Jim's column 24.11.2018

Coventry City have a history of developing young talent and blooding them in the first team that stretches back to before World War Two. Harry Storer, City's legendary manager in the 1930s gave Second Division debuts to teenagers such as Ted Roberts, Plum Warner, Ellis Lager and George Mason. In the 1960s Jimmy Hill had faith in youngsters like Bobby Gould, Ronnie Rees and Mick Coop before a glut of kids came through under Noel Cantwell - the team that reached the 1970 Youth Cup final spawned eight first teamers, all of them making their debuts as teenagers. It has continued almost non-stop ever since with few barren periods where the club had to rely on the transfer market. Last week Mark Robins put out a first team at Cheltenham in the Football League Trophy that was the youngest starting XI in the club's history. The average age of the team that took the field was 21 years and 33 days, 25 days less than the previous record set at Maine Road in 1980.

The team comprised of: O'Brien (26), Grimmer (24), Mason (21), Eccles (18), Williams (19), Thompson (19), Jones (21), Bayliss (19), Bakayoko (22), Ngandu (17), Shipley (21). When the first substitute Sam McCallum (18) came on the average age dropped to 20 years 301 days and when Jack Burroughs (17) came on for Tom Bayliss it dropped even further, to 20 years 236 days. The final substitution – Jak Hickman (18) for Johnny Ngandu – pushed the average up a shade. Some people will argue that it was a meaningless game in a fairly meaningless competition but it still qualifies as a competitive first team game. Congo-born Ngandu meanwhile became the sixth youngest player to start a first team game. He was only 19 days past his seventeenth birthday and slots into the top ten.

1. Brian Hill (April 1958) 16 years 273 days
2. Isaac Osbourne (April 2003) 16 years 308 days
3. Perry Suckling (August 1982) 16 years 320 days
4. George Curtis (April 1956) 16 years 351 days
5. Dietmar Bruck (April 1961) 17 years 9 days
6. Johnny Ngandu (November 2018) 17 years 19 days
7. Colin Holder (April 1962) 17 years 73 days
8. Conor Thomas (Jan 2011) 17 years 92 days
9. Lol Harvey (Nov 1951)  17 years 101 days
10. Bobby Parker (March 1970) 17 years 137 days

                                                                 Johnny Ngandu 

Going back to 1980, Gordon Milne was reaping the benefit of many years of the club investing in youth and luring some of the country's best talent to Coventry. The young team would go on to reach the League Cup semi final and only lose out on a trip to Wembley by virtue of a late West Ham goal in the semi final second leg. The team that Milne put out at Maine Road was: Les Sealey (23), Steve Jacobs (19), Brian Roberts (25), Andy Blair (20), Paul Dyson (20), Gary Gillespie (20), Peter Bodak (19), Garry Thompson (21), Mark Hateley (19), Danny Thomas (19), Steve Hunt (24). Nine homegrown players plus Gillespie who was signed as a 17-year old.

Many thanks to Geoff Moore for his statistical help.

Keith Ballantyne regularly asks interesting questions and was recently struck by the somewhat unusual occurrence of a player scoring, and then finding himself in goal a couple of minutes later - the game in question being Ipswich v Preston, and the player being Paul Gallagher after the Preston goalkeeper received a red card, all substitutes having been used.

He wanted to know whether this unique honour has ever fallen to a City player. He recalled David Speedie going in goal for Oggy during a 4-1 defeat at Millwall in 1989, but it was David Smith who scored for City on that occasion. With the advent of multiple substitutions and the almost universal inclusion of goalkeeping substitutes it is very uncommon these days to find an outfield player going 'between the sticks'. I was able to tell him that no City player has scored a goal and then donned the goalkeeper's jersey. The nearest incident to this occurred in 1958 in a home game with Aldershot. City goalkeeper Jim Sanders broke his leg and full-back and captain Roy Kirk went into goal for the last half an hour. With six minutes left and City winning 7-1 they were awarded a penalty. Kirk raced from his goal to the other end to take the penalty but blasted it over the bar.

Next week I'll tell you about other outfield players who went in goal for City.

Keith's other question is regarding goalkeepers who have scored for and against City. He remembers, only too well that Oggy scored against Martin Hodge and Sheffield Wednesday in a 2-2 draw at Hillsborough in 1986 as he was at that game but he seems to remember that another keeper did the same to Oggy some years later, and Watford came to his mind as the offending side, but he's not really sure.

It was Watford Keith and a goalkeeper called Steve Sherwood. In January 1984 City entertained the Hornets, then managed by Graham Taylor. It was a very windy day at Highfield Road and Sherwood's long punt bounced on the edge of the City penalty area. City's goalkeeper, Raddy Avramovic and Watford's Nigel Callaghan challenged for the ball but the Yugoslav 'keeper missed his punch and the ball ended up in the City net. Watford went on to win 2-1. I'm not aware of any other goals scored by goalkeepers in City games.

Jim's Column 10.11.2018

Coventry City's five-game winning run, their best in the league since 1998, came to end at the Ricoh on Saturday when the team had to settle for a point against a very efficient Accrington side, whose league position doesn't flatter them. The Lancashire club, who ran away with the League Two title last term, close sides down and make it very difficult to find space and their goal came from a typical piece of pressing in City's midfield. Michael Doyle earned City a point with his first goal of the season when he was on hand to score from close range when the Accrington goalkeeper, the son of former Middlesbrough and Blackburn winger, spilled Jodi Jones' low shot.

Doyle has never been a prolific scorer but that goal won him a place in City's history books. He is now the third oldest City player to score a senior goal behind Dennis Wise and Gary McAllister. Doyle was aged 37 years and 119 days on Saturday and is over two years younger than Dennis Wise when he scored the last of his six goals for the Sky Blues on 30th April 2006. 'Wisey' was substitute that day and came off the bench to score in the 90th minute as City recorded a 3-1 victory over Cardiff City. The game turned out to be Dennis' final appearance of a 24-year career. Coincidentally McAllister's final goal in football was also in his final game, for the Sky Blues in a 1-1 home draw with Sunderland in December 2003. Gary stood down temporarily as City's player-manager after the game and a few weeks later resigned to look after his sick wife.

The top ten oldest goalscorers for the club are as follows:

	Player	Last goal		Age
1	Dennis Wise	30/4/2006		39 years 135 days
2	Gary McAllister	8/12/2003		38 years 348 days
3	Michael Doyle	3/11/2018		37 years 119 days
4	Danny Shea	15/11/1924		37 years 9 days
5	Dick Lindley	24/9/1921		36 years 285 days
6	Danny Shone	5/1/1929		36 years 253 days
7	George Mason	27/12/1949		36 years 113 days
8	Steve Staunton	2/4/2005		36 years 73 days
9	Joey Jones	25/12/1922		35 years 359 days
10	Alex McClure	10/12/1927		35 years 250 days

Five of them played their football in the 1920s and were all largely 'over the hill' when they came to Coventry. More recently George Mason was a defender who went on to play for another two seasons for City's first team without scoring again. Other over 35s who scored for City include Richard Shaw, Charlie Timmins and Kevin Kilbane.

I have to thank the statisticians at www.Enfa.co.uk for their help in discovering the facts on this one. They pointed out that Stanley Matthews was over 48 when he scored his final league goal for Stoke City in 1963 and Billy Meredith was 50 years and 6 months old when he netted an FA Cup goal for Manchester City in 1925 (almost four years after his last league goal).

'Doyler' also becomes the first City player to score at three different levels of the Football League having netted in the Championship during his first spell with the club, then last season in League Two. In the 1960s Mick Kearns, Brian Hill, George Curtis, Ronnie Farmer, Dietmar Bruck and Ernie Machin all scored in three different divisions. Dietmar only managed seven league goals in almost 200 games for the club but managed to score in Divisions Three, Two and One.

Ben Lipman posed that question and also wanted to know if Doyle holds the record for the timespan between his first and last goals for the club. Michael's first goal for City was in August 2003 in a 1-1 draw at Ipswich, over 15 years ago. My calculations show that he set the record last season, overtaking Ted Roberts who scored his first goal (on his debut) in a 4-0 home win over Bradford Park Avenue in March 1937. His career was severely interrupted by the war but he returned to the club and scored the last of his 85 goals on Boxing Day 1951 in a 3-0 home win over Bury – a span of over 14 years.

                                                                       Ted Roberts

Jim's column 3.11.2018

City's fifth league win in a row against Doncaster last weekend makes it the best run since Gordon Strachan's outstanding team won the same number of league games in a seven win run in all competitions in January/February 1998. Following a 2-2 home draw with Arsenal on 17th January 1998, City set off on a run of victories as follows:

24 January Home Derby (FAC) 2-0 (Dublin 2)

31 January Away Bolton 5-1 (Whelan, Huckerby 2, Dublin 2)

7 February Home Sheff. Wed. 1-0 (Dublin (pen))

14 February Away Aston Villa (FAC) 1-0 (Moldovan)

18 February Away Southampton 2-1 (Whelan, Huckerby)

21 February Home Barnsley 1-0 (Dublin (pen))

28 February Away Crystal Palace 3-0 (Telfer, Moldovan, Dublin)

The incredible run of victories came to an end on 7th March when Sheffield United held the Sky Blues to a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup sixth round.

I hope I don't put the jinx on things but one more victory today against Accrington would equal the best league runs in the club's history. On three occasions City have won six on the bounce 1908, 1954 and 1964. The last occurrence, in the Jimmy Hill era, saw City clinch promotion on the final day of the 1963-64 season with a 1-0 home win over Colchester, and then open the 1964-65 campaign with five straight wins. Similarly in 1954 City won the last three Division Three South games of 1953-54 and proceeded to start the 1954-55 season with three victories. The 1908 run is the only time the club has recorded six league wins on the bounce in the SAME season. The 1907-08 season was the most successful in the club's 25-year history to that date. They reached the FA Cup 1st round (the equivalent of the third round now) for the first time and finished fourth in the Birmingham & District League (their highest ever final position). After losing at Wolves to their reserve side, City beat Worcester City home (4-2), Walsall home (3-0), Brierley Hill away (3-1), Brierly Hill home (6-0) and Stoke Reserves home (5-0). The run came to an end with a 4-0 defeat at Burton United. By coincidence City's next league game is away to Burton Albion!

Before Burton however the Sky Blues are in Cup action twice in four days with trips to Walsall in the FA Cup and Cheltenham in the Checkatrade (EFL) Trophy. City have met the Saddlers twice before in the FA Cup and won both. In 1924-25 City travelled to the Black Country for the equivalent of a First Round tie and won 2-1 at Walsall's Hillary Street ground with goals from Fred Morris and Fred Herbert. City were struggling near the foot of the Second Division and the victory over their Division Three North opponents was a boost and they went on to reach the Third Round by defeating Nelson, from the same division, in round two. In the Third round First Division Notts County were too strong, winning 2-0 at Highfield Road in front of almost 22,000.

The other FA Cup meeting with Walsall was in 1947-48 in the Third Round. The Saddlers, by now in Division Three South, had eliminated non-league Vauxhall Motors and Norwich City to get to the Third Round and a massive 34,278 crowd including many thousands from Walsall, City's biggest crowd since the war, watched City win 2-1 with two goals from Les 'Plum' Warner, Doug Lishman replying for Walsall. In the fourth round City went out to Luton, losing 3-2 at Kenilworth Road.