Coventry City's defensive woes continued last weekend with a 4-2 defeat at home to Norwich City with the first three opposition goals coming in a twelve minute spell in the first half. For the second home game running Mark Robins' team conceded four goals, a rare occurrence in the club's history. I've checked back and it is only the sixth time a City side has shipped four or more goals in successive home games.
The last time was ten years ago in the first two 'home' games at Northampton's Sixfields Stadium. The opening home game saw City win a 5-4 thriller after having a three-goal lead pegged back before Billy Daniels netted a late winner. Two weeks later Preston were the visitors and Steven Pressley's side required a 94th minute equaliser from substitute Matthieu Manset (his only goal for the club) to make it 4-4.
You have to go back to the 1980s for the previous occurrence; specifically that disastrous slump in the spring of 1984 when Bobby Gould's team, sixth in Division One on New Years Day went 13 games without a win and ended up having to win their final game to stay up. During that run Tottenham won 4-2 at Highfield Road and a week later Arsenal won 4-1. Poor old Perry Suckling, City's young goalkeeper thrown into the side after Gould lost confidence in Raddy Avramovic, conceded 41 goals in 15 games including eight at Southampton.
In December 1964 City suffered a humbling 8-1 defeat to Leicester City in the League Cup, mainly down to losing centre half and captain George Curtis to injury before half-time. With no substitutes allowed in those days (they were introduced the following season) City were ripped apart by the Foxes. Four days later and still without Curtis, Rotherham came to Highfield Road and raced into a 4-0 lead. City pulled three goals back but the Millers were 5-3 victors.
The two earlier instances were in 1957 (another miserable season that ended with City demoted to the new Fourth Division) when Colchester (4-2) and Plymouth (4-1) were successive winners at Highfield Road, and in 1919 when City, new to the Football League, lost the first two home games to Tottenham (5-0) and Leeds City (4-0).
It's sad to report the death of former City goalkeeper Peter Thomas after a short illness. Peter, who was 78, died surrounded by his family in Tramore, Ireland
Coventry born Peter joined Coventry City as a goalkeeper from his work’s team G.E.C. in the close season of 1965. Bill Glazier was recovering from a broken leg and Jimmy Hill needed a deputy for Bob Wesson. Peter made 21 appearances for the reserves in 1965-66 but with Glazier back Peter was allowed to go to Irish club Waterford on loan in August 1966. In early October Peter, who at 5' 10” was on the small side for a goalkeeper but was an excellent shotstopper, was recalled to Coventry following Wesson's sale to Walsall.
Just over a month later an injury to Glazier gave Peter his first team chance and he donned the green jersey for the home game with Cardiff City. Peter's debut was largely overlooked by the media as the attention was on the recall of star man Ian Gibson following a major bust up between the player and Jimmy Hill. 'Gibbo' had been out of the team for seven games but celebrated his return with a virtuouso performance and two goals in a 3-2 victory. Peter had a relatively quiet game but was beaten by two goals in the last two minutes by a young striker called John Toshack. A young Mick Coop also made his Sky Blues debut that day. At
Three days Peter played in a first team friendly against Scottish club Morton – City won 3-2 - but Glazier returned for league action the following Saturday and Peter was back in the reserves. The Cardiff game will be remembered as the start of a 25-game unbeaten run which took the Sky Blues to the First Division for the first time.
Two months later Peter was allowed to sign permanently for Waterford where he went on to have a long and successful career. In 1968 Waterford qualified for the European Cup and were drawn against Manchester United in the First Round. United won the first leg 3-1 at Landsdown Road, Dublin but Peter saved a Denis Law penalty. United ran riot in the second leg, winning 7-1, but newspaper reports praised Peter for keeping the score in single figures!
Peter took up Irish citizenship in the early 70s and won international honours, appearing four times for the League of Ireland XI and gaining two full Republic of Ireland caps. He kept a clean sheet in his international debut in 1973 against Poland but had to miss the second half due to a pulled stomach muscle. His other cap was against the World champions Brazil at the Maracana Stadium in 1974. Eire lost 2-1 with Rivellino scoring the winner. Coventry's Jimmy Holmes also appeared in the game.
At Waterford he played almost 600 games and won every honour in the domestic game including five League of Ireland championship medals. Later he joined Galway United, Drogheda and for a short spell managed Waterford and coached Tramore FC. In the 1970s he spent several summers playing in the USA with Washington Diplomats, Utah Golden Spikers, Las Vegas Quicksilvers and Sacramento Gold.
In the Irish press there have been fulsome tributes to 'Tommo' as he was known in Irish football and he is described as 'the best goalkeeper to grace League of Ireland football'. RIP Peter.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment