Jim's column 9.3.24

The goals are pouring in at the CBS Arena right now with another five against Rotherham United this week with Ellis Simms netting his second hat trick in eight days. The Sky Blues have now netted 38 goals in league and cup games in 2024 – only Liverpool have scored more in all four divisions. Poor old Rotherham had a nightmare evening after their goalkeeper, rated by many as the one of the best in the division, made a cataclysmic mistake.

The victory had me scouring my records for big wins and hat tricks, so here goes.

It was only the fifth time since the club moved to the CBS/Ricoh Arena in 2005 that the team have scored five or more goals and now it's happened two games in a row. The biggest home wins in the nineteen years have been:

6-0 v Bury 2015-16 (League 1)

6-1 v Derby 2005-06 (Championship)

5-0 v Maidstone 2023-24 (FA Cup)

5-0 v Rotherham 2023-24 (Championship)

5-1 v Walsall 2012-13 (League 1)

There was also the 6-1 victory over Millwall at St Andrews in 2020-21.

The last 5-0 win at home before Tuesday was the thrashing of Premiership champions Blackburn Rovers at Highfield Road in 1995. In addition City scored four goals in the first half for only the third time at the CBS, the others being the Bury game and the 4-1 win over Gillingham in 2015-16.

Simms' three goals was the club's first league hat trick since Godden's three at Tranmere in 2020 and the first at the CBS since Mark McNulty's against Grimsby in 2018. It's also only the fifth at the stadium since its opening in 2005, the others being Fredy Eastwood, Jodi Jones and Jacob Murphy. This makes Ellis the first player to score two hat tricks at the Arena. Additionally it's the first time a Coventry player has scored successive home hat tricks since Darren Huckerby scored three on successive Saturdays in January 1999 against Macclesfield (FA Cup) and Nottingham Forest and only the fourth time since the war. Ron Hewitt also scored successive home hat tricks in 1961 (against Hull and Torquay) and in 1947 the prolific George Lowrie managed three in a row. Welsh international Lowrie had a magnificent first season after war scoring 29 goals of which 22 were at Highfield Road including four hat tricks and a four-goal haul.

Let's not forget successive away hat trick scorers. Matty Godden managed two in a row in the 2019-20 promotion season, at Wycombe and Tranmere, and George Hudson achieved the feat in 1963 with three at both Trowbridge in the FA Cup and at QPR.