Bobby Thomas sets a new scoring record

Coventry City’s amazing run of 9 wins in 10 league games came to an end at Derby’s Pride Park on Tuesday night in a game they dominated for large periods but were unable to turn their superiority into goals. The 3-2 win against Stoke had extended the sequence to create a new club record for a 10-game run in a season, beating the record of Noel Cantwell’s 1969-70 team in Division One. There was a 9 wins in 10 run in 1954 but that was over two seasons with victories in the last three games of 1953-54 and six wins and a draw in the opening seven games of 1954-55. In 1954 the club was managed by Jack Fairbrother, an oft forgotten manager who took over from Harry Storer in January 1954 but stepped down nine months later following the tragic death of his wife. At the time Jack resigned City were fourth in Division Three South and probably as close to winning promotion back to Division Two during the miserable period from 1952-58.

The Sky Blues had central defender Bobby Thomas to thank for Saturday’s victory over a Stoke side that gave City a few frights in the second half. Bobby’s late goal was his third in consecutive home games. I can find no previous instance of this other than Elliott Ward in 2008 but two of Ward’s goals were penalties. Bobby has now scored five league goals this season and equals George Curtis’ record of most goals by a central defender in a season (excluding penalties). George only scored 11 league goals in 487 games but in 1965-66 he netted five.

I recently received an email from a Dundee supporter, Dale McDowell who wrote:  I recall going to a Dundee v Coventry friendly match in 1999 as a child however my memory of the night is quite vague. A colleague and I were talking about Gordon Strachan and my subconscious is telling me that despite him being retired as a player and was the manager of Coventry City at the time, he came on as a substitute and played. Am I going crazy?

Dale is not going crazy. Gordon, who had started his playing career at Dundee, came on as a substitute in the 86th minute in a game played on 25th March 1999 (during the international break). City won 1-0 with an early goal from Trond Soltved in front of a 2,500 crowd inside Dens Park. 

The City line up was: 

Combe *: Edworthy (Gordon Strachan 86), Burrows, Telfer, Clement, Shaw, Delorge, Soltvedt (Mooney 80), Whelan, Huckerby, Froggatt (Gioacchini 45). Unused sub: Shilton

*Alan Combe was Dundee’s reserve goalkeeper and played as a guest