Jim's column 22.4.23

A thrilling few days in the Championship saw the teams chasing the four play-off places concertina after some surprising results. Luton and Middlesbrough have tied up third and fourth places but the race for the two remaining places still has seven clubs contesting for them with two others, Watford and Swansea, not mathematically out of the picture. It's crazy to think that with only three games remaining the Sky Blues could finish anywhere from fifth place to thirteenth.

The Sky Blues' dramatic finish at Blackburn kept them in the hunt for a play-off place and the team now have two home games to confirm their credentials for a top six finish. Whatever the outcome the team have performed beyond all expectations to still be in the race at this stage. One factor in the success has been the away form since February. Since losing at West Brom on 3^rd February they are unbeaten in eight away games with four wins and four draws. This is the best unbeaten away run since 2020 when Mark Robins' team were unbeaten in eight away games from December through till the start of lockdown in March. You have to go back to 1988 for a longer run – John Sillett's team went ten away games unbeaten. The club record is 12, set by Jimmy Hill's promotion team in 1966-67.

Ben Wilson has to get a mention this week. Not only has he set a new club record for the number of clean sheets (currently 19) but also for his unbelievable equalising goal at Ewood Park on Wednesday evening. He became only the second Coventry goalkeeper to score a goal in a competitive game – the other was Steve Ogrizovic at Hillsborough in 1986. Ben's goal, nudged home at close range from a stunning Hamer corner, was very different to Oggy's 80-yard punt which caught the wind and bounced over Wednesday 'keeper Martin Hodge, but both goals earned their scorers a place in the club's history.

The 19th clean sheet at Loftus Road beat the club record for a season set by Harry Storer's mean defence in 1938-39 and equalled by Billy Frith's Division Four promotion team in 1958-59. The 1939 record was however set in a 42-game season.

Viktor Gyokeres' goals at QPR took him to 20 league goals for the season – the first City player to reach this target since Marc McNulty in the League Two promotion season in 2017-18. Gyokeres joins an elite list of City strikers to reach 20 goals in a Sky Blue shirt over the last 50 years. Bobby Gould was the last Coventry player to score 20 goals in tier two, in the 1966-67 promotion season, since then the following have reached 20.

                                  Bobby Gould

1977-78 Ian Wallace (Division One) 21 goals in 41 games

2013-14 Callum Wilson (League One) 21 goals in 37 games

2017-18 Marc McNulty (League Two) 23 goals in 40 games (plus 2 subs)

2022-23 Viktor Gyokeres (Championship) 20 goals in 41 games (plus 2 subs)

When you consider the top City strikers who have donned the Sky Blue shirt in the period, for example Cyrille Regis, Terry Gibson, Dion Dublin, Gary McSheffrey, Viktor's performance is exceptional. He has now scored 40 league goals for the club a total which brings him level with Bobby Gould and Neil Martin in the all-time table of the club's leading scorers. Amazingly two more goals will lift him into the all-time top twenty.

I heard recently that former Coventry City 1960s youth team player Malcolm Knox had died in New Zealand. Malcolm came from Willenhall and attended Caludon Castle school and was signed as an apprentice by the club around 1963. According to Trevor Gould who was a year below Malcolm at school, Malcolm was a left back but had a strong right foot. He played in the FA Youth Cup team in 1965-66 alongside Mick Coop, Willie Carr and Pat Morrissey.

Jim's column 8.4.2023

The Sky Blues nine-match unbeaten run came a shuddering halt last Saturday against an impressive Stoke City team. The run which had taken the team to the verge of the play-off zone, consisted of five wins (three of them away) and four draws. It's the best unbeaten league run since the 2019-20 League One title-winning campaign when the Sky Blues were unbeaten in 14 games at the point the season was suspended because of the lockdown. That run was the best since 1967 when Jimmy Hill's side went 25 league games without defeat on their way to lifting the old Second Division title.

The size of the defeat was worrying – the worst home defeat since Blackburn won by the same scoreline at St Andrews early in the 2020-21 season and the heaviest at the CBS Arena since Yeovil won there 6-2 almost five years ago to the day. City and Yeovil's fortunes have diverged incredibly since that game on Easter Monday 2018. Yeovil failed to win any of their last eight games whilst it was a wake-up call for Coventry and they were promoted via the play-offs. The following season Yeovil were relegated from League Two and currently stand 21^st in the National League, five points away from safety and look likely to be relegated to National League South. In April 2018 there were 10 places between the clubs now there are 85.

The result did little to spoil Legends Day which took place for the 15^th time. Everyone who attended had a great time and although we had two former players pull out on the morning due to Covid there was an excellent turn out. We have lost a good number of the older CCFPA members in the last three years and it is heartening to see the younger generation coming more to the fore including Max Biamou, Reda Johnson and Gary McSheffrey. 1980s goal machine Terry Gibson came for the first time and made a big impression on supporters. There are many pictures of a great day at www.ccfpa.co.uk

Saturday's attendance of 23,625 was the largest home gate of the season and took the season's average to 19,675 which is a small increase on last season's final average. With home games against Watford and Birmingham still to come I'm sure the final figure will surpass last season's average attendance.

I've just discovered that former Coventry City coach Colin Dobson passed away, aged 82, in February. Colin, who hailed from Teeside, joined Sheffield Wednesday from school and made almost 200 games for the Owls between 1961-66. An inside-forward, the equivalent of the number 10 in the modern game, Colin scored 53 goals and won two England under 23 caps whilst at Hillsborough.

                                            Colin Dobson in the early 1990s

Despite being a virtual ever present in the 1965-66 season he was omitted from Wednesday's team for the FA Cup final which they lost 3-2 to Everton. This may have been behind his move to Huddersfield that summer and he went on to play 175 games for the Terriers, helping them to win promotion to the First Division in 1970. He came up against the Sky Blues in 1966-67 and scored Town's first goal in the 3-1 defeat of City at Leeds Road in November 1966 – City's last defeat that season as they powered to the Second Division title.

After leaving Huddersfield in 1971 Colin moved to Bristol Rovers and helped them win promotion from Division Three in 1974 before hanging up his boots in 1976. He joined Coventry City as youth team coach in 1977 and had five successful years aiding in the development of some outstanding youngsters including Mark Hateley, Danny Thomas and Tom English. Colin worked under managers Gordon Milne and Dave Sexton and was promoted to first team coach under Sexton but left in 1983. John Sillett brought him back to work with the youths again in 1990 but he left in 1992. Peter Hormantschuk remembers him as 'a great coach and a true gentleman'.

His coaching career took him to the Middle East where he worked in Bahrain, Qatar and Oman as well as youth coach at Sporting Lisbon, Port Vale and Aston Villa. In later years he turned to scouting with Stoke City, where he was credited for discovering Ben Foster, and Watford.

Jim's column 1.4.23

It is sad to report the death of former Coventry City centre-half Tony Knapp at the age of 86. In 1967 Tony had the onerous task of replacing City legend George Curtis after the iconic club captain had suffered a broken leg at Nottingham Forest in the club's second game in the top flight. Manager Jimmy Hill moved quickly to find an emergency replacement and signed Tony from Southampton for £25,000 in time to make his debut in City's first home game in Division 1 against Sheffield United. His Highfield Road career lasted only 12 games until Noel Cantwell, Hill's replacement as manager, arrived and quickly recognised Maurice Setters as Curtis's medium term replacement.

Tony's debut was a 2-2 draw with Sheffield United and his last game was against Sunderland and ended with the same score. After losing his first team place he played 11 games for the reserves and in his final appearance lined up alongside Curtis as the skipper began his come-back from injury. It was a difficult time for the Sky Blues as they struggled to find their feet after promotion and injuries to key men Ian Gibson and Bobby Gould as well as Curtis didn't help the cause. There were 4-0 defeats at Sheffield Wednesday and Manchester United and Tony struggled to hold the weakened team together. On top of this Hill was keen for a replacement to be appointed and maybe not fully focused on the issues.

Fellow defender Dietmar Bruck remembers Tony with affection: “George's injury was a big blow to us, it was like a death in the family. Tony came in and gave us some stability with his experience and cool defending. He was a lovely fellow but after Noel arrived he signed his former United mate Maurice Setters'.

Tony was born in Newstead a mining community in Nottinghamshire and was spotted as a 17-year-old by Leicester City playing for the local colliery team. He made great strides at Filbert Street and made his first team debut in a Second Division game at Stoke in February 1956 but was unable to cement a regular place until 1959 by which time Leicester were in the First Division. He was unfortunate to to find himself involved in a straight fight for the number 5 shirt with the equally proficient Ian King, and eventually to lose out after injury handed his rival the upper hand during the 1960-61 campaign. Already having represented the Football League against the Scottish League in march 1960, Tony found himself in a 14-man England squad early the next season when he couldn't even win back his place in Leicester's first team, and the term 'travelling reserve' for the national side took on a bleak irony for him. As King held down the pivotal role for Leicester's run to the 1961 FA Cup final, Tony turned down a £30,000 move to Chelsea, and then spent the summer weighing the relative options of bids from Liverpool and Southampton, joining the latter for a Saints' club record fee of £27,500. I all he made 92 appearances for Leicester.

Tony spent six seasons at the Dell and was a member of a team renowned for exciting attacking football under manager Ted Bates. Tony brought an elegance and class not often seen in his position and missed only a handful of games in that time. He was a key player in the club's 1963 FA Cup run where they reached the semi-final only to lose narrowly to Manchester United, victors over Coventry in the quarter-final. The team finished fifth in Division Two in 1963-64 and fourth the following campaign before, under Tony's captaincy, winning promotion in 1965-66, pipping the Sky Blues at the post. The Saints had reached the top flight for the first time. 

Dietmar remembers facing Tony's Southampton team that season: 'We beat them 5-1 at Highfield Road early in the season. I scored a screamer from 25 yards but George Hudson got all the headlines when he scored his famous goal. It was Tony that he bamboozled with his cheeky flick before heading the goal'.

Thanks to Ron Davies's 37 goals Southampton survived in the First Division but they had conceded 92 goals and manager Bates signed Everton's Jimmy Gabriel signalling Tony's end at the Dell after 260 first team games.

After being released by Coventry in March 1968 Tony spent that summer in the USA with Los Angeles Wolves before re-emerging in England in 1969 briefly with Bristol City and then Tranmere Rovers where he made 42 appearances. 

His first foray into management was at Southern League Poole Town as player-manager in 1971 but it was abroad that he would make his biggest impact, managing the Icelandic national side in two spells (1974-77 and 1984-85) as well as four leading Norwegian clubs (Viking Stavanger, Fredrikstad, Vidar Stavanger and Brann Bergen) and several lower division clubs. In retirement he lived in Stavanger with his wife Kirsti, children Christian and Charlotte and grandchildren Pernille and Adrian.

RIP Tony