Penalty shoot-out hoodoo ended

Coventry City progressed to the fourth round of the FA Cup with a penalty shoot-out victory over Sheffield Wednesday at the CBS Arena last Saturday evening. The victory ended a dreadful run of shoot-out defeats stretching back to 2019. Since then the Sky Blues had lost five in a row including the last two infamous ones at Wembley Stadium.

It was the 18^th penalty shoot-out that the club have been involved in since the first in a Simod/Full Members Cup at Reading in 1988 although the vast majority have taken place in the last 12 years. Before last Saturday City had lost five shoot-outs in a row, two in the FA Cup, one in the League Cup, one in the playoff final and one in the EFL Trophy. The last victory had been in an EFL Trophy game at Walsall in 2019. It was the first FA Cup tie that City have won in this manner following defeats to Sheffield United (1998), Birmingham (2020) and Man United (2024).

Once again Josh Eccles was on target and he has now scored his last five penalties in shoot-outs – more than any other City player.

The full list of penalty shoot-outs that the Sky Blues have been involved in are:

1987-88 Reading (a) (Simod/FM Cup) Lost 3-4

1997-98 Sheffield U (a) (FA Cup) Lost 1-3

2001-02 Peterborough (a) (League Cup) Won 4-2

2012-13 Burton Albion (h) (EFL trophy) Won 10-9

2012-13 Sheffield U (h) (EFL trophy) Won 4-1

2013-14 Leyton O (a) (EFL trophy) Lost 2-4

2015-16 Rochdale (a) (League Cup) Lost 3-5

2015-16 Yeovil (a) (EFL trophy) Lost 3-4

2016-17 Swansea U21 (a) (EFL trophy) Won 4-2

2017-18 Walsall (a) (EFL trophy) Won 4-3

2018-19 Forest Green (h) (EFL trophy) Won 4-2

2019-20 Walsall (h) (EFL trophy) Won 5-4

2019-20 Forest Green (EFL trophy) Lost 7-8

2019-20 Birmingham (a) (FA Cup) Lost 1-4

2020-21 Gillingham (a) (League Cup) Lost 4-5

2022-23 Luton (Play-off final) Lost 5-6

2023-24 Manchester U (FA Cup) Lost 2-4

2024-25 Sheffield W (h) (FA Cup) Won 4-3

There was an excellent attendance of 20,906 at the CBS Arena, albeit boosted by almost 5,000 Wednesday fans, and was the largest the club have had for a home Third Round tie since 1981when over 22,000 watched a Third round replay with Leeds United at Highfield Road.

Now the Sky Blues move on to the fourth round and face Premiership club Ipswich Town who defeated Bristol Rovers last weekend. City have only been drawn against the Suffolk side once in their FA Cup history, in the second round in 2019-20. The teams met at St Andrews and Will Keane gave the Tractor Boys the lead before substitute Callum O'Hare scored an equaliser in added time. In the replay the Sky Blues ran out 2-1 winners with first half goals from Jordan Shipley and Max Biamou sealed a third round tie with Bristol Rovers.