2 draw at Merthyr.
Won
from behind: (4) In
league games City failed to come from behind to win but managed it on
four occasions in cup competitions – Morecambe (FAC) h, Portsmouth
(LC) h, West Ham (FLT) h, Wycombe (FLT) a. On four occasions the
team came from behind to get a draw Northampton h, Wimbledon h,
Morecambe a, Swansea a. Only 2 points were won from losing
positions, 13 less than last season.
Lost
from in front: (3) City
lost three games after being in front: at Bradford, Gillingham and
Scunthorpe. In seven games City took the lead only to be pegged back
for draws. 23 points were lost from leading positions.
Best
run: The Sky Blues went
unbeaten in four league games in the second half of October and when
including cup games, extended the run to six games before losing to
Scunthorpe at home on 12 November. The team were unbeaten in league
and cup games at home until the Scunthorpe game, a total of 11 home
games and 14 including the previous season.
Worst
run: City failed to win
any of their first 10 league games - the worst start to a season
since 1919 and included five consecutive draws (the first time since
1957/58). They also failed to score in their first three league games
for the first time ever. Then from 1 November to 18 February they
failed to win any of 15 games – the worst run since Gary
McAllister's team in 2002/03 who went 16 without victory. They also
lost seven league games in a row in November and December, the worst
run since 1972-73 and just two short of the club record set in
1919/20.
Hat-tricks:
(0) No City player scored a brace in a league game let alone a
hat-trick. Three players managed two in Cup games: Sordell (Morecambe
h), Turnbull (West Ham h) and Haynes (Wycombe a).
Opposing
hat-tricks: (3) After not
conceding a hat-trick for three seasons, three opposing players
managed one. Billy Bodin (Bristol Rovers a), Keshi Anderson
(Northampton a) and Cambridge United's Luke Berry who scored four in
the FA Cup game. Berry is the first player to score four against City
since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in 2001 and the first ever in an FA Cup
tie.
This
season there were four former players netted against City, Jacob
Murphy for Norwich, Chris Maguire (Oxford), and Leon Clarke and John
Fleck for Sheffield United. The Sheffield United game was the first
ever instance of two ex-players netting in the same game.
Own
goals: For City: (1)
Adnan Maric of Swansea was credited with an own goal in the
Checkatrade Trophy game, although some sources credited the goal to
Jordan Willis.
Own
goals: By City: (2) Jamie
Sterry (Oxford a) and Kevin Foley (Oldham a).
Penalties:
For City: (2) City's poor
penalty record ended and there were two successful penalties – by
Ruben Lameiras (Norwich (LC) a) and Marcus Tudgay (Oxford a) – and
no misses. In addition City won the penalty shoot-out at Swansea in
the Checkatrade Trophy.
Penalties:
Against City: (8) Seven
opposition players netted from the spot - Maguire (Oxford a), Bodin
(Bristol Rovers a), Clough (Bolton a), Berry (Cambridge FAC a), Main
(Portsmouth LC h), McBurnie (Swansea FLT a) and McMahon (Bradford a)
who scored two penalties.
Two
opponents missed penalties – Lee Burge saved Shrewsbury's Roberts
and Peterborough's Mackail-Smith's penalties.
Fastest
Goal scored:
20 seconds: Daniel Agyei scored after twenty seconds of the home game
with Northampton in the Checkatrade Trophy. It was the fastest goal
at the Ricoh and the fastest by a City player for 14 years.
Fastest
Goal conceded: 59
seconds: Marc Richards equalised Agyei's goal against Northampton
before one minute had gone. This
is probably the first time in a City game that there have been two
goals within the first minute of a game.
Red
cards: Coventry: (5):
Turnbull (Bradford a), Page (Chesterfield h), Stevenson (MK Dons h),
Willis (Northampton a) and Dion Kelly-Evans (West Ham FLT h). It was
the first red card for all five players. Turnbull became only the
second player to be sent off on his debut, the other being David
Thompson v Middlesbrough in 2000.
Red
cards: Opponents: (1)
Walsall's O'Connell in the game at the Ricoh was the only opponent to
be sent off.
FA
Cup:
For the third season running the Sky Blues were knocked out by a club
from a lower status, League Two Cambridge United. They did at least
win a game in the competition for the first time since January 2014.
Bookings:
Jordan Turnbull looked to have the award for most bookings wrapped up
at Christmas with eight yellow cards but he kept out of trouble in
the second half of the season and was overtaken by Gael Bigirimana by
the season's end. Gael finished on nine bookings.
Television:
The
Sky Blues appeared live on television on three occasions, in the
league at home to Sheffield United (1-2) and twice in the Checkatrade
trophy at home to Wycombe in the semi final and against Oxford at
Wembley in the final.
New
Grounds: City played
competitive games at three grounds for the first time Oxford
United's Kassam Stadium, Bristol Rovers' Memorial Stadium and New
Wembley. In addition they played a league game at AFC Wimbledon for
the first time and at Northampton's Sixfields Stadium for the first
time as an away team.
Man
of the Match: Bigirimana
won top place in Andy Turner's Man of the Match awards with 10 MOM
votes. Lee Burge (7), Ben Stevenson (6) and Jordan Willis (6) were
the nearest challengers.
With many thanks to
Paul O’Connor.