Coventry City's defeat at Luton on Tuesday evening saw the Sky Blues punished yet again for indiscipline. Whilst many believe that Kyle McFadzean didn't handle the ball on the goal-line three minutes before half-time, the referee sent off the defender and awarded the home side a penalty from which they duly scored.
Kyle became the 150th City player to be sent off since World War Two and joined an elite group of players to receive a red card three times. He received his marching orders at Rotherham last season and earlier this season for two yellow cards at Reading.
The previous members of the 'Three Red Cards' club are:
Dion Dublin, Paul Williams, David Thompson, Youssef Safri, Michael Doyle and Carl Baker.
'Fadz's' red card was the sixth for a Coventry player this campaign (five in the league, 1 in the League Cup) and we are now one card shy of the club record of seven in a season. The current record was set in the first two seasons after relegation from the Premiership (2001-02 and 2002-03) both saw seven red cards (all in the league).
The culprits back then were:
2001-02: Lee Hughes (2), Youssef Safri (2), David Thompson, Marc Edworthy and Jay Bothroyd.
2002-03: Calum Davenport, Safri, Craig Hignett, Dean Gordon, Gary Caldwell, Gary McSheffrey and Youssef Chippo.
Penalties conceded-wise we are heading for a new club record. Tuesday night's penalty was the eleventh conceded (10 League, 1 League Cup) and all 11 have been successfully converted by the opposition. The record for spot-kicks conceded in a season is 12 in 2013-14 season in League One and Joe Murphy set a record himself by saving five of them.
One record equalled on Tuesday night was the most penalties converted by the opposition in a season. The 11th, scored by Luton's Elijah Adebayo, matches the 1979-80 season when the Sky Blues conceded 11 and all were successfully converted.
I looked at the effect of those penalties on the final score of the relevant games. In 1979-80 only three results would have changed, a loss at Tottenham would have been a victory and defeats v Man United and Aston Villa would have been draws. The extra four points (there were only two points for a win in those days) would have lifted the team from 15th to 10th in the final table.
This season four league results would have been different if the penalties had not been awarded: two defeats (Watford and Forest) would have been draws, and two draws (Norwich and Birmingham) would have been victories. Theoretically, the penalties conceded made the difference of six points, and without them the team would now be in relative mid-table safety with 44 points. They also wouldn't have been eliminated from the League Cup at Gillingham!
Nigel Vines was in touch this week. His first game was a 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday at Highfield Road. He remembers it was the game in which City's Roy Barry broke his leg. He asked if I could tell him the year. It was March 1970 and happened early in the game when Roy made a somewhat reckless challenge with Wednesday's Tommy Craig and came off worst. Many fans heard the crack of the bone and knew immediately it was serious. Referee Clive Thomas booked Roy as he was being put on a stretcher to leave the pitch. Roy had only joined the Sky Blues from Dunfermline in the previous October and had had a massive effect on City's form – they lost only three league games that he started before his tragic injury. After the Wednesday game City's route to European qualification wasn't affected and they achieved the club's highest ever finish, sixth. Roy's recovery was long and hard and he didn't play first team football again until the final game of the following season missing the European campaign that he had helped achieve.
Nigel also pointed out that in my piece last week about City games where they finished with nine or ten men I didn't mention the 3-3 draw with Portsmouth last year at Fratton Park after being reduced to 9 men. Apologies for that omission.
If you have a question about Coventry City's history please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter @clarriebourton
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