City
travel to face league leaders Luton Town tomorrow lunchtime and
attempt to repeat last season's victory at Kenilworth Road and become
the first team to lower the Hatters' flag at home. The game is a big
milestone for Coventry-born Jordan Willis who, assuming he plays,
will make his 200th appearance for the club. He becomes only the 45th
Coventry City player to achieve the feat and the third Cov-born
player - only Marcus Hall (308) and Gary McSheffrey (281) have made
more. His 200th appearance brings him level with Gary McAllister,
five behind Gary Gillespie and nine behind 1987 hero Dave Bennett.
Jordan made his
debut as a 17-year-old in the Championship on 5th November 2011 when
he came on as a substitute for James McPake in a 4-2 home defeat to
Southampton. In a miserable season for the Sky Blues he made a
further substitute appearance in a home defeat to Ipswich in February
before his first start in the final game of the season that saw the
Premiership-bound Saints complete the double 4-0.
Three appearances
followed in 2012-13 – all in winning teams – including a 3-2
League Cup victory over Birmingham City but it wasn't until the
arrival of Steven Pressley that he became a regular in the first
team, either as a full-back or in his preferred central defensive
position. Since then he has partnered a wide variety of centre-halves
including Andy Webster, Reda Johnson, Matthew Pennington, Aaron
Martin, Jordan Turnbull, Rod McDonald and Dom Hyam. He missed most
of the exciting 2015-16 season through injury but bounced back to
captain the team through the majority of 2016-17 including lifting
the Checkatrade Trophy at Wembley. Last season injury struck again
and he missed quite a few games in the run-in but returned to star in
the play-off game at Meadow Lane and then scored the stunning first
goal in the play-off final at Wembley. City fans will also remember
his goal in the FA Cup victory over Premiership Stoke City last
season and his winning goal against Barnsley this campaign.
Readers are always
reminding me of a former player who has scored against the Sky Blues
but as I have always responded, there are far more ex-players who
don't score against us. This season the only former players to net
against the Sky Blues have been Ruben Lameiras, two goals for
Plymouth, and Nathan Delfouneso of Blackpool, and yet there are a
good number of our former players in League One. Last Saturday two
Coventry players, Amadou Bakayoko and Jordy Hiwula, scored against
their former club, Walsall. Jordy had already scored against another
of his former clubs, Bradford City, in the 4-2 win in October. It set
me thinking about other City players scoring against their old clubs.
It's not a common occurrence in recent years as City have fielded
young sides with a large number of homegrown players but I remember
Stuart Beavon scoring against Wycombe, Leon Clarke against former
clubs Scunthorpe and Swindon and Gary McSheffrey against Birmingham
and Leeds in his second spell at the club. Leon Mckenzie, Richard
Wood and Clinton Morrison all scored against their former clubs.
Going further back Ernie Hunt always seemed to score against his
former club Everton, including the famous donkey kick and Terry
Gibson, David Speedie and Neil Martin delivered against their former
clubs. No City players have scored a hatrick against a former club
but several have scored two in a game including Hunt (twice), Martin
(twice), Barry Powell (v Wolves) and Bobby McDonald (v Aston Villa).
Going back to the Walsall game I think it might be the first time
that two Coventry players have scored against their old club in the
same game.
Ron Healey was the
first ever loan player to play for Coventry City in 1971-72 season.
It's just come to my attention that the former Manchester City and
Cardiff goalkeeper passed away last summer, aged 65. In December 1971
regular goalkeeper Bill Glazier suffered a thigh muscle injury and
reserve 'keeper Eric McManus stood in for a 2-0 defeat at Highbury
but in the following game, a 1-1 home draw with Chelsea Eric made a
bad error and conceded a soft goal. It would be the end of Eric's
career at Highfield Road and he was released the following summer,
joining Notts County. Noel Cantwell approached his best friend in
football, Malcolm Allison, and 19-year-old Healey arrived from
Manchester City on a month's loan. He had made nine appearances for
Man City as understudy to Joe Corrigan and went straight into City's
team at Old Trafford on 27th December. United were four points clear
at the top of the league but with a confident Healey making an early
save, City took a two goal lead before United came back to draw.
Healey played two further games before Glazier was fit, keeping a
clean sheet in a 1-0 home win over Southampton but letting in four as
City lost 4-2 at Newcastle. Healey returned to Maine Road where he
made 27 further appearances over three seasons before joining Cardiff
for whom he played almost 250 games and won two caps for the Republic
of Ireland.
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