Coventry City fans have endured the definitive roller coaster of emotions in the last week. On Friday night their team put on a sparkling display against Peterborough at the CBS Arena to secure their fifth home win of the season and retain their 100% home record since the return to Coventry with a 3-0 victory. Five days later they travelled to Luton and were on the wrong side of a 5-0 thrashing with the same eleven players who had performed so superbly on Friday looking a shadow of their former selves.
On Friday they briefly went top of the Championship, for the first time since 2001, until West Brom's late winner over QPR inched the Baggies one point ahead of the Sky Blues. On Wednesday the team went down to the biggest league defeat since 2006 when Micky Adams' team lost 5-0 at West Brom. The Baggies led 3-0 at the break with goals from Diomansy Kamara (2) and Jason Koumas before Kevin Phillips and Paul Robinson made it 5-0. Adams' side went into the game in 10th place, unbeaten in five games but the defeat put the skids under the team, they failed to win in eight games including an FA Cup exit to lower status Bristol City and Micky was given the sack. Since that dreadful day at the Hawthorns City have suffered three five-goal Cup defeats:
2007-08 West Brom (home) FA Cup (0-5)
2012-13 Arsenal (away) League Cup (1-6)
2016-17 Norwich (away) League Cup (1-6)
The first half at Kenilworth Road was particularly horrific with City shipping four goals. This last occurred at Plymouth in 2008-09 when the home side led 4-0 by the 37th minute before Chris Coleman's side shored up the defence and kept a clean sheet in the second half. City did ship four first half goals against Crystal Palace in a 2-4 home defeat during the dreadful run under Micky Adams mentioned above but one has to go back to 1991-92 for the previous instance of a 4-0 half-time scoreline when Man United scored all their goals in a 4-0 win before the break. Since 2000 City have had a 4-0 half-time lead themselves on seven occasions, the last time at Cheltenham in the 6-1 victory in League Two in 2018.
To finish on a brighter note I have to mention the crowd at the Peterborough game. The noise was something to behold and was a big influence on the result. The attendance was 20,652 and included 1,638 visiting fans, making the home following 19,014. I've checked the records and that total of City fans has only been exceeded twice in night league games since the move to the Ricoh in 2005.
The highest by far is the Gillingham game in 2014 when a crowd of 27,306 (26,811 home fans) was present with the second highest for the Birmingham game in 2006 (27,212 – 21,841 home fans). Lets hope Wednesday's hammering at Luton doesn't put the crowds off from coming today to see the Fulham game. Those fans who stay away are missing some very special football at the moment and the Luton game was a blip in an otherwise good start to the season.
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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