Jim's column 12.9.2020

 

The 2020-21 football league season starts today with Coventry City playing their first game in the Championship after eight years in the lower leagues. Most fans agree it’s going to be hard for the team to compete against clubs who have enormous budgets and Premiership parachute money however we must have faith in Mark Robins’ management and recruitment to believe that the Sky Blues will make a good fist of their first season back.

The fans of any club winning promotion need to be patient and Marks achievements  in winning a double promotion for Coventry City must be borne in mind. Personally, I would be happy to finish above the relegation three this season and consolidate a position in the higher league.

Today the Sky Blues are at Bristol City’s Ashton Gate for a game which will evoke bad memories of the 2011-12 relegation season for City fans. It was on a miserably wet Easter Monday that City’s relegation was all but confirmed with a defeat to the only side they could realistically catch. Bristol were relegated the following season and we had that famous 5-4 victory over them at Sixfields.

The competitive season kicked off last Saturday with a 1-0 League Cup win at MK Dons thanks to a goal from debutant Tyler Walker who came off the bench to clinch the tie. Debutant scorers off the bench are not that common (Conor Chaplin was the last at Oxford two years ago) and extremely rare in the League Cup with Walker only the second City player to achieve the feat. Robbie Simpson was the first in a home win over Notts County in 2007. Gervane Kastaneer scored on his league debut as a substitute against Bristol Rovers last season but he had already appeared in a League Cup game.

The win at Milton Keynes was the club's first away win in the competition since 2012 when a late penalty from kevin Kilbane saw off Dagenham and Redbridge 1-0. Before Saturday City had played six away games in the competition without progressing:

2012-13 Arsenal (Premier) lost 1-6

2013-14 Leyton Orient (League 1) lost 2-3

2015-16 Rochdale (League 1) drew 1-1 (lost on penalties)

2016-17 Norwich (Championship) lost 1-6

2018-19 Oxford (League 1) lost 0-2

2019-20 Watford (Premier) lost 0-3

Before the Dagenham victory you have to go back to 2007 and that memorable win at Old Trafford for the previous away win.

Declan Drysdale, making only his second senior start, fell foul of the referee last week and was, unluckily in my opinion, given his marching orders. Declan was the eleventh City player to see red in the competition and the first since Carl Baker at Leyton orient in 2013. He joins some famous City players to have been sent off in the competition including Steve Ogrizovic, Davis Speedie, Roy Wegerle, Terry Gibson and Jimmy Holmes.

Thanks to Paul O'Connor for pointing out that it was the first time that City had won a game after having a man sent off when the scores were level since 2004. Then, at Cardiff City, Peter Clarke got his marching orders after just 24 seconds of the game (the fastest red card in the club's history). City's ten men won the game thanks to a Gary McSheffrey penalty in the second half to record a fourth successive away win under Eric Black.