Jim's column 13.10.2018

Coventry City's luck has not been in at times this season but it was definitely in at the Valley last Saturday. Trailing with ten minutes remaining the super sub Amadou Bakayoko struck twice to give the Sky Blues three points they had never looked like winning in the previous eighty minutes. Bakayoko joined an elite group of seven Coventry City players to score two goals from off the bench. The full list is:

1967-68 Bobby Gould (Nottingham Forest (away)) 3-3

2002-03 Jay Bothroyd (Rushden & Diamonds (LC) (home)) 8-0

2004-05 Patrick Suffo (Torquay (LC) (home)) 4-1

2013-14 Chris Maguire (MK Dons (away)) 3-1

2016-17 Ryan Haynes (Wycombe (FLT) (away)) 4-2

2017-18 Max Biamou (Yeovil (home)) 2-6

2018-19 Amadou Bakayoko (Charlton (away)) 2-1

The first, Bobby Gould's brace at Nottingham Forest after he came on for captain George Curtis who had broken his leg in only City's second game in the top flight, was the first time any City substitute had scored. The most dramatic brace was Chris Maguire's at MK in 2013. The scores were level at 1-1 with five minutes left when Maguire buried two sublime free-kicks in front of a large Sky Blue following. We have had some great moments at that stadium, it's a shame we won't be going there this season.

                                                  Gould nets at the City Ground (August 1967)  

In the 53 years that substitutes have been allowed only four opponent's substitutes have scored two goals, the most famous being West Ham's Tony Cottee in 1982-83, the last being in the Yeovil home game last season when Sam Sturridge came off the bench to score two against a red-faced City defence.

The Checkatrade Trophy (or EFL Trophy to give its proper name) continues to attract miniscule crowds throughout the country. There were less than 500 at the games at Cambridge and Gillingham on Tuesday night and City's pathetic 1,341 was in the top six highest gates of the night. From my vantage point the crowd looked to be under 1,000 which would have made it the lowest for a Coventry competitive home game since the club joined the league in 1919, held by the 1,111 for the Millwall Full Members Cup tie in 1985. However the final figure crept up to just beat the Crawley attendance (1,338) in the same competition two years ago. Despite the attraction of a Wembley final isn't it time for this competition to be put out of its misery. I fully envisage a Wembley final between two Premier League Under 21 sides that would attract a very low attendance.

The games at least give managers the opportunity to give promising youngsters a run out against stronger players than they're used to and on Tuesday we saw several City debutants. Jak Hickman and Morgan Williams got their first starts and then 17-year old Jack Burroughs and recent signing Dexter Walters came on as a substitutes. Burroughs became the first City player born after the millennium to appear for the first team. None of the youngsters looked out of place with Williams and Jordon Thompson especially impressive.

Dick Graham was the manager of Crystal Palace when they were promoted from Division Three alongside the Sky Blues in 1964. Dick passed away in 2013 but his son Mark is writing a book about his father's football career and I was able to help him with a few facts and figures. Graham and Jimmy Hill, City's manager at the time, had a few spats in their time. After a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park in December 1963 JH was critical of Palace's tactics saying 'I have never been so pleased to have won a point. To me it proved that constructive football can triumph over the purely destructive. This is our third experience of Palace's rough play this year'.

In those three games four Palace names had been taken – in the days when you almost had to a maim an opponent to go into the referee's book, with full-back Bert Howe picking up two bookings for flying tackles on City's winger Willie Hunphries. Graham retorted by calling Hill's comments undignified and saying 'We play the game men should play it'.

Both teams were promoted and the two managers were in opposition for a further two seasons before Graham was sacked in early 1966.