Jim's column 12.11.22

The Sky Blues' 2-0 home win over Wigan Athletic on Wednesday evening made it three wins in a row with no goals conceded following the earlier victories over Blackburn and Watford. That's the second time this season that the team have achieved that feat and the six wins in eight have lifted the Sky Blues from the foot of the table to 12th position in the Championship, and they still have games in hand. It's been an incredible turnround after the negativity back in the first few weeks of the season. The Blackpool home defeat sticks out like a sore thumb in the astonishing run although there were strong mitigating circumstances with a good number of the squad struck down with a virus but it did mean the Sky Blues lost after leading at home for the first time since March 2021. That was when Middlesbrough won 2-1 at St Andrews after City led through an early own goal. It last happened at the CBS Arena against Scunthorpe United on the opening day of the 2018-19 season. Tony Andreu put City ahead just after half-time but goals from Stephen Humphrys and Andy Dales (on his debut) gave the Irons the points. How Coventry and Scunthorpe's fortunes have diverged in the intervening four years. Before today's games the Sky Blues were 32nd in the football pyramid whilst the Irons were 113th (21st in the National League).

City's defence has tightened boundlessly with nine clean sheets in 12 games (including a new club record of five consecutive shut-outs away from home). The only goals conceded have been to Burnley, Rotherham (2) and Blackpool (2) and only Preston (16) have conceded less than City's 18 in the Championship this season.

The recent away form has been impressive with three wins preceded by three draws in an unbeaten run of six – the best run since the League One title season when they were unbeaten for the final eight away games (that run including seven wins). The last time City won three consecutive away games without conceding was in early 2004 under Eric Black when Nottingham Forest (1-0), Wimbledon (3-0) and Cardiff (1-0) were defeated. The only other occasion was in the old Second Division in 1938-39.

Few City fans recognised a former Sky Blue loanee, Jamie Jones, playing in goal for Wigan on Tuesday night. Jamie, now 33 years old, played four games for City on loan from Preston in 2014 under Steven Pressley. Jamie, a scouser who hailed from Kirkby (the same part of Liverpool as Dennis Mortimer), started his career at Everton before joining Leyton Orient. Orient just missed out on promotion to the Championship in 2013-14 and he earned a move to Preston where he stayed just one season. After two seasons at Stevenage he joined Wigan in 2017 and has played over 100 games for them and is current understudy to Ben Amos. In 2015 he made his Sky Blues debut in a 0-0 draw at Yeovil, replacing Ryan Allsop, and appeared in goal in the final four league games of the Pressley regime. After Pressley was sacked following a 2-2 draw at Bramall Lane Jamie left the club and moved to Rochdale on loan.

                  Jamie Jones (left) with Jim O'Brien in 2015

Keith Reay asked an interesting question regarding a television programme from the early 1990s. He remembers the fictional programme about a female football manager which featured a City away game at QPR in one episode. He remembers City playing in a yellow away kit sponsored by Peugeot, but couldn't remember the name of the television programme.

It was called The Manageress and starred Cherie Lunghi as the manageress and the late Warren Clarke as the chairman. I suspect the game that was featured was the Boxing Day game at Loftus Road in 1989 (picture shown featuring Brian Borrows and QPR's Andy Sinton) which ended in a 1-0 defeat for the Sky Blues.