The Sky Blues recorded their 12th 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.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment