The Sky Blues progressed to the third round of the League Cup with a 1-0 victory over Oxford United at the CBS Arena on Tuesday evening – the first time they have reached this stage of the competition since 2012. The competition has been a disaster for City in those twelve years with some of the most embarrassing defeats in the club's history and it was hard to believe that the club were interested in the competition in the intervening years.
Back in 2012 City were newly relegated from the Championship and won their first round tie at Dagenham & Redbridge, 1-0, thanks to a Kevin Kilbane goal. Before the next round manager Andy Thorn had departed after a poor start to the league campaign and Richard Shaw and Lee Carsley were the caretaker managers. A thrilling 3-2 extra-time win over higher status Birmingham City earned a first trip to the Emirates Stadium to face the might of Arsenal. Days before the tie Mark Robins was appointed manager and his first game in charge had seen City lose their fifth successive league game and slide to 23rd in League One.
Robins brought in two debutant loanees for their trip to Arsenal, Derby's James Bailey and Wolves' Jamie Reckord. The line up was: Joe Murphy: Jordan Clarke, Reckord, Carl Baker, Reece Brown, Richard Wood, Adam Barton, Franck Moussa, Callum Ball, Stephen Elliott, Gary McSheffrey, James Bailey. Arsenal fielded a reserve team which included current Aston Villa 'keeper Emi Martinez, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, French international Olivier Giroud and current Bayern Munich star Serge Gnabry. In a mismatched game the Sky Blues managed to keep it to 1-0 at the break and only trailed 3-0 with eighteen minutes remaining. City sub Callum Ball scored a stunning goal in front of the 8,000 Coventry fans but the home side rubbed home their superiority with three more goals to make the final score 6-1 and Joe Murphy saved a Giroud penalty.
Coventry now face their old foe from 1987, Tottenham Hotspur in round three with home advantage. A large crowd can be expected for this tasty-looking tie – Spurs' first trip to the CBS Arena. We may well see the return to Coventry of James Maddison and lets hope he gets a warm welcome from the Sky Blue faithful. There have been some epic games between the two clubs in the past including an epic League Cup tie in 1995 when City trailed 2-0 at half-time but roared back to win 3-2 with second half goals from Peter Ndlovu (penalty), Dave Busst and John Salako. Bussty managed the feat of scoring at both ends.
Someone pointed out this week that City had played Oxford United in all three major competitions in the last eight months and asked if that was a first. The only similar occurrence was in 2013-14 when the Sky Blues played Leyton Orient in the League Cup in August and the EFL Trophy and the league during October. Orient, managed by Russell Slade, won the League cup tie 3-2 and the EFL trophy game on penalties after a 0-0 draw but City turned the tables by beating the Londoners, who were the league leaders, 3-1 at Sixfields with goals from Baker, Moussa and Leon Clarke. I believe Moussa's goal won goal of the season.
In the early 1960s City fans got fed up with playing Portsmouth. Between January 1962 and March 1963 the clubs met six times, two Division Three games, a League Cup tie and an FA Cup tie that went to three games. Honours were even in the league, Pompey won the League Cup game 5-1 but City prevailed at the third attempt in the FA Cup, winning 2-1 at White Hart Lane in the second replay.
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 and YouTube. Claudio Cardellino and I talk about all things Sky Blue. Just search for 'Sky Blue History Podcast'
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