Jim's column 26.5.2018

What a remarkable night at Meadow Lane last week. The Sky Blues turned in one of their finest performances for many years to confound the experts and reach the League Two play-off final. For ten or so minutes in the second half things got a bit hairy but Lee Burge's fine save from Jon Stead steadied the ship and the team ran out worthy winners and could have scored several more goals. As it was 4-1 is the biggest away win in a League Two play-off tie.

The Notts County hoodoo was well and truly consigned to the dustbin as City won at Meadow Lane for the first time since a 3-0 victory at the start of the 1963-64 promotion campaign. Mark McNulty took his tally for the season to 28 in all games, equalling George Hudson's record in that same campaign. Since the Second World War only three players have scored more than McNulty:

Ray Straw 30 (1958-59)

George Lowrie 29 (1946-47)

Terry Bly 29 (1962-63)

So it's on to Wembley for the second time in just over a year to face Exeter City on Monday afternoon. Exeter lost in the final to Blackpool twelve months ago and on league form probably start as the favourites but we all know that anything can happen (and often does) at Wembley. The record crowd for a League Two final is 61,589 for the first at the new Wembley in 2007 between Bristol Rovers and Shrewsbury. That record will not be broken as at the time of writing City have sold around 36,000 and Exeter 10,000.

The Sky Blues and Exeter are relative strangers these days; this season was the first time the clubs have been in the same division since 1958-59 when City won promotion out of the old Division Four at the first attempt. In 36 Football League games (all but this season in Division Three South) City have won 15 and lost 12 with nine draws but the Grecians have won only once in Coventry whilst City have won five at St James' Park. Exeter did however win an FA Cup tie at Highfield Road in 1955 (1-0) and a Division 3 South cup game in 1934 (1-0) but City prevailed in a Football League Trophy game at the Ricoh in 2014 (3-1).

The clubs did meet in the Southern League between 1910-14 and the Grecians generally had the upper hand. The first league meeting took place at St James' Park in December 1926 and the home side ran out 8-1 winners, a record defeat for City at the time. Four Exeter players scored a brace that day (Messrs Dent, Purcell, Blackmore and Compton) with Jimmy Heathcote netting a consolation for City.

This season's games were entertaining with the Sky Blues ending Exeter's eight-game unbeaten start to the season with a 2-0 home victory in September with an own-goal from Troy Brown and a late second from Devon Kelly-Evans. In the return in January the Grecians got their revenge when Ryan Harley's early goal was enough to win the game.

Next week is the final column of the season and my delayed stats review of the season will be ready for publication.

Column 12.5.2018

After seventeen seasons of trying the Sky Blues have finally made it to the Football League play-offs by virtue of finishing sixth, their highest league finish since 1970. On Saturday evening the Sky Blues entertain Notts County in the first leg of the semi-finals with the return at Meadow Lane on the following Friday and the chances are there will be a record crowd for a League 2 (or Division 4) play-off semi-final this weekend. The current record is 19,462 and was set in 2004 at the Huddersfield v Lincoln game at the Galpharm Stadium. It wouldn't surprise me to see 25,000 at the Ricoh this weekend.

City's record against the Magpies is not inspiring. City won 3-0 on the opening day but County won on their previous two visits to the Ricoh, which sandwich a 3-0 Sky Blues win at Sixfields in 2013-14. Prior to that City had won six out of seven home league games at Highfield Road, the exception being an amazing 5-1 defeat in 1982, one of the most embarrassing results in City's history. Before that City had not lost at home to the Magpies since 1951. Older fans will remember County being City's opponents on the opening day of the 1962-63 season when goals from Terry Bly and Hugh Barr gave City a 2-0 home win as City wore the new all Sky Blue kit for the first time in a competitive game.

At Meadow Lane City's record is very poor. They haven't won there in eight league visits since the last victory in August 1963 when George Hudson (2) and Willie Humphries gave City a comfortable 3-0 win. That was one of only two wins there, the other coming in 1950, 2-0 courtesy of Ken Chisholm and 'Plum' Warner, when 41,000 packed into Meadow Lane.

The full record of league games is:

Played W D L F - A

Home 19 9 3 7 33 - 25

Away 19 2 5 12 17 - 33

Notts County have been in the play-offs on four previous occasions and have reached the final three times. In 1987-88 they lost 2-4 on aggregate in the Division Three semis to Walsall but two years later they were back under the managership of the legendary Neil Warnock and beat Tranmere 2-0 at Wembley. Twelve months later they were back again to reach the top flight by beating Brighton 3-1. They remain the only club to win play-off finals in successive years. Their stay in the old Division One was brief – they were relegated the following season (and saved the Sky Blues on the final day by sending Luton Town down). They were back at Wembley in 1995-96 in the Division Two (tier 3) but lost 2-0 to Bradford City.

City will go into their first two-legged tie since 2013 this weekend. That was when City played Crewe in the JPT (Football League Trophy) Regional final and lost 3-2 on aggregate after a nightmare home first leg. Before that you have to go back to 2000 when the League Cup second round was reduced from two legs to one. In 22 seasons of two leg ties in that competition the Sky Blues were only defeated on four occasions (Everton, Walsall, Scarborough and Tranmere). I'm pretty sure City's first two-legged tie was in the FA Cup of 1945-46 when for one season only the Third round was played over two legs. City drew Aston Villa and won 2-1 at Highfield Road but lost the second leg 2-0 to exit the competition. They have played two leg games in the UEFA Fairs Cup in 1970-71 and then in the Texaco Cup for the following three seasons. That competition was hardly memorable with victory in only one tie (Falkirk in 1971) and three defeats (Motherwell (2) and Newcastle). Probably the most famous two leg ties were in the League Cup semi finals on 1981 and 1990. In 1981 West Ham were defeated 3-2 at Highfield Road but edged City out of a Wembley trip with a 2-0 win at Upton Park. Nine years later City controversially lost the first leg at the City Ground, Nottingham, 2-1, and Forest held on for a 0-0 at Highfield Road to go through.

I make that 32 two-legged ties with 20 wins and 12 defeats on aggregate. City have been at home in the first leg on 14 occasions and ended up progressing in only seven of those ties.

Finally, congratulations are in order for a good friend of mine, Geoff Moore, who, by watching City at Cheltenham two weeks ago, joined the '92 club'. He has now watched the Sky Blues play at all the current 92 league clubs in a first-class game. There are three current grounds where City have not played (the Etihad, West Ham's London Stadium and Huddersfield's Galpharm Stadium) but Geoff did see the Sky Blues play those clubs at Maine Road, Upton Park and Leeds Road respectively.

His first away ground was Swindon's County Ground for an FA Cup third round tie in 1966 and since then has seen City play on 118 different English grounds not including Wembley Stadium, Sutton United and Motherwell in Scotland where he attended a Texaco Cup game in the 1970s. If City are promoted via the play-offs he will miss out on the new league clubs (Macclesfield and possibly Boreham Wood) but I'm sure he will sacrifice that for football in a higher division.

Are there any other City fans who can match or better Geoff's record. I suspect Kevin Monks must be close!

Jim's column 5.5.2018

Despite that sensational 6-1 win at Cheltenham, the nerves are still jangling amongst Sky Blue fans ahead of today's game with Morecambe. The added twist is that Morecambe may need something from the game to avoid returning to the Conference after eleven seasons in League Two. That will depend on the 23rd-placed club Barnet keeping their excellent run under new boss Martin Allen going – they have won four of their last six games – and beating already-relegated Chesterfield at home. If Barnet win then Morecambe will need a point at the Ricoh to finish above the Bees and avoid the drop.

The win at Cheltenham was the ninth away win of the season, an impressive record bettered only twice in the Sky Blues' history (in 1969-70 (10) and 2012-13 (11)). The result was rarely in doubt once Tom Bayliss had scored in the twelfth minute and the team went on to record a scoreline that equalled the biggest away league win since World War 2. City have won 6-1 away on three previous occasions in those 73 years, at Carlisle in 1958-59, at Crewe in 2001-02 and at Walsall in 2003-04. The club's biggest away win occurred 91 years ago on Easter Monday 1927 when, in their only ever visit to Aberdare Athletic, City won 7-0 with goals from Jimmy Heathcote (2), Billy Bird, Frank Herbert, Jack Crisp, Alex McClure and Robert Ferguson. Twenty-four hours later in the return game, with fans expecting another hatful of goals, City struggled to win 1-0!

Marc McNulty was at it again at Cheltenham netting another hat-trick to take his league total for the season to 23 and 26 in all competitions. He has overtaken players like Calum Wilson, Adam Armstrong and Ian Wallace and is now the highest league scorer in a season for over 50 years - since Bobby Gould's 24 goals in 1966-67. Today McNulty could overtake George Hudson and Bobby Gould and the two City legends will be at the game to see if he can achieve a remarkable feat. Any potential play-off games don't count as league goals but do count in the all competitions category, therefore Marc could even top Ray Straw's tally from 1958-59.

                                                                 Ray Straw

Most league goals in a season (post WW2)

Ray Straw	1958-59	27
George Lowrie	1946-47	26
Terry Bly	1962-63	25
Ken Chisholm	1950-51	24
George Hudson	1963-64	24
Bobby Gould	1966-67	24
Marc McNulty	2017-18	23

Most goals (all Comps) (post WW2)

Ray Straw	1958-59	30
George Lowrie	1946-47	29
Terry Bly	1962-63	29
George Hudson	1963-64	28
Marc McNulty	2017-18	26
Bobby Gould	1966-67	25

McNulty is also a record breaker when it comes to hat-tricks. He became the first City player to score more than one league hat-trick since 1977-78 when Mick Ferguson scored three in a season. Darren Huckerby scored two hat-tricks in 1998-99 but one was in the FA Cup.

City fan Neil Monaghan posed an interesting question in the pub at Cheltenham on Saturday. He wondered if Michael Doyle has made the most Football League appearances by a player from the Republic of Ireland. We knocked around a few names including Roy and Robbie Keane, Dennis Irwin, Noel Cantwell but I promised to find out for Neil.

I contacted the English National Football Archive (www.enfa.co.uk) whose comprehensive database provides the results, line ups, scorers and league tables of all games since 1888. A search of their database gave me the top ten Southern Irish-born players by appearances in league games as follows:

682 Dennis Irwin

628 Michael Doyle

614 Frank Stapleton

584 Tony Dunne

575 Damien Delaney

572 Don O'Riordan

565 Tommy Eglington

557 Johnny Giles

538 Barry Roche

537 Graham Kavanagh

Doyle will need more than a full season of games to overhaul Irwin's total but it is still an impressive record for the Sky Blues' inspirational captain.

Today is Legends Day at the Ricoh Arena and over 50 former players are planning to attend. This year's event is dedicated to the memory of Cyrille Regis who will be represented by a good number of his relatives including his widow Julia. Former players from seven decades will be joining the traditional half-time parade from Lol Harvey and Brian Nicholas from the 1950s through to Dele Adebola and Andy Morrell from the 2000s. There are some big names attending including George Hudson, Bobby Gould, Colin Stein, Roy Barry, Ian Wallace and Keith Houchen. If you're at the game today make sure you are in the arena to give our former players a great reception on what may be a famous day.