Red Cards influence the play-off race

Today the Sky Blues aim to win a place in the Championship playoffs by beating Middlesbrough at the CBS arena. A draw may be sufficient depending on the results at Turf Moor and Bramall Lane. Many City fans believe that the team should have secured their place before now but away defeats at relegation threatened Plymouth and Luton have thrown a spanner in the works and left fans sweating on the final day. Let’s hope the team can get it over the line and qualify for the play-offs for the second time in three seasons which, after the position when Frank Lampard took over in November is a not inconsiderable achievement.

Controversial refereeing decisions have seriously affected the two away defeats and made City’s job harder than it should have. Plymouth’s Mustapha Bundu should have been sent off for a vicious challenge on Jamie Allen when the score was 0-0 at Home Park on Easter Monday and the striker went on to score two goals and make another. At Luton Jay Dasilva’s red card for a clip on Millenic Alli’s heels seemed harsh to me and left the Sky Blues in an uphill battle against a desperate Luton team who ironically were kept out until the final minute and when the Hatters were also down to ten men.

Dasilva’s red card was the first City sending off this season and the club almost achieved the record of not having a red card in a single season for the first time since 1986-87 season, almost forty years ago. In 1992-93 Mick Quinn was the only player sent off, for an alleged foul on Manchester United’s Peter Scheichel which was later reversed and Mick didn’t serve a suspension. Saturday’s referee Oliver Langford also showed a red card to Liam Kitching in the home game with Sheffield Wednesday last season and he’s the first ref to send two City players off for a good few years.

Former City loanee Liam Walsh, a key figure in the 2019-20 League One promotion success, was also red carded by Langford, his third expulsion of the season. Walsh, whose red card was reversed this week, is only the third former Coventry player to be red carded against the Sky Blues. The others are Steve Hunt and Gary Deegan. Hunt, who played almost 250 games for Coventry, was sent off playing for West Brom in a 0-3 defeat at Highfield Road in 1985-86. Deegan, who played 43 games for the Sky Blues, mainly in the 2011-12 relegation season, was red carded playing for Southend United in a 3-0 victory over City at Roots Hall in 2016. 

Some fans have highlighted the fact that City have not won an away game in the white away kit this season and compared the results to the disastrous away record in 1999-2000 when City also wore a white away kit. The results in the white kit this season have been no wins, three draws and three defeats. In 1999-2000, the season that Sky referred to as ‘The Entertainers’, based on outstanding away form, we played in white on nine occasions, drawing four and losing five.