Jim's column 25.2.23

The Sky Blues recorded their 12^th league victory of the season at Rotherham last Saturday with goals from Jamie Allen and Viktor Gyokeres giving them a 2-0 win. It was pointed out to me that in all twelve wins this season the team have kept a clean sheet – a staggering statistic and one that supports the theory that City have improved the defensive issues which marred the first season back in the Championship (2020-21).

Before today's game City had conceded 33 goals in 32 games. Only three sides had conceded less goals this season – the top two, Burnley (28) and Sheffield United (30), and Luton (32). Let's not forget that seven of those goals were conceded in two crazy home games against Swansea (3-3) and Norwich (2-4). 

In 2020-21 City conceded 61 goals then 59 last season. This season barring a monumental collapse they should comfortably improve on those figures. Yet we still hear fans bemoaning the sale of Dominic Hyam and saying it weakened the defence, a theory I don't agree with. The form of Kyle McFadzean has been the biggest factor, in 22 games when Fadz has played the team have conceded 17 goals, in the 10 games when he has been absent they have conceded 16.

Saturday's victory in South Yorkshire makes it 15 clean sheets for the season (all with Ben Wilson in goal). The club record is 18, set in 1938-39 and equalled in 1958-59. The final season before the outbreak of the war saw City finish fourth in the old Second Division for the second year running. The days of the prolific scoring of Clarrie Bourton were over and manager Harry Storer adopted more cautious and defensive tactics. The season consisted of 42 games and the experienced Bill Morgan played in 41 games with 17 clean sheets with the more junior Alf Wood standing in for a 1-0 home win over Sheffield Wednesday. Twenty years later City kept 18 shut-outs from 46 games on the way to promotion from the old Division Four. Manager Billy Frith used four goalkeepers in the season and their records were as follows:

Jim Sanders 10 games 4 clean sheets

Graham Spratt 1 game 0 clean sheets 

Alf Wood 10 games 5 clean sheets 

Arthur Lightening 25 games 9 clean sheets

Wood was the club's coach at the time and called out of retirement to play following Sanders breaking his leg. Neither Sanders, Spratt nor Wood played league football after this season.

Since 1959 the best clean sheet record has been in 1970-71 when they kept 17 (Glazier 16, McManus 1). There were 16 shut-outs in seasons 2001-02, 2015-16 and 2017-18. 

Ben Wilson is closing in on the club record by a goalkeeper. Morgan holds the record with 17, followed by Bill Glazier with 16 in 1970-71 and Ben is now level on 15 with Glazier (1969-70), Steve Ogrizovic (1987-88), Morgan (1937-38) and Horace Pearson (1934-35). 

I promised to mention a few more City caretaker managers this week. 

2002 After Don Howe in 1992 we have had Steve Ogrizovic and Trevor Peake as joint caretakers for the final game of the 2001-02 season after Roland Nilsson was sacked.

2004 In May 2004 Steve Ogrizovic stepped up again following Eric Black's departure but didn't manage a game after Peter Reid was appointed and took charge for the final game of the season.

2005 In January 2005 Assistant Manager Adrian Heath stepped up following Reid's sacking. Heath took charge for a 3-0 FA Cup win over Crewe and a 2-3 loss at Ipswich before Micky Adams arrived as new boss.

2007 Two years later Heath was given the caretaker role again after Adams was sacked. Adrian took charge for five games. He won one, drew one and lost three before Iain Dowie arrived as the new man in charge.

Jim's column 18.2.23

Two home games in four days have given Coventry City fans plenty of talking points and the Sky Blues have gathered four points to push them three places up the table. The Luton game saw the visitors net a goal in 37 seconds with defender Tom Lockyer taking advantage of some sloppy defending to put the Hatters ahead. I was thinking it was the fastest goal by an away side at the CBS Arena but after checking I can cofirm that it is the second fastest after Gregor Rasiak's 27-second goal for Reading in October 2009. Rasiak's effort set up the Royals for a 3-1 win with the veteran Pole scoring a second after Jobi McAnuff had scored – Freddy Eastwood scored a consolation for City. 

Rasiak loved playing the Sky Blues – in six starts against them he scored seven goals, for Southampton, Derby, Watford and Reading, and was never on the losing side.

The four fastest goals by visiting players since the move to the Arena in 2005 are:

27 seconds Rasiak (Reading) 2009-10

37 seconds Tom Lockyer (Luton) 2022-23

53 seconds Matt Rhead (Lincoln) 2017-18

59 seconds Marc Richards (Northampton (FLT)) 2016-17

There were faster away scorers in the Highfield Road days with the quickest ever being Aston Villa's Dwight Yorke's 13-second effort in Villa's 3-0 win in 1995. The fastest City goal at the CBS Arena was Daniel Agyei's 20-second goal in a EFL Trophy game with Northampton in 2016. Agyei, who was on loan from Burnley, had scored on his debut for the club at Bradford and in total scored five goals in 19 appearances before returning to Burnley in January 2017. Agyei is currently playing for Crewe in League Two. The fastest City league scorer at the Arena is Clinton Morrison who netted in 37 seconds in a 2-2 draw with Ipswich in 2008-09.

Last week I wrote about Bob Dennison, City's caretaker manager in 1972 following the departure of Noel Cantwell. Since World War Two there have been 16 occasions when Coventry City were under 'caretaker' management. The first six instances were in the last century:

1947 Following the death of manager Dick Bayliss, the chairman Frank Stringer took over team matters for 15 games until the end of the season when Billy Frith was appointed.

1948 Frith was sacked in November 1948 and chairman George Jones took over for three games until Harry Storer arrived as manager.

1953 Storer's six-year reign ended in November 1953 and chairman Jones took over temporarily for ten games until new boss Jack Fairbrother took the reins.

1954 Fairbrother stood down in November 1954 after the death of his wife in a domestic accident (City were fourth in Division Three South at the time). Chief Scout and former player Charlie Elliott took over and managed the team for 33 games until the end of the season.

                                           Charlie Elliott as a player in the 1930s

1972 Bob Dennison took over after the sacking of Noel Cantwell (see last week's column).

1992 Terry Butcher was sacked in January 1992 and his assistant Don Howe was appointed caretaker. Don managed to keep the Sky Blues up despite a last day defeat at Villa Park. He was never officially given the manager's role and at the end of the season he turned down the offer of a co-manager role with Bobby Gould.

                                           Don Howe

Next week I will cover some of the caretaker managers from this century.

Jim's column 11.2.23

Regular reader Keith Ballantyne watches the BBC Quiz show Pointless and alerted me to last week's show where the final featured a question on Coventry City. The finalists were asked to name Coventry City managers from 1919 and the two female contestants named Gordon Strachan and (incorrectly) Steve Bruce. Strachan wasn't a pointless answer (four people had named him) but there were numerous pointless answers including Terry Butcher, Chris Coleman and Joe Mercer. Keith tells me that his immediate thought for the most obscure answer was Bob Dennison and then wondered what Bob's record had been during his brief spell as Caretaker Manager in 1972.

Bob was City's chief scout under manager Noel Cantwell when, in March 1972, chairman Derrick Robins sacked Cantwell after four and half years in charge. The Sky Blues had suffered a shock FA Cup defeat at home to Hull City and lay 18^th in Division One, five points off the relegation zone. Robins asked Dennison to take the manager's role on a caretaker basis which was expected to be until the end of the season. His first game in charge was a home game with West Brom and ended in a 2-0 defeat and four days later there was a 1-1 home draw with West Ham. By this time the team had gone eight league games without a win and a trip to bottom club Nottingham Forest ended in an embarrassing 4-0 loss. Defeats at Tottenham (0-1) on Good Friday and at home to Manchester United (2-3) the following day set the alarm bells ringing and left City just two points above the relegation zone as their rivals picked up valuable points.

                              Bob Dennison with son Richard

On Easter Tuesday City's poor run finally ended with a thumping 4-1 home win over Everton with goals from Ernie Hunt (2) Willie Carr and Chris Chilton. A 1-0 win at Huddersfield a week later virtually ensured safety and left the Terriers on the brink of relegation. In the final four games the Sky Blues managed a good home win over Sheffield United, a draw with Manchester City which effectively ended the Blues' title hopes and there were defeats to Leicester and Arsenal. Bob, who had said from the outset that he wasn't interested in the job long term, ended with an unspectacular record of played 12, three wins, two draws and seven defeats. We will never know whether City would have been relegated if Cantwell had been still at the helm but Dennison ensured the club were safe well before the end of the season.

Whilst he was in charge there was the Brian Clough saga with chairman Robins convinced Clough would leave Derby, despite the Rams being close to lifting the League trophy. Unfortunately Clough used City to increase his package at the Baseball Ground and probably had little intention of coming to Highfield Road.

Dennison, who played for Newcastle, Forest and Fulham before World War Two and Northampton for three seasons after 1945, was an experienced manager before he joined City as Chief Scout in 1967. He had been elevated to manager at Northampton in 1948 after his playing days were over and managed the Cobblers for six years. In 1954 Middlesbrough, just relegated from the First Division, lured him to the North East but in nine seasons he was unable to take them back up but did unearth some outstanding players including the goalscorer extraordinaire Brian Clough. In 1962 he signed Ian Gibson from Bradford Park Avenue, a player that went on to play a key part in the Sky Blues history. Prior to coming to Coventry he had managed non-league Hereford United for four years. After his caretaker role in 1972 he went back to scouting before retiring in 1978. His son Richard was assistant secretary at the club from 1969-76. Bob died in 1996 at the age of 84.

Coventry have had numerous caretaker managers in their history including Don Howe, Steve Ogrizovic, Adrian Heath and Lee Carsley. There have been periods also when there has been no manager and team affairs were handled by the chairman at the time or a director. This was the case in 1928 after the departure of James Kerr, in 1947 following the death of Dick Bayliss and in 1953 between Harry Storer leaving and Jack Fairbrother arriving. Over the next few weeks I will attempt to cover the various caretaker managers in the club's history.