Liam Kitching suffered the fate of a third red card at Blackburn last Saturday and became the first Coventry player to 'see Red' three times in a season. The Ewood red followed dismissals at home to Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day and at Norwich in February. Against the Owls he was unfortunate to be severely intimidated by Wednesday's Bambo Diaby but there is little excuse for the latter two although his offence at Blackburn did save a certain goal and the 10 men managed to hang on for a draw.
Several readers asked which Coventry City player has had the most red cards and the roll of honour is as follows:
Four: Paul Williams
Three: Kitching, Gustavo Hamer, Kyle McFadzean, Carl Baker, Michael Doyle, Youssef Safri, David Thompson, Dion Dublin, Noel Simpson.
Simpson, a midfield player who made 269 appearances for the club between 1948-57 and was captain for a good period, played in an era when you had to do something pretty serious to get sent off, usually fighting. Between 1946-1960 City only had six players sent off and three were for Simpson. Noel was renowned for his short fuse and all three early baths were for fighting.
Noel Simpson
It's exciting times for former Sky Blues Andy Whing and Craig Pead. They are the management team at Solihull Moors who tomorrow will be playing in the National league play-off final at Wembley for a place in the Football League. They face Bromley and whatever the result we will have a brand new club in the League. Then, next Saturday, the team is back at Wembley to face Gateshead in the FA Trophy final. There are a few other Sky Blue connections including former first-teamer Callum Maycock who made eight appearances in 2016-17 and has made over 180 appearances for the Moors and ex-academy full back Joe Newton. Also likely to be in the squad is Tyler Bruck, grandson of City legend Dietmar Bruck. Good luck to the Moors tomorrow and next week.
On the subject of former players it's Legends Day today at the final home match of the season against QPR and as usual there will be a good number of former Sky Blues players in attendance. There are several ex-players making their first appearance at the event, now in its seventeenth year, including Richard Shaw, David Thompson and Frank Nouble, the man who scored the winning goal against Gillingham on that memorable evening in 2014 when the team returned to Coventry after the year playing in Northampton. Frank may only have played one season for the club but he will be remembered for that famous goal in front of 27,000 Coventry fans. If you're at the game today please give our former heroes a good round of applause.
If you enjoy this column and would like to hear more about Coventry City's history you can listen to the Sky Blue History Podcast which is available on Spotify. Claudio Cardellino and I talk about all things Sky Blue.
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Hi Jim. Me and some friends were discussing whether this season’s average attendance is the highest since the late 60’s early 70’s ?
ReplyDeleteGiven that the capacity of HR was reduced significantly when it became all seater