Coventry City’s excellent run of four victories came to an end at Reading last Saturday with the Royals grabbing a fortuitous 1-0 victory. The goal also ended Ben Wilson’s similar run of clean sheets. Amadou Mbengue’s 57th minute goal was the first goal conceded by Wilson for 427 minutes - since Blackpool’s Jerry Yates 80th minute winner at the CBS Arena.
Wilson bettered his run from earlier in the season when he kept a clean sheet for 384 minutes and his latest run is the fourth longest in league games in the club’s history. 1930s goalkeeper Horace Pearson holds the record (608 minutes) with Steve Ogrizovic (572) in second place for his run in the Don Howe era in 1992. Reice Charles-Cook (445) is third but if cup games are included his minutes without conceding increases to 580 minutes. That was seven years ago and Reice’s career has gone downhill since. After being a virtual ever present in 2015-16 he lost his place to Lee Burge in 2017 and sat on the bench at the EFL Trophy final. That summer the former Arsenal academy player left for Swindon and subsequently played for Shrewsbury and Macclesfield before dropping into non-league with Boreham Wood in 2020. He has bobbed around various south east clubs and is currently with Bromley in the National League. In 2021 he won his first cap for Grenada.
Several readers asked me which Coventry City player was the last to play at the World Cup finals. The answer is Stern John for Trinidad & Tobago in 2006. John played in all three group games, including against England. He was the seventh Coventry player to appear in the finals, the others being Tommy Hutchison (1974), Phil Babb (1994), Roy Wegerle (1994), Viorel Moldovan (1998), Gary Bremen (2002) and Magnus Hedman (2002). Stern won 32 international caps whilst at Coventry between 2004-07.
Mark Smith asked if any former Coventry City players had played in a World Cup final. The answer is no, however a former City manager, George Raynor, managed Sweden to the 1958 final which they lost 5-2 to Brazil. Raynor, who had taken Sweden to the Olympic title in 1948 and third place at the 1950 World Cup, had been brought to Highfield Road as assistant to manager Jesse Carver in 1955. When Carver was lured back to Italy after just six months, Raynor took over. Sadly his progressive tactics weren't suited to Division Three South and after being demoted to coach a year later he left the club and within two years was a national hero in Sweden for his achievements.
Glenn Hancock contacted me regarding his father-in-law Joe Davis. Joe was captain of Bristol Rovers when, in December 1963, Rovers beat the Sky Blues 2-1 in a FA Cup second round tie at Highfield Road. Glenn understood that Tv cameras were present that day and wondered if I had access to the film of the game. Dean Nelson helped me out by telling me that the cameras were there to record some excerpts for an episode of the BBC police drama, Z Cars which was aired about a year later. The cup result was a shock as City were leaders of Division Three at the time whilst Rovers were in the bottom half of the same division and had lost the league game between the clubs 4-2 two weeks earlier. Geoff Bradford and Harold Jarman scored the visitor's goals and Ken Hale got a late consolation in front of over 26,000.
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